Regions and People

The tools and thinking of geography come first: how geographers show information on maps, and why they use many kinds of maps to represent the world. Students also explore the subfields of geography, from economic to cultural, and the five themes of geography.

Canada and the United States are the focus here, beginning with the physical and human geography of both. Students study how Indigenous groups adapted to their environments, how to best use and protect the Great Lakes, and how urban sprawl, consumption, and migration affect people and places.

Lessons on Latin America range from early civilizations in the Americas to the spatial inequality that shapes life in Mexico City. Students look at how the Maya preserve traditional culture, what causes Caribbean hurricanes, and how the Amazon rainforest's resources should be used and preserved.

Europe and Russia raise questions about cooperation, with students weighing the forces working for and against the European Union. Other lessons take up population trends, pollution that crosses borders, the physical processes shaping Russia's landscape, and the nation-states formed from the old Soviet empire.

In Africa, students follow the Nile from source to mouth to see how rivers change as they flow across Earth's surface. Lessons also cover life in the Sahara and Sahel, women micro-entrepreneurs, Nigeria's many cultures, and power and resources in post-apartheid South Africa.

Southwest and Central Asia center on how a valuable natural resource like oil shapes a region. Later lessons focus on Istanbul as a primate city and bridge throughout history, and on the Aral Sea, Central Asia's shrinking water source.

Monsoon Asia begins with the seasonal rains and how climate influences human activity across South Asia. Students also study India's comparative advantage in the global IT revolution, China's demographic challenges, population density in Japan, and the global journey of a sneaker made in Asia.