Big Idea – Area (size)
Spatial Thinking Skill – Hierarchy
Teacher Notes Russia
Scaffold Outline:
3-5: The sample lessons focus on two important geographical hierarchies – the large countries inside of
each continent, and the large rivers that are inside the large countries. Later, students can explore political
subdivisions within countries (like the autonomous ethnic areas inside Russia), as well as the tributary
watersheds inside the watersheds of large rivers (like the Ohio and Missouri watersheds inside the larger
Mississippi river system, or the Moskva and Oka river sub watersheds inside the Volga river system).
Understanding drainage hierarchies is important in many kinds of applied geography, from providing
water to cities and controlling floods to trying to minimize water pollution or adverse effects of dams and
other water-management structures.
Activity
Michigan Content Expectations
Country Inside
Continent
4-G1.0.4: Use geographic tools and technologies, stories, songs, and
pictures to answer geographic questions about the United States
6-12: These lessons focus on links between the geographic ideas about size and historic events such as
the early migration patterns of humans, the Napoleonic and Nazi invasions of Russia, the difficulty of
central planning for such a large and cold area, and the issues facing Russia today.
Resources: Area estimation is not a particularly flashy topic, but it is important for building an
accurate mental map of the world. The internet has several good sites that explain different map
projections, in order to understand the distortions in size that inevitably occur when we try to show
a large part of the curving earth surface on a flat piece of paper or computer screen.
Included here is an activity and data table about temperature. Because dry land heats and cools
more rapidly than water, large masses of land tend to have more extreme temperatures. Parts of
Siberia typically have average winter temperatures that are more than 100 degrees colder than
summer months – a range of temperature that puts great stress on almost any kind of structure,
from buildings and roads to streetlights and cars.
Other resources include the Big Idea Presentation about Russia and the clickable Atlas, which
focus on issues of transportation and governance that are related to size. These presentations also
highlight some environment issues caused by Russia’s latitude – as the presentation points out,
nearly all of Russia is closer to the North Pole than the border between the United States and
Canada. Stated another way, Russia has no land that is comparable to the rich farmland of central
Illinois, the fertile Central Valley of California, or the pine forests of Georgia, Alabama, and
Mississippi (not to mention the beaches of Florida or the ranchlands of Texas).
Up-to-date images of Russia are available from many websites – a virtual field trip along the
Trans-Siberian railroad can be an interesting discussion starter. Using the same satellite programs
to look at conditions in a Siberian mining camp can provide another spectacular contrast with life
in an America city or farm region.
Activity
Country Inside
Continent
Michigan Content Expectations
6-G1.3.3: Explain the different ways in which places are connected and how
those connections demonstrate interdependence and accessibility.
Continentality- Size 7-G1.1.1: Explain and use a variety of maps, globes, and web based geography
and Temperature technology to study the world, including global, interregional, regional, and
local scales.
Range
7-G1.3.2: Explain the locations and distributions of physical and human
E. Hemisphere
characteristics of Earth by using knowledge of spatial patterns.
Temperature
7 –G3.1.1: Construct and analyze climate graphs for locations at different
Generalizations
latitudes and elevations….to make predictions based on patterns.
7-G2.1.1: Describe the landform features and the climate of the region.
Rank in Metal
7-G2.2.1: Describe the human characteristics of the region.
Mining
Kazakhstan Oil
Connection
HS: World History and Geography
Napoleon
Solar Energy
6.2.1:Political Revolutions – Analyze the Age of Revolutions by comparing
and contrasting the political, economic, and social causes and consequences of
at least three political and/or nationalistic revolutions.
Physical Science
P.EN.07.62 Explain how only a tiny fraction of light energy from the sun is
transformed to heat energy on Earth.
Capstone: The size and sparse population of Russia offer a stark contrast with the crowded country of
China. Use an internet satellite-image program like Google Maps to navigate to the city of Khabarovsk,
and then take a virtual field trip south and east across the border and into China (or head south of
Mingshan Island in the Amur River). Either trip can offer a very instructive lesson in how similar land can
be used in very different ways on opposite sides of a border, depending on population density and public
policy. This micro-scale contrast can then help us understand the macro-scale issue about a rapidly
expanding Chinese economy sharing a long border with a resource-rich but sparsely populated Russia.
Resources: The CIA Factbook profiles of China and Russia offer a starting point for an international
comparison of two neighboring but very different countries that have prominent roles on the global
stage.
Other individual inquiry topics include the problems of getting Russian oil and gas to the market, the
disputes over control of the Arctic Ocean seafloor, and the continuing role of Russia in the political
affairs of Southwest Asia (notably with Syria and Iran).
Curriculum Connections:
Activities
Continents and the
countries inside them
It pays to be big: top
ten miners of metals
Continentally: Size
and temperature range
Graphs of Solar
Energy
Napoleon's invasion of
Russia
Getting oil out of
landlocked Kazakhstan
Approx
Grade
Related
Class
Common
Core
Spatial
Reasoning
P/E
Geog
Math
Hierarchy
E/M
Econ
Reading
Hierarchy
E/M/U
Earth Sci
M/R
Transition
M/U
Earth Sci
Math
Transition
M/U
Histroy
R/M
Transition
M/U
Hist, Econ
Reading
Movement
Keywords
inside, country, continent, area,
MSM, strange map
metal, ore, mining, leader, alloy,
industry
continentally, temperature range,
area, elevation
sunrise, sunset, horizon, enith,
daylength, latitude
distance, flow line, scaled symbol,
attrition
petroleum, landlocked, pipeline,
distance, border