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Overview

Students are introduced to human geography through an exploration of patterns and trends in population distribution, settlement, land use, employment, and levels of development. Students investigate population characteristics to identify correlations. They also reflect and report on the various aspects of demographics in Canada and other countries, including developing countries.

Students are introduced to human geography through an exploration of patterns and trends in population distribution, settlement, land use, employment, and levels of development. Students investigate population characteristics to identify correlations. They also reflect and report on the various aspects of demographics in Canada and other countries, including developing countries.

By the end of Grade 8, students will:

• identify the main patterns of human settlement and identify the factors that influence population distribution and land use;
• use a variety of geographic representations, resources, tools, and technologies to gather, process, and communicate geographic information about patterns in human geography;
• compare living and working conditions in countries with different patterns of settlement, and examine how demographic factors could affect their own lives in the future.

Knowledge and Understanding

By the end of Grade 8, students will:

• identify the three main patterns of human settlement – linear, scattered, and clustered;
• Settlement pattern. The distribution and arrangement of individual buildings or of rural and urban centres.
• Linear settlement pattern. A narrow grouping of houses or settlements along a river, road, or valley.
• Clustered settlement pattern. A closely spaced grouping of houses, towns, or villages.
• identify and explain the factors affecting population distribution (e.g., history, natural environment, technological development, immigration trends/patterns);
• Population distribution. The pattern of habitation in an area.
• compare the characteristics of places with high and low population densities;
• Population density. The number of individuals occupying an area; calculated by dividing the number of people by the area they occupy.
• explain how site and situation influence settlement patterns;
• Site. The specific physical features defining the location of a place.
• Situation. The general location of a place in relation to other places or larger features.
• identify and describe the types of land use (e.g.,s  residential,s  recreational,  institutional,s  commercial,  industrial,  agricultural;  for transportation,   communication,  utilities;  public space);
• summarize the factors that affect patterns of urbanization, industrialization, and transportation.

By the end of Grade 8, students will:

• formulate questions to guide and synthesize research on the study of population characteristics and patterns:

• What conditions are needed to maintain a high quality of life?
• What is the relationship between literacy rate and GNP?
• What action can students take to aid a developing nation?);

• locate relevant information from a variety of primary and secondary sources (e.g., primary sources: interviews, field studies, surveys; secondary sources: statistics, maps, diagrams, illustrations, print materials, videos, CD-ROMs, Internet sites);
• communicate the results of inquiries for specific purposes and audiences using computer slide shows, videos, websites, oral presentations, written notes and reports, illustrations, tables, charts, maps, models, and graphs

• e.g., create graphs to compare factors affecting quality of life;
• create an illustrated brochure outlining positive features of a developing nation;
• map the ten highest and lowest countries on the Human Development Index;
• interpret population pyramids to predict population trends in other countries);

•  use appropriate vocabulary:
• Site. The specific physical features defining the location of a place.
• Situation. The general location of a place in relation to other places or larger features.
• rural,
• Developed country. A basic classification of countries with a high level of per capita income, industrialization, and modernization. Such countries usually have lower levels of population growth.
• Developing country. A basic classification of low- and middle-income countries in which most people have a lower standard of living with access to fewer goods and services than do most people in developed countries.
• Urbanization
• Population distribution. The pattern of habitation in an area.
• Population density. The number of individuals occupying an area; calculated by dividing the number of people by the area they occupy.
• Gross domestic product (GDP). The value of all the goods and services produced in a country in one year.
• Gross national product (GNP). Gross domestic product with the addition of goods and services from other countries used in producing goods and services in the home country.
• Correlation
• Birth rate. The number of live births per thousand people in one year.
• Death rate. The number of deaths per thousand people in one year.
• Literacy rate. The percentage of the adult population who can read and write.
• Life expectancy rate. The average number of years that a person is expected to live at the time of his or her birth.

By the end of Grade 8, students will:

• create and use a variety of maps for specific purposes

•  (e.g., to show land use, transportation routes, population distribution, popular tourist destinations);

• produce and interpret simple scatter graphs to determine the correlation between population characteristics;
• construct and examine population pyramids to make predictions about future trends in population characteristics.

 

Application

By the end of Grade 8, students will:

• compare key characteristics (e.g., quality of life, level of industrialization and urbanization) of a number of developed and developing countries;
• research job trends and predict the skills that will be needed to meet the challenges of Canada’s changing demographics.

1. Birth rate. The number of live births per thousand people in one year.
2. Capital (as an economic resource). One of the factors in the production of goods and services. Capital can be goods (e.g., factories and equipment, highways, communication systems) and/or money available to be invested to increase production and wealth.
3. Climate. The average weather conditions of an area over an extended period of time.
4. Climate graph. A graph that combines average monthly temperature and precipitation data for a particular place.
5. Clustered settlement pattern. A closely spaced grouping of houses, towns, or villages.
6. Command economy. An economic system in which the government owns and controls all facets of the economy.
7. Commercial agriculture. Farm operations undertaken primarily to generate products for sale.
8. Cordilleras. A chain of mountains, especially the principal mountain system of a continent (e.g., Rocky Mountains in North America).
9. Culture. Learned behaviour of people, which includes their belief systems and languages, social relationships, institutions and organizations, and their material goods (i.e., food, clothing, buildings, tools, and machines).
10. Death rate. The number of deaths per thousand people in one year.
11. Demographics. The statistics for an area’s population relating to such aspects as age, sex, income, and education.
12. Dendritic drainage pattern. Type of drainage that occurs when water flows into a river from various tributaries, which are in turn fed by smaller tributaries. The pattern that results resembles the shape of an apple tree.
13. Developed country. A basic classification of countries with a high level of per capita income, industrialization, and modernization. Such countries usually have lower levels of population growth.
14. Developing country. A basic classification of low- and middle-income countries in which most people have a lower standard of living with access to fewer goods and services than do most people in developed countries.
15. Economic resource. Land, labour, capital, or entrepreneurial ability; a factor necessary for the economic success of a region.
16. Economic system. The way in which a particular society produces, distributes, and consumes various goods and services.
17. Economy. The system of production and consumption of various commodities and services in a country, region, or community.
18. Emigration. The act of leaving one country or region to settle in another.
19. Entrepreneur. A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture.
20. Entrepreneurial ability (as an economic resource). One of the factors in the production of goods and services. An entrepreneur recognizes a business opportunity and is able to combine land, labour, and capital to take advantage of the opportunity and make a profit.
21. Five themes of geography. Location/ place, environment, region, interaction, and movement. These themes provide a framework to help focus investigation in geography.
22. Grid. A pattern of lines on a chart or map, such as those representing latitude and longitude, which helps determine absolute location and assists in the analysis of distribution patterns.
23. Gross domestic product (GDP). The value of all the goods and services produced in a country in one year.
24. Gross national product (GNP). Gross domestic product with the addition of goods and services from other countries used in producing goods and services in the home country.
25. Human development index. An annual ranking of countries in which the health, education, and wealth of each nation’s citizens is examined. Life expectancy, educational achievement, and standard of living are measured.
26. Immigration. The movement of people into an area or country.
27. Intermediate directions. The points of the compass that fall between the four cardinal points (e.g., Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest).
28. Labour (as an economic resource). One of the factors in the production of goods and services. Labour is the collection of people employed within a region.
29. Life expectancy rate. The average number of years that a person is expected to live at the time of his or her birth.
30. Linear settlement pattern. A narrow grouping of houses or settlements along a river, road, or valley.
31. Literacy rate. The percentage of the adult population who can read and write.
32. Manufacturing. Changing from original state by machine or by hand.
33. Market economy. An economic system in which individual producers own and determine the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
34. Migration. The movement of people from one place or country to another, for the purpose of settlement.
35. Mixed economy. An economic system that uses aspects of more than one of the three basic types of economic systems (subsistence, command, and market).
36. Multiculturalism. The preservation of distinct cultural identities among varied groups within a unified society.
37. Natural resource. Something found in nature that people find useful or valuable.
38. Natural vegetation. Plant life that develops naturally in an area.
39. Non-renewable resource. A finite resource that cannot be replaced once it is used up (e.g., petroleum, minerals).
40. Physical feature. An aspect of a place or area that derives from the physical environment.
41. Population density. The number of individuals occupying an area; calculated by dividing the number of people by the area they occupy.
42. Population distribution. The pattern of habitation in an area.
43. Primary industries (resource industries). Industries that harvest raw materials or natural resources (e.g., agriculture, ranching, forestry, fishing, extraction of minerals and ores).
44. Primary sources. Artefacts and oral, print, media, or computer materials that are the earliest or first of a kind.
45. Pull factors. In migration theory, the social, political, economic, and environmental attractions of new areas that draw people away from their previous locations.
46. Push factors. In migration theory, the social, political, economic, and environmental forces that drive people from their previous locations to search for new ones.Raw material. The material that a manufacturing industry processes into a more finished state (e.g., crude oil to gasoline, trees to paper).
47. Refugee. A person who flees for safety from political upheaval or war to a foreign country and is unable to return home.
48. Region. An area of the earth having some characteristic or characteristics that distinguish it from other areas.
49. Relative location. The location of a place or region in relation to other places or regions (e.g., northwest or downstream).
50. Renewable resource. A resource that can be regenerated if used carefully (e.g., fish, timber).
51. Resources. The machines, workers, money, land, raw materials, and other things that can be used to produce goods and services. There are renewable, non-renewable, and flow resources.
52. Rights. Entitlements recognized and protected by the law.
53. Scale. On maps, the measurement that represents an actual distance on the earth’s surface. Scattered settlement pattern. Settlement mainly in rural areas where houses are scattered in no apparent pattern. The amount of space between dwellings depends on the amount of land that is required to grow enough food for the family living in each dwelling.
54. Secondary industries (manufacturing industries). Industries that convert raw materials into finished industrial products (e.g., car manufacturing).
55. Secondary sources. Oral, print, media, and computer materials that are not primary or original.
56. Settlement pattern. The distribution and arrangement of individual buildings or of rural and urban centres.
57. Site. The specific physical features defining the location of a place.
58. Situation. The general location of a place in relation to other places or larger features.
59. Specialized agriculture. A large-scale production of one specific product (e.g., sugar cane, cotton, coffee).
60. Subsistence agriculture. A type of farming in which livestock is raised and crops are cultivated for local food and energy requirements rather than for sale.
61. Sustainable development. Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
62. Technology. The application of knowledge to meet the goals and provide the goods and services desired by people.
63. Tertiary industries (service industries). Industries that provide services (e.g., banking, retailing, education) rather than products.
64. Thematic map. A map pertaining to one specific subject or theme.
65. Timeline. A graphical display of events or people in a chronological order.
66. Topographic map. A map whose primary purpose is to show the relief of the land through the use of contour lines or other methods.
67. Trade goods. Articles such as brass kettles, iron axe-heads, guns, coloured cloth, and glass beads offered by Europeans to First Nation peoples in exchange for furs and hides.
68. Traditional economic system. An economic system in which decisions are made on the basis of customs, beliefs, religion, habit, and so on.
69. Trellis drainage. A pattern of river tributaries lying in the parallel valleys of a steeply folded region.
70. United Nations. An international organization formed in 1945 to promote peace and economic development.
71. Urbanization. A process in which there is an increase in the percentage of people living and/or working in urban places as compared to rural places.
72. Weather. The conditions of the atmosphere, including temperature, precipitation, wind, humidity, and cloud cover, at a specific place and time.