PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Teacher’s Answer Key
United States Geography
Program based on the
National Football League
schedule from
September 7, - December 28, 2008
presented by
Classroom Enrichment Program
TEACHER’S EDITION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FIVE THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY
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STUDENT’S STUDY HINT SHEET
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TWO-LETTER STATE ABBREVIATIONS
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UNITED STATES TIME ZONE MAP
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UNITED STATES AND NFL CITIES POPULATION TABLE
SEATING CAPACITY OF NFL STADIUMS
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MATH & GRAPHING WITH STADIUM CAPACITY FIGURES
NFL CITY LOCATION MAP
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ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES
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ADDITION-SUBTRACTION, GRAPHING INSTRUCTIONS
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WEEKLY QUIZZES
Week # 1
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Week # 2
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Week # 3
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Week # 4
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Week # 5
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Week # 6
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Week # 7
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Week # 8
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Week # 9
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Week # 10
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LATITUDE and LONGITUDE Answer Key
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Week # 12
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STUDENT REFERENCE INFORMATION
CITY, STATE, TEAM NAME Quiz and Answer Key _
VERBS and the SPORTS PAGE _
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PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
FIVE THEMES IN GEOGRAPHY
Source: National Geographic Society
LOCATION: (Absolute and Relative): Location answers the basic question: Where? Absolute and relative
location are two ways of describing the positions of the Earth's physical and cultural features. For example,
knowing the absolute, or exact, location of Tucson, AZ, showed us where the forest fires occurred. A grid
system representing latitude and longitude is one way of showing absolute locations. Another way of looking at
location has to do with the interaction of places. This is relative location-the way a city is connected to other
places. A map can provide a starting point for gathering information. IN WHAT MOUNTAIN RANGE IS M T.
RAINIER LOCATED? Exactly where did Hurricane Dean hit the Yucatan Peninsula?
PLACE: (Physical and Human Characteristics): All places on Earth have special features that distinguish them
from other places. Geographers usually describe places by their physical and human characteristics. Los
Angeles, CA, and its neighboring communities, for example, are known for such physical characteristics as
sandy beaches, abundant sunshine, and a mild climate. Human characteristics such as the density of popula tion
and its ethnic makeup also play an important role in shaping the image of Los Angeles. WHAT PHYSICAL AND
HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS MAKE THE PLACE YOU LIVE DIFFERENT FROM ANY OTHER? HOW DO
THESE CHARACTERISTICS AFFECT YOUR LIFE? HOW IS LIFE IN BAYOU COUNTRY DIFFERENT FROM
CINCINNATI or the area in which you live?
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS: (Relationships Within Places): People interact with their
environments and change them in different ways. Large-scale agricultural development of the dry Texas
Panhandle, for instance, did not occur until the invention of circular irrigation systems that distribute water from
underground wells. But such change has a price: The region's water supply is rapidly diminishing. Geographers
examine how human-environment interactions develop and what their consequences are for people and the
landscape. LOOK AROUND YOU: HOW HAVE PEOPLE CHANGED YOUR ENVIRONMENT? WHY HAVE
THEY MADE SUCH CHANGES? WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THESE CHANGES?
MOVEMENT: (Mobility of People, Goods, and Ideas): People everywhere interact. They travel from place to
place, they communicate, and they depend upon other people in distant places for products, ideas, and
information. A good example of movement exists in the highly urbanized northeast corridor between Boston and
Washington, D.C. Here, people can quickly fly from one city to another. Midwest floods of 1993 and 2008
closed rivers to barge traffic and bridges to truck and rail traffic. Tons of California produce rotted in rail c ars
waiting to get across the Mississippi River. The distribution network of tomatoes and jalapenos is so diverse and
intricate, it made tracking the salmonella source almost impossible. Geography helps us understand the nature
and effects of such movement. HOW DO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY DEPEND UPON PEOPLE IN OTHER
PLACES? HOW DOES MOVEMENT AFFECT WHAT YOU CAN BUY IN STORES IN YOUR CITY OR TOWN?
REGIONS: (How They Form and Change): Regions are areas on the surface of the Earth that are
defined by certain unifying characteristics. These characteristics may be physical, or they may be
human. The peaks and valleys of the Rocky Mountains, for example, form a physical region. The
Corn Belt, on the other hand, forms a human region. Large farms and similar crops unite several
midwestern states into this region, where corn has been the mainstay. Regions provide an organized
way to study Earth's landscapes and peoples. CAN YOU IDENTIFY SOME PHYSICAL AND HUMAN
REGIONS IN THE UNITED STATES? DRAW A MAP OF THESE REGIONS. DO ANY OF THEM
OVERLAP?
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PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Student’s Study Hint Sheet
Student Reference Information
CAPITALS --DENVER
ATLANTA
INDIANAPOLIS
NASHVILLE(TN)
PHOENIX (AZ) --Stadium is in Glendale, but we use the capital.
BOSTON (N.E.) --Stadium is in Foxboro, but we use the capital.
Washington, D.C. is the nation's capital.
RIVERS --
Mississippi River cities:
Minneapolis(MN), St. Louis, New Orleans
Ohio River cities:
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati
Missouri River city:
Kansas City
Detroit River city:
Detroit
Delaware River city:
Philadelphia
Cumberland River city:
Nashville(TN)
Pittsburgh: Ohio River formed at confluence of Allegheny and Monongahela
Philadelphia is at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill
St. Louis is near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri
ATLANTIC OCEAN CITIES:
MIAMI
BOSTON (N.E.)
JACKSONVILLE
NEW YORK JETS
NEW YORK GIANTS
PACIFIC OCEAN CITIES:
SAN DIEGO
SAN FRANCISCO
LANDLOCKED CITIES:
DALLAS
DENVER
ATLANTA
PHOENIX
CHARLOTTE
INDIANAPOLIS
STATES--MORE THAN ONE TEAM:
FLORIDA
(3)
NEW YORK
(3)
CALIFORNIA
(3)
OHIO
(2)
TEXAS
(2)
MISSOURI
(2)
PENNSYLVANIA
(2)
BAY CITIES:
PENINSULA STATES
TAMPA ON TAMPA BAY
FLORIDA
MIAMI ON BISCAYNE BAY
MICHIGAN
SEATTLE ON ELLIOTT BAY
WASHINGTON
GREEN BAY ON GREEN BAY
DELMARVA formed by
SAN DIEGO ON SAN DIEGO BAY
Delaware, Maryland & Virginia
BALTIMORE ON CHESAPEAKE BAY
OAKLAND ON SAN FRANCISCO BAY
SAN FRANCISCO ON SAN FRANCISCO BAY
GREAT LAKE CITIES:
BUFFALO ON ERIE
CLEVELAND ON LAKE ERIE
CHICAGO ON LAKE MICHIGAN
PANHANDLE STATES
TEXAS
IDAHO
FLORIDA
OKLAHOMA
WEST VIRGINIA
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PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
T wo - L e t t e r S t at e Ab b r e vi a t i o n s
Student Reference Information
Alabama
AL "Heart of Dixie"
Montana
MT "Treasure State"
Alaska
AK "Last Frontier"
Nebraska
NE "Cornhusker State"
Arizona
AZ "Grand Canyon State"
Nevada
NV "Silver State"
Arkansas
AR "Land of Opportunity"
New Hampshire
NH "Granite State"
California
CA "Golden State"
New Jersey
NJ "Garden State"
Colorado
CO "Centennial State"
New Mexico
NM "Land of Enchantment
Connecticut
CT "Constitution State"
New York
NY "Empire State"
Delaware
DE "First State"
North Carolina
NC "Tar Heel State"
Florida
FL "Sunshine State"
North Dakota
ND "Flickertail State"
Georgia
GA "Peach State"
Ohio
OH "Buckeye State"
Hawaii
HI "Aloha State"
Oklahoma
OK "Sooner State"
Idaho
ID "Gem State"
Oregon
OR "Beaver State"
Illinois
IL "Prairie State"
Pennsylvania
PA "Keystone State"
Indiana
IN "Hoosier State"
Rhode Island
RI "Little Rhody"
Iowa
IA "Hawkeye State"
South Carolina
SC "Palmetto State"
Kansas
KS "Sunflower State"
South Dakota
SD "Rushmore State"
Kentucky
KY "Bluegrass State"
Tennessee
TN "Volunteer State"
Louisiana
LA "Pelican State"
Texas
TX "Lone Star State"
Maine
ME "Pine Tree State"
Utah
UT "Beehive State"
Maryland
MD "Old Line State"
Vermont
VT “Green Mt. State”
Massachusetts
MA "Bay State"
Virginia
VA "Old Dominion State"
Michigan
MI "Wolverine State"
Washington
WA "Evergreen State"
Minnesota
MN "Gopher State"
West Virginia
WV "Mountain State"
Mississippi
MS "Magnolia State"
Wisconsin
WI "Badger State"
Missouri
MO "Show Me State"
Wyoming
WY "Equality State"
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Population Table
THE WORLD ALMANAC 2008 - Page 594 - 595
Student Reference Information
CITIES
1. New York
2. Los Angeles
3. Chicago
4. Houston
5. Phoenix
6. Philadelphia
7. San Antonio
8. San Diego
9. Dallas
10. San Jose
11. Detroit
12. Jacksonville
13. Indianapolis
14. San Francisco
15. Columbus, OH
19. Baltimore
20. Charlotte
22. Boston
23. Seattle
24. Washington, D. C.
26. Denver
29. Nashville
34. Atlanta
39. Kansas City
40. Cleveland
43. Miami
44. Oakland
47. Minneapolis
52. St. Louis
55. Tampa
56. Cincinnati
57. Pittsburgh
66. Buffalo
83. New Orleans
??. Green Bay
METROPOLITAN AREAS
8,214,426
3,849,378
2,833,321
2,144,491
1,512,986
1,448,394
1,296,682
1,256.951
1,232,940
929,936
871,121
794,555
785,597
744,041
733,203
631,366
630,478
590,763
582,454
581,530
566,974
552,120
486,411
447,306
444,313
404,048
397,067
372, 833
347,181
332,888
332,252
312,819
276,059
223,388
100,353
1. New York
18,818,536
2. Los Angeles
12,950,129
3. Chicago
9,505,748
4. Dallas
6,003,967
5. Philadelphia
5,826,742
6. Houston
5,539,949
7. Miami
5,463,857
8. Washington, D.C. 5,290,400
9. Atlanta
5,138,223
10. Detroit
4,468,966
11. Boston
4,455,217
12. San Francisco
4,180,027
13. Phoenix
4,039,128
14. Riverside, CA
4,026,135
15. Seattle
3,263,497
16. Minneapolis
3,175,041
17. San Diego
2,941,454
18. St. Louis
2,796,368
19. Tampa
2,697,731
20. Baltimore
2,658,405
21 Denver
2,408,750
22. Pittsburgh
2,307,776
23. Portland, OR
2,137,565
24. Cleveland
2,114,155
25. Cincinnati
2,104,218
26. Sacramento
2,067,117
27. Orlando
1,984,855
28. Kansas City
1,967,405
29. San Antonio
1,942,217
30. San Jose
1,787,123
31. Las Vegas
1,777,539
32. Columbus, OH
1,725,570
33. Indianapolis
1,666,032
34. Norfolk
1,649,457
35. Providence
1,612,989
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PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Seating Capacity of Stadiums
National Football League-2008
Student Reference Information
University of Phoenix
Georgia Dome
M & T Bank Stadium
Ralph Wilson Stadium
Bank of America Stadium
Soldier Field
Paul Brown Stadium
Cleveland Browns Stadium
Texas Stadium
Invesco at Mile High Stadium
Ford Field
Lambeau Field
Reliant Stadium
Lucas Oil Stadium
Jacksonville Municipal Stadium
Arrowhead Stadium
Dolphin Stadium
Metrodome
Gillette Field
Louisiana Superdome
Giants Stadium
Giants Stadium
Oakland MdAfee Coliseum
Lincoln Financial Field
Heinz Field
Edward Jones Dome
Qualcomm Stadium
Monster Park
Qwest Field
Raymond James Stadium
LP Field
FedEx Field
Glendale, AZ
Atlanta, GA
Baltimore, MD
Orchard Park, NY
Charlotte, NC
Chicago, IL
Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland, OH
Irving, TX
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Green Bay, WI
Houston, TX
Indianapolis, IN
Jacksonville, FL
Kansas City, MO
Miami, FL
Minneapolis, MN
Foxboro, MA
New Orleans, LA
E. Rutherford, NJ
E. Rutherford, NJ
Oakland, CA
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
St. Louis, MO
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
Tampa, FL
Nashville, TN
Washington, DC
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Cardinals
Falcons
Ravens
Bills
Panthers
Bears
Bengals
Browns
Cowboys
Broncos
Lions
Packers
Texans
Colts
Jaguars
Chiefs
Dolphins
Vikings
Patriots
Saints
N.Y. Giants
N.Y. Jets
Raiders
Eagles
Steelers
Rams
Chargers
49ers
Seahawks
Buccaneers
Titans
Redskins
65,000
71,228
71,008
73,967
73,504
61,500
65,515
73,300
65,529
76,125
64,500
72,928
71,054
63,000
67,164
79,451
75,192
64,121
68,756
68,000
80,242
80,242
63,132
67,594
65,000
66,000
70,000
69,732
67,000
65,908
69,143
91,704
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Math with the Stadium Capacity
The seating capacity table of the NFL stadia may be used for math lessons with your newspaper. Every
boxscore of NFL games will include an attendance figure, and some may include stadium capacity along
with that figure. Students may subtract the actual attendance from the stadium capacity to determine
how many empty seats were in the stadium on any given game day. For example, at the bottom of a
boxscore you may see: A - 56,623(62,518). The figure within parentheses is stadium capacity, and
56,623 is actual attendance.
More advanced classes/students may divide the actual attendance by the stadium's capacity to
determine the percentage of capacity for a particular game. Having students figure the percentage of
attendance is an interesting and quick exercise to do with a calculator. After calculating the percentage
of stadium capacity each week, portray this on a line or bar graph. Send these graphs to the coach or
team owner at season's end. THIS DEED WILL BE APPRECIATED.
MAKE A COLORFUL BAR GRAPH. Round-off the attendance of your favorite team to the nearest five
hundred(500) and construct a vertical bar graph for the 16 weeks "your team" plays. This bar graph will
be bright and colorful if you suggest the students draw the bar each week in the color of the opposition’s
dominate team color. For example, Pittsburgh's colors are black and gold, Green Bay's are green and
yellow, St. Louis’ are blue and gold, etc.
The attendance figure may be used for simple place value lessons, or for practice in writing exponents.
Primary students can look at the scores of Sunday's games to determine if the numbers are odd or even.
Intermediate grade students may determine that the scores are prime or composite numbers. Composite
numbers should be factored to their prime components.
ANOTHER MATH SUGGESTION THAT MIGHT BE DEVELOPED FROM ANY SECTION OF THE
NEWSPAPER. Simple or more challenging subtractions lessons can be developed from the many tables
of information that appear frequently in all sections of the newspaper. When any information is
presented in a descending numerical order, have a subtraction lesson by determining the difference
between the first number and the second number in the listing; between the second and third, third minus
fourth, fourth minus fifth, etc.
Request a “Stat Sheet” from this author via your NIE Coordinator if you want to follow your favorite team
with a weekly spreadsheet application. The sheet is completed by having the students obtain seven(7)
bits of information from the sports page boxscore and writing them down in the proper columns. Then
after the first week, the students make seven simple ADDITIONS to keep a RUNNING total of the
points, yards rushing, yards passing, and attendance as the season progresses. Then seven
DIVISIONS by the game number to figure the average points, yards rushing, yards passing, and
attendance per game as the weeks whirl by.
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PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Enrichment Activities
1. This makes me Unusual! Challenge your students to find an article(s) about each NFL city that
distinguishes it from the other NFL cities. South Mountain Park in Phoenix is the world’s largest
municipal park. Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta is the largest granite dome in North America.
Phoenix is the most populous state capital. Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport is now the world’s busiest.
2. County Counting! Mount a large map of your state in the classroom and find a dateline or article
representing each county in your state. You may not be able to do this for all of the 254 counties
in Texas; maybe for the 102 counties in Illinois; and certainly for the 21 counties in New Jersey.
Contact a city or state official for a map.
3. What’s important in each State? During the course of the NFL season, clip articles daily and
weekly from your newspaper that show unique, unusual or important products or features from
each state. Attach these articles to a large outline map of the United States. For example,
cherries in Michigan, diamonds and rice in Arkansas, Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota, wheat in
Kansas, or corn in any of the Corn Belt states. Kalamazoo, MI, grows 75% of the bedding plants
in the U.S. You should cover every state during the NFL season. California produces 90% of
the garlic in the nation. Where is Gilroy? See sample state product exercise on page 51
4. Which quarterback was the best on Sunday? Each boxscore in Monday’s newspaper will tell you
about the quarterback’s efficiency with figures that read as: 16-30-2. This means that the QB
completed 16 passes out of 30 attempts with two(2) interceptions. Forget about the
interceptions. Write 16/30 as a common fraction and reduce it to lowest terms, 8/15; or change it
to the decimal equivalent rounded to thousandths place, .533. Of course, not all completionattempts fractions can be reduced. This math exercise will have the students solving 20-30
problems every Monday or which ever day you choose to do the assignment.
5. Which team was best on Sunday? This is a simpler version of the quarterback exercise. A
headline may read “Bears maul Ravens, 36 - 14.” Write each game score as a common fraction,
14/36, and reduce when possible. Again, 12-15 problems each Monday.
6. How many Empty Seats? Included in each boxscore is an attendance figure. Use the Stadium
Capacity table you have and subtract the actual attendance from the capacity to determine how
many unoccupied seats there were on game day. Taking math to a higher level, use these
figures to determine the per cent of capacity. Calculators?
7. Be Weather Wise! Have a simple subtraction lesson from the weather page of the newspaper by
having students find the difference between the high temperatures in the cities of all the
competing teams. Will a team be flying into warmer or colder weather to play their game? Will
you do this one or five times a week?
8. Identify those States. From the weather page, select 10-15 cities from around the nation that have
their high and low temperatures listed. Make sure the selected cities are in different states.
Calculate the difference between the high and low temperature in each city. On an outline map
of the U.S., write the difference within the appropriate state.
9. Math practice with the Population. Supply the students with the population table provided in the
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PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY packet, and let them determine the difference in the size of the cities of
the competing teams. For other cities, see THE WORLD ALMANAC, 2008, pages 594 - 596.
10. Population movement from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt. Draw a rectangle from Boston to
Minneapolis to St. Louis to Baltimore. This is the Rust Belt. During the course of the NFL
season, clip newspaper articles related to population and employment movement away from the
Rust Belt and toward the Sun Belt. Assign a couple of students to be demographers and clip any
articles related to trends in population shifts in the U.S. Indianapolis is the “Cinderella of the Rust
Belt,” or the “Shining buckle on the Rust Belt.”
There will be declining population in Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, West Virginia and
Wyoming. Increasing population in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, North Carolina and
Texas. These states are being called the “New Sun Belt”.
11. Headline Vocabulary. Select two or three headlines from the newspaper that have a challenging
vocabulary word in them. Using a dictionary or thesaurus, replace the selected word in each
headline with a simpler synonym. Make sure the synonym fits in context. “Flood decimates corn”,
“Pounding storms cause tumultuous waters.” Rewrite this headline so it’s singular possessive.
12. Pronouns from the Lovelorn. Read Dear Abby on any day, and pick out the pronouns to discuss
their usage. Find pronouns in the comics.
13. Contractions with the Comics. Everyone reads the comics. Did you ever think about the many
contractions used each day? Identify 10 - 12, and have the students write the two words each
contraction stands for.
14. Homonyms and Headlines. Look at headlines and subheadlines on just the front page. How
many words can you identify for which you know homonyms?
15. Weekly ranking of the football teams in the NCAA. The Associated Press, CNN or Coaches
ranking of the top college football teams will appear in your newspaper every Monday or
Tuesday. The total number of votes each team received will be listed from high to low. How
many more points/votes did #1 get than #2, #2 than #3, #3 than #4, etc.? Do 10 subtraction
problems one day, and 10 the next. Write the votes each team received in Roman Numerals.
16. Non-native ecological problems in the United States. Have students research the threat to our
ecosystem caused by these non-native specimens. Nutria, zebra mussels, fire ants, kudzu,
Africanized bees, Asian carp, wild(feral) hogs, phragmites, Formosan termites, Sea Lamprey,
African frogs, tamarisk(salt cedar)bush, Indo-Pacific lionfish, emerald ash borers(a g r i l u s
p l a n n i p e n n i s ) , hydrilla, soy bean rust, Atlantic cordgrass(spartina alterniflora) and sea
squirts. In July of 2006, it was reported that an aphid type insect brought here from Japan in the
1920s on ornamental plants is destroying hemlock trees in the Great Smoky Mountains.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, Great Smoky Mountains, “Season of Smoke”, August
2006, pages 90 - 107. Article is all about scenery, not about problems in the park.
On Nov. 4, 2005, the Diaprepes root weevil, a pest native to the Caribbean, caused an area of
Long Beach, CA, to be quarantined. The weevil threatens more than 270 species of plants,
including many citrus plants of Southern California.
From what country did they come? When did they first appear in the United States?
Did they come into the United States intentionally or by accident?
If intentional, what was their intended purpose?
If intentional, how long did it take to realize the idea, theory or concept was not
working and had gone awry?
continued
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These specimens have no natural enemies or controls in the United States.
What were the natural enemies or controls in the originating country?
See: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Attack of the alien Invaders”, March 2005,
pages 92 - 117.
17. Ethanol. Clip newspaper articles to study the pros and cons of the ethanol debate in the United
States during the NFL season. Is the American public being scammed? See notes on page 29.
18. Honey Bees. What is causing the demise of the honey bees? People in the agricultural industry
depend on bees for pollination to the tune of $15 billion a year. Food prices will be higher.
American Beekeeping Federation(www.abfnet.org)(www.americanhoneyproducers.org)
(Texas Apiary Inspection Service) (www.beesurvey.com) Discuss “colony collapse disorder”.
Where do the bees go? The hives are shunned by other bees and insect scavengers.
The workers fly away, leaving the queen and her eggs, larvae and pupae to die. CCD is now in
24 states. Almonds, cucumbers, apples, peaches and more than 80 other American crops rely
on commercial honeybee pollination. 80% of the world’s almonds are grown in California, and
the almond crop requires 1.3 million colonies alone, this is half the colonies in the entire nation.
One man said, “Without bees, we don’t eat.” Google: Heartland Apiculture Society and see:
www.heartlandbees.com
Beekeepers produce $200 million worth of honey annually. September is National Honey Month.
The National Honey Board is in Longmont, CO?
www.honey.com
19. Five themes of Geography. Divide a bulletin board into five equal parts, and use one of the Five
Themes of Geography as a heading for each section of the board.
LOCATION
PLACE
HUMANMOVEMENT
ENVIRONMENTAL
INTERACTIONS
REGIONS
Clip articles from your newspaper that would pertain to each section or illustrate each theme.
LOCATION: Clip pictures of things that you know exactly where they are. Liberty Bell, Gateway
Arch, Mt. Rushmore, Time Square, precise latitude and longitude coordinates of hurricanes.
PLACE: Cable cars make you think of San Francisco, mountains of Colorado, corn fields of
Iowa. Cape Hatteras. Locate a few datelines each day. Where is it happening?
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTIONS: Too many people in south Florida! How is the
area being affected? How are cities changing? Find articles about urban decay or downtown
revitalization. Rural areas change as suburbs grow. How is the Hispanic immigrant movement
affecting cities, schools, hospitals, governmental agencies, etc.?
MOVEMENT: People, goods and ideas move. People moving to the Sun Belt or from cities to
suburbs. However, cities are being renewed as people are tired of traffic congestion and high
gas prices. People are moving where there is public transportation. Via computers and
satellites, ideas are communicated across the nation and around the world in seconds.
REGIONS: Physical regions are easy to identify, but human regions are not. Have students
thinking about ethnic, language and social regions within their own state or city.
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY is a powerful framework for students to understand the people, places,
and environments of the United States and the connections to the students’ own lives.
13
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Addition-Subtraction, Graphing Instructions
Dear Teacher:
Students will enjoy the Addition and Subtraction Exercise in connection with PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY.
There are usually 15 games played on Sunday in the National Football League, and the scores of these
games will be reported in the sport section of your Monday's newspaper. However, be reminded that there
are some open dates for all teams, and only 13 games will be played on certain Sundays.
This exercise sheet is completed by simply taking the scores of the first two competing teams and adding to
determine the total number of points scored in the game; then subtracting the same scores to determine the
margin of victory. Repeat the process with the second set of scores, etc. until all 15 games are calculated.
This is a practical and meaningful math assignment for 1st through 6th graders. It should NOT be a timed
exercise for grades 1-3, but can be for grades 4 and above. The ability of your class should determine the
time allotted for completion, but it is generally recommended that 6th graders be given four(4) minutes to
complete the drill, 5th graders five(5) minutes, and 4th graders six(6) minutes. Reduce the time allowed to
complete the drill by 10-15 seconds when the weekend schedule is reduced to 13 games on Sunday.
Now graph the results of the addition and subtraction assignment. This is a project probably best suited for
6th graders and above, but you must be the one to determine how appropriate this may be for your class.
Your students are being timed as they work with the NFL results on Monday, and they raise their hand to
signal they are finished. Their time is quickly called to them when they raise their hand, and they note this
exact time on their exercise sheet. For example, you call 3:19. This means they completed the exercise in
3-minutes and 19-seconds.
Round-off the time to the nearest three seconds(3:18), and graph the results as a bar graph for that
particular week of the football season. The bars should be colored in RED in the weeks the exercise is not
completed with 100% accuracy, and colored in GREEN when it is done with 100% accuracy. When there
are less than 14 scheduled games, add 10 seconds to a student's time for each game not played. This will
make the graph present a more realistic picture of consistent improvement from week to week, instead of so
much weekly fluctuation when there are open dates.
What you hope to see as the weeks pass it that more and more of the bars are becoming green, and there
is a stair step pattern downward to the right as computational speed increases.
The results might more appropriately be graphed with a line graph, but experience has shown that students
are more enthused about making bar graphs than line graphs.
Enjoy!
14
15
16
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PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
September 7, 2008 - Week #1
1. Atlanta, Boston(N.E.), Nashville(TN), Indianapolis State Geography Standards = SGS
2. San Francisco, Oakland SGS
3. California. September is “Go Wild During California Wild Rice Month” fuels the discussion of should
California be growing rice and wild rice due to the extreme water shortage in Southern California.
www.cawildrice.com September is also National Rice Month www.usarice.com
4. Pennsylvania, New York *
5. San Francisco, Green Bay, Indianapolis
6. NY Jets
Appreciate the reading comprehension skills that are required to answer the questions.
Make sure you get the correct response when students are asked for the “will be visited”
or “will visit” team(s) as in questions #2, #5 and #6. Don’t blame me if it drives you nuts.
You have been warned.
7. Cleveland, Buffalo on Lake Erie SGS
8. Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Ontario
9. Lake Michigan, Lake Huron **
10. Gulf of Mexico *** Any livelihoods of HOUSTON CHRONICLE students affected? SGS
11. Pittsburgh The Ohio River Sternwheel Festival is going on in Marietta, OH. American history
teachers, relive the history of our developing nation. Sternwheelers reflect what time period in
American history? www.ohioriversternwheelfestival.org
Any of you CINCINNATI ENQUIRER students going to Covington for Oktoberfest?
How many ENQUIRER students have been to Krazy City?
12. New Orleans
13. Oklahoma City, OK
14. WA, ID MT, ND, MN, WI, MI, NY. **** SGS Do you want to mention the province of Ontario,
Canada? Buffalo Wings were founded at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY.
15. TX, OK, AR, MO, IL, IN, OH
16. New York, NY. First Labor Day parade was in NYC in 1882. Oregon made it a legal holiday in 1887,
and President Cleveland made it a national holiday in 1894. *****
17. Hope this question will be a practical writing assignment for you. The SAT test now requires
more essay type writing. Your first chance to see the compositional skills of your students.
Destroying a myth related to Labor Day and New York City. The New York post office opened to
the public on Labor Day, Sept. 7, 1914. Common belief has it that the inscription on the front of
the building is the motto of the postal service: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night
stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. The post office has no
official motto, but the legend remains.
* Be advised, in case some student tries to “wise you up”, that the NY Giants and NY Jets play in the
Meadowlands in New Jersey. However, they will be from NYC as long as they have New York in
their name. As a point of reference for measuring direction or distance in the future, The location
of New York City will be considered as the tip of Manhattan.
**
Bonus points!
Perhaps for anyone bringing in a picture or article of the Labor Day
walk across the Mackinac Bridge connecting the two peninsulas of Michigan. An event that only
continued
18
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
September 7, 2008 - Week #1
happens once a year. Objective: Develop awareness of Great Lakes. Teach concepts of
peninsula and strait. Strait will be discussed in later lessons. www.mackinacbridge.org.
Click on Labor Day walk. Look at the back of the Michigan quarter.
*** Research and discuss the “Dead Zone” occurring in the Gulf of Mexico. This annual problem is
exacerbated this year by the floods in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri bringing down sewerage, farm
fertilizer, etc. causing the oxygen in an area the size of Massachusetts to be depleted. SGS
**** OBJECTIVE: To teach state identification. Be flexible on grading these questions as cartographers
will tell you all maps are not the same. If a student can prove that by the map he/she is using
that the corner of a state is or is not touched, allow the answer. Some students will realize that
airplanes fly the “Great Circle Route” above the Earth’s surface, but for these questions they will
be considered to fly in a straight line, or the “Crow Flight” route. IDEA! Challenge your students
to be able to point out and name each of the 50 states on an outline map of the U.S. in one(1)
minute by the 12th week of the NFL season. This will be a great public relations activity for you.
Parents will love what their child is learning and accomplishing.
To facilitate grading, demand the states be listed in the order they are traversed en route to a
city. This is good mental discipline for the students. The state of departure and the state of
arrival will always be the first and last, respectively. State Geography Standards
***** Questions identified as Beyond the 10, 20, 30, or 40, are more difficult, and indicate the students
will have to consult some reference source. This source may be some type of reference book,
or mom, dad, grandma or grandpa. Strive to get the family involved. As in kicking field goals, a
40-yarder is more difficult than a 10-yarder, so more extra credit should be given for this extra
effort. Some of you may choose to ignore these questions.
If you want, have a few students or the class keeping the PASSES ATTEMPTED/PASSES
COMPLETED GRAPH. THIS GRAPH WILL ALLOW YOUR STUDENTS TO GRAPH THE PASSING
SUCCESS OF THEIR FAVORITE QUARTERBACK FOR THE 17 WEEKS OF THE NFL SEASON. The
QB graph is on page 21. Objective for math: Figuring percentages by converting common fractions to
their decimal equivalent.
Passers need Receivers. Most career receptions in the NFL: Jerry Rice 1,549; Cris Carter 1,101; Tim
Brown 1,094; Marvin Harrison 1,042. Anyone approaching the 1,000 catch mark this season?
SPECIAL SCIENCE/GEOGRAPHY PROJECT Does your newspaper provide time of sunrise and sunset
on the weather page? Start an HOURS OF DAYLIGHT graph on Monday, the 8th to plot the descending
hours of daylight leading to the autumnal equinox. www.almanac.com/rise/rise.html. Fall arrives at
11:44 a.m. EDT on September 22nd. Do this if studying the changing seasons, rotation and
revolution of the Earth, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn and Equator are part of your curriculum.
Figure the hours of daylight even if you don’t graph them. SGS
American history: Mention that Sept. 2nd is V-J Day. Games will be played on Sunday, Dec. 7th and we
will take a moment to reflect on Pearl Harbor during that week.
NEXT WEEK:
Golden color of the leaves of an aspen tree - Intermediate directions
Identifying states of the United States – Rocky & Appalachian Mountains
Mouth or delta of river – Rivers of the U.S. – State capitals – Ft. McHenry
9/11 is next Thursday---LET US NEVER FORGET!!
19
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PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
September 14, 2008 - Week #2
Check out this website and decide when you want to tell your students to play the games.
www.sheppardsoftware.com/states_experiment_drag-drop_intermed_State15s_500.html
Check out this website and decide when you want to tell your students to play the games.
www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq
1. Texas, Ohio, Missouri, Florida
2. Detroit, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, NY Jets. VINDICATOR students should watch the Steelers go over.
3. Phoenix(AZ), Denver
4. Door Peninsula *
5. Cincinnati. You ENQUIRER students don’t have to answer this one. SGS
6. St. Louis, Minneapolis
7. Kansas City. You STAR students don’t have to answer this one.
8. Mouth or delta. Accept either answer. Any information on the Gulf’s dead zone?
SGS
9. Golden color of the aspen trees. Can anyone find out why many aspen trees are dying? Maybe old
age. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, September 2007.
10.
Nashville(TN) = N.E.
Chicago
= S.E.
Miami
Baltimore
= N.W.
= S.W.
SGS
11. MA, RI, CT, NY
12. New Orleans Saints
13. Appalachian Mountains
SGS
14. Charleston, WV; Little Rock, AR
15. Columbia, SC
16. Baltimore, MD. Make a note now to check on the reopening in November of the Smithsonian’s
National Museum of American History where the flag that inspired our national anthem will be
displayed. The dimly lighted gallery will depict the flag “by the dawn’s early light”.
Memories of hurricane Katrina are still with us. HOUSTON CHRONICLE students, take a minute to
reflect on the infamous Galveston hurricane of September 8, 1900, where more than 6,000 died.
Who’s up next? Names of Atlantic hurricanes in 2008: Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay,
Gustav, Hanna, Ike, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paloma, Rene, Sally, Teddy,
Vicky and Wilfred. The initial hurricane forecast for 2008 that was issued in December was for 13
named storms, seven of them hurricanes with three being major. The word hurricane comes from
the Caribbean word Huracon, who was the god of evil.
continued
21
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
September 14, 2008 - Week #2
On July 18, 2008, Bertha officially became the longest-lived July tropical storm in history. Cristobal gave
parched North Carolina some needed rain. Two inches in Wilmington, and five inches elsewhere.
Actual number of hurricanes for this decade: Source: NOAA
2000 = 8, 2001 = 9, 2002 = 4, 2003 = 7, 2004 = 9, 2005 = 15, 2006 = 5, 2007 = 6
How many French fries will you GRAND FORKS HERALD students eat at the Potato Bowl this week?
Ms. Lindlauf said you give free taters to out-of-staters. Is this true?
* Some answers are written on solid lines like this: __________. Other answers are to be written on
broken lines like this: _ _ _ _ _. The solid lines are used for very general answers. The
broken line is a way of being more helpful to the student with the number of spaces matching the
number of letters in the correct answer.
September 11th is Patriot Day in commemoration of the terrorist attacks on the United States on 9-11,
2001. Give a moment of silence to honor those who lost their lives in the attacks. For junior high and
high schools, assign 2-4 students to be “class reporters” throughout the football season to discuss every
issue in the Patriot Act. With the November elections coming, will the candidates’ position on national
security be observed more closely? Where will each student draw the line between security and
tyranny? Follow the debates in your newspaper.
September 17th is CONSTITUTION/CITIZENSHIP DAY. Perhaps a writing assignment on what it
means to be a citizen in this great country of ours.
www.americanpromise.com www.celebrationusa.org
www.National-Education-Project.org www.constitutioncenter.org
Students may request a free pocket copy of the Constitution at: www.heritage.org
For BOSTON HERALD students. September 20th, is Red Auerbach’s birthday. The results of a poll
asking which was the greatest Celtic team are as follows:
1885-86 Celtics = 64%; 1964-65 Celtics = 13%; 2007-08 Celtics = 11%; 1959-60 Celtics = 8%
1973-74 Celtics = 4%
Can BOSTON HERALD students make a circle graph showing these percentages?
In the 5th week of the NFL season, Minnesota plays in New Orleans. Contact your NIE coordinator if you
would like a 7-page teacher’s guide for you and your class to take a “trip” down the Mississippi River.
Sept. 9th, is the 25th “birthday” of the Cabbage Patch Kids. Anyone still have a Cabbage Patch doll?
Have you students in Eau Claire been to Eleva yet to go through the Favre cornfield maze?
Want you students in Cincinnati, Toledo, Elyria and Youngstown to find out more about Mt. Buckeye
that was sculpted out of butter at the Ohio State Fair. What do you know about the eight
presidents? Did it look much like Mt. Rushmore?
NEXT WEEK:
Population table needed - Panhandle states - Harvest Moon - Great Lakes
Peninsulas & peninsulas - USS Constitution “Old Ironsides” in Boston
Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri - NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, OH
Chimney Rock on the Oregon Trail in Nebraska
Tom Thumb, the “Iron Horse”, lost to a horse in Baltimore
Class project to become deltiologists—postcard collectors
Have students enjoy silliness in America at: www.roadsideamerica.com
22
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
September 21, 2008 - Week #3
1. Harvest Moon. The song, “Shine on Harvest Moon” was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth.
2. Atlanta, Boston(N.E.), Nashville(TN), Denver, Indianapolis
3. 1,512,986 – 581,530 = 931,456 Practice subtraction with all competing cities as much as necessary
to master the skill.
4. Boston(N.E.)
5. NY Jets. The word transcontinental will be introduced later. SGS
6. Salton Sea, but it’s really a lake.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Salton Sea”, February 2005, pages 88 – 107. SGS
7. NY, NJ, PA, WV, OH, IN, IL, MO, KS, CO, NM, AZ, CA. Any discussion on WV? SGS
8. Philadelphia. Have students consult the Study Hint Sheet and point out that both Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia are located at the confluence of rivers. SGS
9. Lake of the Ozarks
10. San Francisco
11. San Francisco is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Golden Gate Strait and San Francisco Bay.
12. Door Peninsula
13. Baja California. Hope the Jets stay out of Tijuana.
14. Olympic Peninsula
15. Chesapeake Bay. The Delmarva Peninsula will be discussed later.
16. Cape Cod Peninsula. Does it really look like the toe of a fairy’s shoe?
SGS
17. Zero, none, zip
18. Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie. Look at the back of a Michigan quarter.
Since Lake Ontario doesn’t touch the state, many people are of the opinion that it shouldn’t be
shown. What do you students in Michigan think? SGS
19. Detroit Lions. Oregon Trail SGS
20. Salt Lake City, UT; Madison, WI
21. Texas, Oklahoma, West Virginia. Point out that WV has a northern and eastern panhandle. SGS
22. Baton Rouge, LA; Oklahoma City, OK
23. USS Constitution
24. Baltimore, MD
25. Canton, OH
26. Chicago. Franklin Adams’ poem was “Baseball’s Sad Lexicon”.
27. A deltiologist is a postcard collector. Try to display a postcard in your classroom from every state
and/or as many cities and states as possible.
Hope you ENQUIRER students will have fun at Oktoberfest. www.oktoberfest-zinzinnati.com
Are you students in Fort Wayne, IN, enjoying the Johnny Appleseed Festival?
Are you QUINCY HERLAD-WHIG students playing safe at Riverfest?
Hope you FLINT JOURNAL students recognize GM’s 100th anniversary founded by one of Flint’s own.
Has northbound traffic on I-75 backed up into Flint because of the Zilwaukee bridge construction?
Teachers: Inform every science and science related teacher in your building of the opening of the
California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco on September 27th. www.calacademy.org
NEXT WEEK:
Monday is the autumnal equinox - Mason-Dixon Line
The Allegheny and Monongahela rivers form the Ohio River
White sand beaches of the Florida panhandle
Lewis & Clark return to St. Louis
Suggestions for Character Education lessons
23
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
September 28, 2008 - Week #4
English teachers will want to know about National Punctuation Day on Wednesday, Sept. 24th.
www.nationalpunctuationday.com
1. TBD. Monday is the equinox, but the hours of daylight from sunrise to sunset will not equal 12 hours.
Don’t ask why, it just never does. SGS
2. Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens If anyone says Denver because there is a Kansas City, KS, then
give them credit for the geographic knowledge. However, Arrowhead Stadium is in Missouri.
3. Baltimore Ravens * You EVENING SUN students are only five miles from the line. Grab a pretzel.
4. The Allegheny and Monongahela rivers come together at the Golden Triangle. BEAVER COUNTY
TIMES students had better know this!!! SGS
5. Oakland, Cincinnati
6. Green Bay Packers, San Diego Chargers
7. White sand beaches. NEWS HERALD students don’t have to answer this. SGS
Any students in Panama City work at Pier Park? How often do you go there for entertainment?
Have most of you HOUSTON CHRONICLE students been to Discovery Green?
8.
Atlanta
Cleveland
= N.E.
= S.W.
San Francisco
San Diego
= S.E.
= N.W.
SGS
9. Baton Rouge, LA ** Would students in Baton Rouge ADVOCATE the 49ers stopping by for a visit
and some crawfish? If they stop, do you think Ms. Huckaby will come up with some lagniappe?
Visitors to New Orleans might want to tell your biology teacher about the Insectarium.
www.auduboninstitute.org
10. New York, Jacksonville
11. Oakland
12. St. Louis Rams
13. Santa Fe, NM; Indianapolis, IN
14. 8, 214, 426 – 1, 512, 986 = 6, 701, 440 SGS
* A boundary between Maryland and Pennsylvania. It was popularly known as the dividing line
between the free and slave states, but this was not its purpose. It was the result of a dispute
between the Penns of Pennsylvania and the Calverts of Maryland. Milestones brought from
England were set along the line. Referred to as “crown stones,” every fifth stone bore the arms of
the Calvert family on one side and the Penn family on the other. This 233-mile line does not
extend west of the Ohio River. Can they still be seen anywhere? This line was later used in the
Missouri Compromise to settle an issue of free and slave states, and the term is generically used
to mean a line between the North and the South.
** Baton Rouge means red stick. There are 48 steps leading up to the capitol. One for each state of
the Union when it was built in 1932. The first 13 steps are the names of the colonies, but they
are in alphabetical order. From 14 on up, the steps are named for the states in the order of their
admission to the Union. Ask your students the number of the step they would be standing on for
your state. For example, a student from Louisiana would be standing on the 18th step, Illinois on
the 21st step, etc. Alaska and Hawaii are now carved on the top step with Arizona, the 48th
state. Huey P. Long would be an interesting subject for a report by some high school student.
continued
24
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
September 28, 2008 - Week #4
A March 2008 survey by Greyhound Bus Company ask: How many states have Americans visited?
The results were:
1 – 2 states 16%
3– 9
22%
10 – 19
30%
20 – 29
17%
30 plus
15%
Math teachers, can you show these results with a circle/pie graph? Including mother, father and
children, conduct this poll in your classroom to see how well traveled the students are. One 6th grade
students in Granite City, IL, had never been to St. Louis, MO, only six miles away.
From June, 20, to July 6 2008, 1783 wildfires had been reported in California. If you are interested or
impacted by this in any way, you might want to read NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Why the
West is Burning”, July 2008, pages 116- 143. Most of the wildfires were caused by lightning strikes.
CHARACTER EDUCATION: For the rest of the school year, use these transgressions as reported in
your newspaper to initiate a class discussion on proper behavior, athletes being a role model,
responsibility to the fans and community, etc.
Tennessee Titan Jevon Kearse was arrested on June 22nd in Nashville for driving under the
Influence.
How is Adam “Pacman” Jones behaving with the Cowboys as his new team? He had six arrests
and 12 incidents requiring police intervention since being drafted by the Tennessee Titans
in 2005. He was suspended by the NFL in April 2007, for his connection to a shooting in
a Las Vegas club.
On March 6th, Brandon Marshall of the Denver Broncos was arrested for allegedly hitting his
girlfriend.
On June 21st, Ahmad Bradshaw began serving a 30-day sentence for probation violation. In his
past he has been arrested for underage drinking, resisting an arrest and for allegedly
stealing a video game.
On June 23rd, Dwayne Jarrett of the Carolina Panthers pleaded guilty of driving while impaired.
He had to surrender his driver’s license, pay $420.00, do 24-hours of community service,
and enter the NFL’s substance abuse program.
“Jeremy Shockey is yet another great example of an athlete who has been coddled since his tee
ball days. His ego has grown to the point where he has zero respect for any authority
figures.” Source: The Sporting News, June 30, 2008, page 10.
On June 30th, The N.E. Patriots’ Willie Andrews was arrested and held in jail without bail for
allegedly pointing a gun at his girlfriend’s head.
Ravens ‘ Derrick Martin was charged with drug possession after being found with three packets of
suspected marijuana in the Cleveland airport. He appeared in court July 15th.
On July 9th, New England’s Kevin Faulk pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor marijuana charge.
NEXT WEEK:
Transcontinental flights - Pony Express in St. Joseph, MO.
Source and Mouth of Mississippi River
Confluence of Mississippi and Ohio rivers
Mt. Mitchell is the tallest peak east of the Mississippi River
Everglades National Park - Carlsbad Caverns
Wheat growing states. (winter wheat and spring wheat)
Works of Frederic S. Remington - Writer Damon Runyan and sports
“Song of Hiawatha” and “Evangeline” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
25
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
October 5, 2008 - Week #5
1. Florida, Texas
2. San Diego Chargers, Boston(N.E.) Patriots
3. Albany, NY. Can anyone make a case for Madison, WI; or Salt Lake City, UT? If so, give them
credit for at least they are learning states and capitals.
4. Jefferson City, MO, on the Missouri River
5. Bismarck, ND, on the Missouri River. It is said they gave Bismarck this spelling hoping to attract
more German immigrants to North Dakota in the early part of the 20th Century. SGS
6. Green Bay, Lake Michigan, Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron and Lake Erie SGS
7. Cairo, IL. Pronounced Care-o or Karo(like the syrup). Not like Ki-ro in Egypt SGS
8. Minneapolis(MN) Vikings
9. Lake Pontchartrain. It’s not really a lake, it’s an estuary. SGS
10. Mt. Mitchell is the tallest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River. Mt. Washington gets
all the publicity, but Mt. Mitchell is the tallest.
11. Mississippi’s delta or mouth, and the marshes of the Everglades. The Everglades is the only place in
the world where alligators and crocodiles are found existing side by side. Source: Dallas Zoo. *
In August 2008, environmentalists and the Miccosukee Indians said the EPA is not doing enough
fast enough to lower the phosphorous levels in the Everglades as the EPA tried to push the Clean
Water Act timetable back 10 years to 2016.
12. The Pony Express ran between St. Joseph , MO, and Sacramento, CA. ** Hope none of you NEWSPRESS readers in St. Joseph, MO, horsed around and missed this. Ms. Goold would be mad.
Your newspaper should be the NEWS-EXPRESS
13. Kansas is the leading wheat growing state in the nation. Winter wheat, as grown in KS, MO, IL, etc.,
is planted in the fall and harvested in the late spring or early summer. Planted seeds could not
stand the severe ground freezing and winters of the north. www.kswheat.com Spring wheat is
planted in northern states in the spring and harvested in late summer. SGS
THE WORLD ALMANAC-2008, page 89. The U.S Dept. of Agriculture predicts 2008 to be a
good year with 1.8 billion bushels of winter wheat, and 2.4 billion bushels of spring wheat, a 16%
increase over 2007. Remember there was too much rain in eastern Kansas in 2007.
ALERT! What do you students in Kansas, Nebraska and North Dakota know about the fungus of
stem rust? Find out about the spring wheat rust epidemic of the 1950s.
14. Carlsbad Caverns SGS Near Carlsbad is White’s City, and someone bought the town for $1.5 M.
15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Denver Broncos. Do you know about the Fourteeners of Colorado?
THE WORLD ALMANAC-2008, page 699. There are 54 peaks in Colorado over 14,000 ft.
You students in Panama City and Ft. Smith watch the Bucs go over. Any parents in Ft. Smith
gone to work at QualServ? Who has parents working at Pradco?
16. Buffalo Bills
17. Detroit is the “Motor City”. Bet the students know about Motown Records.
18. Buffalo Bills, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans,
Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts and San Francisco 49ers.
www.fredericremington.org
19. Sports section. Mr. Runyan was born in Manhattan, KS. Do you think he was a Wildcat fan?
From Manhattan, it would be heretical if he were a Jayhawk fan.
20. Minneapolis(MN) Vikings vs. New Orleans Saints
continued
26
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
October 5, 2008 - Week #5
* Years of erosion and Hurricane Katrina have taken a terrible toll on the Louisiana coast line, and
a battle is being waged to save it. Some people say Louisiana is losing an acre of coast every
half-hour. There have been many plans to save the Everglades. The latest plan was announced
in June of 2008, where the state of Florida is buying 187,000 acres from sugar mills to cleanse
southbound water from Lake Okeechobee, restoring the natural filtering of the water the
Everglades has provided. However, 300,000 acres used by other growers would remain in
production.
On July 17, 2008, five environmental groups filed suit against the EPA charging them of violating
the Clean Water Act by failing to set standards for farm and urban runoff that is polluting Florida’s
waterways. Any of you students in Florida know how this suit is coming along?
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “The Everglades: Dying for help”, April 1994 pages 2 - 35
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, "Our Disappearing Wetlands", October 1992.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, "South Florida Water: Paying the Price," July 1990.
Have the students to simply understand that wetlands to the Earth are what the
kidneys are to our body.
www.MarshMission.com these sites have to do with Louisiana coast.
www.lca.gov/index.htm Louisiana Coastal Assn. & www.coast2050.gov
www.crcl.org Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana
** www.xphomestation.com www.nps.gov/poex Have some student(s) plot the route of the Pony
Express from the websites given above. The ride was re-enacted from June 13-23, 2000.
How did doughnut holes originate? This story was told during a tour of the Pony Express
Museum in St. Joseph. One rider was a handsome young man that captured the eyes of the
local young ladies, and they baked various pastries for him as he rode through town. One young
lady conceived the idea of putting holes in the pastries so he could string them on his fingers,
therefore, able to carry more “goodies”. Did all you NEWS-PRESS students know this?
Ms. Goold thinks it’s true.
NEXT WEEK:
Questions followed by a hyphen or dash(-) are easier questions
Appalachian, Rocky, Sierra Nevada, Cascade and Catskill Mountains
Leif Erikson Day, and all the Vikings are happy
Salton Sea and the nearby Chocolate Mountains
Interior Uplands is the Ozark Plateau, but just the Ozarks to the locals.
Corn Belt of the United States
Straits of Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Bay, Houston Ship Channel
Columbus Day. Columbia, SC, Columbus, OH
Eight states of the U.S. have Columbia counties. At least 11 states have
towns named Columbia, and at least 12 states have towns named
Columbus. Have students determine if there is one or the other in your
state.
Next week is KIDS’ GOAL SETTING WEEK. This encourages parents, teachers and coaches to foster
goal-setting habits in children’s lives so they can make their dreams come true. www.goalsguy.com
Next week is Fire Prevention Week. Will there be a related Dear Abby column on Sunday or Monday?
27
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
October 12, 2008 - Week #6
PATRIOT-NEWS readers---Is the National Sports Hall of Fame going to be built in Harrisburg?
1. Boston(N.E.) Patriots
2- Atlanta, Indianapolis, Denver, Phoenix(AZ) *
SGS
3- MD, WV, OH, IN. Monument Circle in Indianapolis is why it’s called “Circle City”.
4. Terre Haute, IN ** This answer may be almost impossible to find, so don’t stress the students out
over answering correctly. We don’t want anyone’s blood to clabber. Any of you TRIBUNE-STAR
readers selling Shovelnose sturgeon roe out of the Wabash River? Are you getting $45 a pound?
5- Columbus, OH Better not miss this with Columbus Day coming up.
6- Columbia, SC. Ask the students if there is a Columbus, Columbia or Columbiana is your state.
7. Minneapolis(MN) Vikings. www.vikingship.org Ms. Jenko’s students better not miss this.
This shouldn’t be any problem for students in Grand Forks and Fargo. Any of that money in
Montrail County making its way across Highway 2 to Grand Forks?
8- Hagar the Horrible
9. Appalachian = Pennsylvania. Rocky = Colorado. Sierra Nevada = California
SGS
On January 6, 2008, a snow storm hit the Sierra Nevada Mts. closing I-80 and dumping 11 feet
on the ski resorts around Lake Tahoe. Anyone remember that?
10. Catskill Mts. are part of the Appalachian range as are the Adirondack Mts. in N.E. New York.
Do any students have an Adirondack brand baseball bat to show the class?
SGS
11- Salton Sea. Chocolate Mts.
12. Arkansas If students in Ft. Smith miss this, Mr. Pendleton will be mad.
13. Bentonville, AR, the home of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. Lowell is the home of J.B Hunt, & you see
those trucks everywhere. (J.B. Hunt died in Nov. 2006) Tyson Chicken & HoneySuckle White
are in Springdale. University of Arkansas is in Fayetteville. Daisy BB Guns used to be made in
Rogers, but now are made nearby in Missouri. The Daisy museum is still in Rogers. Belle Vista
Village is nice. Branson is near. Eureka Springs is called “Little Switzerland of the Ozarks.”
Students might enjoy this site if they ever owned a Daisy BB gun. www.daisymuseum.com
News is Wal-Mart is taking the hyphen out of their name. Will they become WalMart?
14. OH, IN, IL, IA, NE are the main Corn Belt states, but allow any combination from these states. SGS
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, western Ohio, Nebraska, southern Minnesota, eastern South Dakota,
Kansas; and northern Missouri. (Did you remember the team name for the University of
Nebraska is Cornhuskers?) University of Nebraska fans eat huskerburgers. ***
In 2008, farmers have tried to cash in on soaring corn demand by planting more acres, but that
increase in acreage is nullified by the Midwest floods, so a projected harvest of about 11.5 billion
bushels may be about the same as in 2007. A bushel is 56 pounds.
Did we have a record corn harvest in 2008? This surge is fueled by the high demand for corn as
food, fuel, feed, fiber and foreign trade.
Between now and the end of school, have your class become very knowledgeable about
every issue in the controversial ethanol debate. Is it a hoax on America like MTBE? ****
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Growing Fuel—The wrong way, The right way”, October
2007, pages 38-59
continued
28
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
October 12, 2008 - Week #6
The high price of corn is affecting the price of other products because of fuel and distribution
costs. How much more are you paying for cereal and getting it in smaller boxes?
Isn’t it ironic that Congress is mandating more fuel efficiency with cars getting 35.7 mpg by 2015,
but this is the same Congress that is mandating a three or four-fold increase in ethanol production
that gives us less fuel efficiency. Isn’t this hypocritical? Is this a paradox? Is this an oxymoron?
Discuss what steps have been taken by parents of students to deal with the price of fuel? How
have their daily lives been impacted? Some legislators in the state of Oregon are having second
thoughts about voting for ethanol just after one year.
Do you ST. AUGUSTINE RECORD readers know about making ethanol with sweet sorghum?
The research and experimenting is going on in Brevard County to your south.
15- PA, OH, IN, IL, IA, NE, CO, UT, NV, CA. Rule however you want about WV.
16. Cascade Mountain Range
SGS
17- Bismarck, ND; Great Falls. MT. When the Packers go over Bismarck, they should remember that
October 6th was National German-American Day. Did you party, Mr. Koenig?
18- Three times. IN-KY border. OH-KY border. OH-WV border.
19. Straits of Florida; across the Gulf of Mexico; into Galveston Bay; and up the Houston Ship Channel.
* On this and succeeding quizzes, when the number of a question is followed by a hyphen or dash(-),
this denotes the easy, repetitive questions about information most students should have acquired
by now; especially if it is information coming directly from the "Study Hint Sheet". Some teachers
may have their students answer only the questions followed by the hyphen or dash.
** U.S. Highway 40, the old National Road which opened the West for settlement, and U.S. Highway
41, a major north-south route linked the Great Lakes with the Ohio River. Their intersection in
Terre Haute at Wabash Ave. and Seventh St. became the “Crossroads of America.” THE
TRIBUNE-STAR students don’t have to answer this, but tell us if there is a historical marker at
that intersection. If so, send Mr. Zigler a picture of the marker.
*** Is this true? Huskerburgers are hamburgers shaped like the state of Nebraska. It is considered
improper etiquette to consume it without first squirting ketchup in a meandering line down the
meat’s middle to symbolize the great Platte River.
**** Some maintain ethanol production is a waste of food, time, soil and water. Does it take 1,500
gallons of water to make one gallon of ethanol? By how much does it reduce your gas mileage?
20-25%? Latest figures indicate it costs $1.29 to make a dollars worth of ethanol in the United
States. This isn’t true in Brazil where it’s efficiently made from sugar cane.
A Cornell University study found that corn ethanol takes up to 40% more energy to produce than
it provides as fuel. Can ethanol efficiently be refined from cellulous? The health of the
Chesapeake Bay is precarious. Scientists think the demand for ethanol will cause more corn to
be grown in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. This runoff will contain more nitrogen further
weakening the ecosystem of the bay. Think about the dead zone in the Gulf.
NEXT WEEK:
Natural boundaries – Products of many states – Time zones
Unique “Y” bridge in Zanesville, OH
Cumberland, Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers
New York and California have reciprocating teams
29
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
October 19, 2008 - Week #7
1- Chicago
2- Buffalo. Guess you say the Chargers are “winging it” going to Buffalo.
3- New York, Florida, Missouri
4- Denver Broncos
5- Cincinnati.
6. OH, IN, IN, WV, KY
7. A famous “Y” bridge is there. One place in the world where you can cross a bridge and still be on the
same side of the river. A place where you can go to the middle of the bridge and turn left.
8. The Nashville(TN) Titans could sail to their game by cruising up the Cumberland River to
confluence with the Tennessee River then on to the Ohio River. The Titans would then sail on to
Cairo, IL, at the confluence with the Mississippi River then to the Missouri River north of St. Louis.
Note: The Cumberland does flow to the Ohio, too, but ships go from Barkley Lake(Cumberland
River) to Kentucky Lake(Tennessee River) through a canal three miles from Kentucky Dam.
www.kentuckylake.com/usace.htm Look at Kids’ Corner for teacher and student information.
9. New York & California. San Francisco going to play the NY Giants, and NY Jets going to Oakland.
10. Seattle Seahawks visiting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
11.
__6__ Arkansas
__2__ Florida
__5__ Idaho
__7__ Kansas
__3__ Mississippi
__1__ Washington
__4__ Wyoming
1. apples
2. citrus
3. catfish
4. coal
5. potatoes
6. rice
7. wheat
SGS
12. 6:30
13. 7:15
14. 10:00 a.m.
Saturday, October 18th, is BRIDGE DAY when hundreds of parachute jumpers jump off the 876-foot New
River Gorge Bridge near Fayetteville, WV. Are there any pictures in Sunday’s newspaper? See the
back of a West Virginia quarter.
October 23rd is the day the swallows depart Mission San Juan Capistrano, but you never hear about the
Departure because no song was written about it.
Is reading a ruler, multiplying and dividing fractions part of your curriculum? If so, go to Week #16, page
51 and look at the suggestion for calculating mileage between cities. You may want to do some of this
math practice and working with fractions long before you get to Week #16.
NEXT WEEK:
Latitude and longitude - Ft. Sumter in South Carolina
Cruising from Seattle to San Francisco
Redwood Empire in northwestern California
Crater Lake and the caldera within
Greenwich Meridian in London, England
Corn Belt - Appalachian Trail
Booker T. Washington
www.tuskegee.edu
USS Constitution A.K.A. “Old Ironsides”
30
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
October 26, 2008 - Week #8
1- Oakland Raiders, Seattle Seahawks
2. Where a river flows into a bay to mix with ocean water. * SGS
See: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine “Chesapeake Bay--Hanging in the Balance”, June
1993, pages 2-35. The bay is losing oxygen & aquatic life. The algae Karlodinium micrum is
increasing. Look for reports from the EPA and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
See: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Our Coasts in Crisis”, July 2006, pages 60-87.
This articles is about the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts, and estuarine poor conditions.
3-
Phoenix(AZ) Cardinals
Kansas City Chiefs
Cleveland Browns
over Oklahoma City, OK
over Springfield, IL
over Charleston, WV
4. Buffalo Bills
5. Civil War began
6. Cruising out of Elliott Bay, across the Puget Sound, through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, south on
the Pacific Ocean, through the Golden Gate Strait, and into San Francisco Bay. On average,
24 people commit suicide on the Golden Gate Bridge each year. Should suicide barriers be
installed at a cost of $25 - $50 million? Bridge authorities will decide in late 2008.
7. Redwood Empire Redwood trees can grow 350 ft. tall and be 2,000 years old. SGS
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER, “Into the Garden of the Giants”, July 2005, page 42. *
8. At 1,932 ft., it is the deepest lake in the United States. Wizard Island in Crater Lake is an extinct
volcano, too. SGS
9. Caldera. NAT’L GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER, “Oregon’s Crater Lake”, Jan/Feb 2005 pages 53-56.
The Okmok Caldera on a remote Alaskan island erupted on July 12, 2008, just hours after the
Alaska Volcano Center detected small seismic tremors.
10. Boston
11. San Diego near 117 W. longitude. New Orleans is near 30 degrees N. lat. and 90 degrees W. long.
12. 0 or zero degrees long., or the prime meridian. Greenwich is a city that is a suburb of London. **
13. Salem, OR
14- 2:00
SGS
15- 10:00 a.m. Remember, Phoenix never goes on DST, so their time is the same as if the were in the
Pacific Time Zone. That’s why Phoenix is starred on the time zone map.
16. Oakland Raiders. By this date there should a strong indication of how the Midwest summer floods
impacted the corn harvest. What economic news has been reported in your newspaper? **
17. Appalachian Mountains. Tell the students the Appalachians form the eastern Continental Divide,
but no questions will ever be asked about it. A sign near mile-marker 54 on I-26 near
Hendersonville, NC, advises that you are crossing the Eastern Continental Divide at 2,130 ft.
The Blue Ridge Folklife Festival is going on in Ferrum, VA. Check out about folk life in the
Appalachians at: www.blueridgeinstitute.org
18. Springer Mountain, GA, to Mount Katahdin, ME. Have a couple of students use some yarn to
mark the trail on a map from Springer Mountain, GA; Fontana Dam, NC; Damascus, VA;
continued
31
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
October 26, 2008 - Week #8
Pearisburg, VA; Waynesboro, VA; Harpers Ferry, WV; Wind Gap, PA; Danbury, CT; Great
Barrington, MA; Hanover, NH; Monson, ME; Mount Katahdin, ME.
SGS
www.appalachiantrail.org. Many websites about the “AT”. See www.museumofappalachia.com
19. Booker T. Washington was the most influential black leader and educator of his time. He was the
founder and head of the Tuskegee Institute. Know anything about the Tuskegee Airmen? ***
20. CA, NV, UT, CO, NE, IA, IL, IN, OH, WV, PA, MD
21. Boston(N.E.) Patriots. How many of you BOSTON HERALD students have been on “Old Ironsides”?
Have any HERALD students peddled on the Minuteman Bikeway?
22. Nashville(TN) Titans. The first words Minnie Pearl would say when she came on stage at the Grand
Ole Opry was, “How--- deeeeee.” Minnie Pearl died in 1996.
* Last May, forest fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains destroyed redwood trees that were centuries old.
Many fires in Northern California were the result of one of the driest springs on record. This just
“adds fuel to the fire” debating as whether they should be growing rice in this part of California.
** On September 25, 1676, Greenwich Mean Time became the standard for England. On November 1,
1884, a 25 nation meeting in Washington, D.C. made it the standard for the world. You might
want to use this as an opportunity to inform the students that a.m. is an abbreviation for ante
meridian, and p.m. means post meridian as measured from the Greenwich Meridian or prime
meridian. Greenwich time is sometime called zulu time. It is not at morning & past morning.
Parallel is a synonym for latitude. Memory hint: The first syllable of latitude sounds the same as
ladder. And rungs of a ladder are--parallel. Lines of longitude are also called meridians, as in the
Greenwich Meridian which is the prime meridian from where all time is measured.
*** The rains and flood in the Midwest in June of 2008, destroyed crops in about five million acres of
farmland, or an area about the size of New Jersey. This shortage propelled corn past $7.00 a
bushel on the futures market on June 24, 2008.
**** Mr. Washington gave us great words to live by. "I believe that any man's life will be filled with
constant and unexpected encouragement, if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day
and as nearly as possible reaching the high-water mark of pure and useful living."
The half-way point of the season is upon us. Which quarterback is leading the NFL in passing accuracy?
Is anyone matching or surpassing these statistics at this time? Check periodically during the rest of
the season to see which QB might be eclipsing these records.
Ken Anderson
Sammy Baugh
Steve Young
NEXT WEEK:
Cincinnati Bengals
1982
Washington Redskins 1945
San Francisco 49ers 1994
218-309
128-182
324-461
70.55%
70.33%
70.28%
Erie Canal - Interstate highways - First oil well at Titusville, PA
St. Louis NFL team moved to Phoenix. Cleveland team moved to Baltimore.
Statue of Liberty dedicated in 1886 - Mammoth Cave in Kentucky
Cereal grain producing states
Be a horologist next Saturday with DST ending
Have the boys be careful. November 1st is Sadie Hawkins Day.
32
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 2, 2008 - Week #9
1. NY Jets. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Erie Canal--Link to Our Past”, November 1990,
pages 39-65. “I’ve got a mule, her name is Sal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal. . .” SGS
www.songsforteaching.com/folk/eriecanal.htm
From July 5, to July 12, 2008, 500 bicyclists from 35 states took part in the 10th annual “Cycling
the Erie Canal” ride, going the 400 miles from Buffalo to Albany.
2- Indianapolis
3- New York
4- Dallas Cowboys
5. Chicago Cardinals moved to St. Louis in 1960, and the St. Louis (football) Cardinals became the
Phoenix(AZ) Cardinals in 1988.
Phoenix(AZ) is going back to St. Louis.
Cleveland Browns became the Baltimore Ravens in 1996. Baltimore is going back to Cleveland. *
6. Edward L. Drake hit the first oil well in the United States in Titusville. SGS
Do you BEAVER COUNTY TIMES students get to Titusville often?
7. Quaker State and Pennzoil. Wonder where Texaco had its start? On May 27, 1889, the South Penn
Oil Co. was founded, and this later became the Pennzoil Co. Quaker State moved from Oil City,
PA, to Irving, TX, in 1995. They then merged with Pennzoil in 1998, and moved headquarters to
Houston, TX. On March 26, 2002, it was announced that Shell Oil would purchase PennzoilQuaker State for $1.8 billion. Most of the Texaco stations in Texas have become Shell stations.
8. I-94. Corn, wheat, oats, rice, barley.
w w w . k e l l o g g s c e r e a l c i t y u s a . o r g SGS
The word cereal is from Cerealia, the name of ancient Roman ceremonies that
honored Ceres, the goddess of grain.
9.
The leading ____corn_______
The leading ____wheat______
The leading ____rice________
The leading ____oats_______
The leading ____barley_____
producing state is ___Iowa_________.
producing state is ___Kansas_______.
producing state is ___Arkansas_____.
producing state is ___Wisconsin_____.
producing state is ___Alaska, but ND in the 48 states.
Hope the students enjoy the cereal-character
Have the students talk to mom and dad, or to the grocer. With so much corn going into ethanol
production, by what percentage has the price of your cereal increased in the last 6-12 months and how
much smaller have they made the cereal boxes? Anyone reporting on the pros & cons of ethanol?
10. Miami Dolphins
11. Mammoth Cave National Park. Report anyone? It is unique because it is the longest recorded cave
system in the world. Might be a whole geography/geology lesson on discussing how caves are
formed. www.nps.gov/maca or www.mammoth.cave.national-park.com
Do the students know the difference between stalactites and stalagmites? What is your memory
trick for this? Stalagmites grow up mighty from the floor. Stalactites hang tight from the ceiling.
12. Horology is the science of measuring time and making clocks. You are in charge of setting the
continued
33
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 2, 2008 - Week #9
clocks back one hour. Standard time will return. Phoenix will be right with its time zones now.
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil
Europe has horology stores; in the United States we have jewelry stores/shops.
* The Browns team of today came into the NFL in 1999. FYI: The Baltimore Colts became the
Indianapolis Colts in 1884. Anyone know about the stealth move in the middle of the night?
Don’t even want to discuss the Oakland Raiders becoming the Los Angeles Raiders becoming
the Oakland Raiders again.
The Houston Oilers became the Tennessee Oilers in 1997, and they played in Memphis. In
1999, they became the Tennessee Titans playing in Nashville.
November 2, 1889, is the day North Dakota and South Dakota were admitted to the United States. For
students in Fargo and Grand Forks, if you were on the capitol steps in Baton Rouge, on which
step would you be standing? The 39th step.
NEXT WEEK:
How Great Bend, KS, was named
Mouth of Arkansas River
Santa Fe Trail
Gold in North Carolina and California
Mt. Mitchell in NC
“Life” of Paul Bunyan for English and literature teachers
Mt. Whitney and Death Valley
Sonoran(AZ) and Mojave(CA) deserts
Latitude and longitude exercise you might want to use
Will Rogers born in Oklahoma
The distance between latitude lines is always 68.9 miles. The distance between longitude lines varies
depending on the latitude. At the Equator(0 degrees latitude), longitude lines are 69.2 miles
apart. At 45 degree latitude, lines of longitude are 48.8 miles apart, and at 85 degrees latitude,
longitude lines are 6.1 miles apart.
If interested, see: www.confluence.org Students might enjoy looking at pictures of the
confluence of latitude and longitude lines at different places in their home state
34
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Enjoy this cereal character quiz!
1. Toucan Sam
____ a. Lucky Charms
2. Dig ‘em
____ b. Cocoa Puffs
3. Snap! Crackle! & Pop!
____ c. Frosted Flakes
4. The Rabbit
____ d. Smacks
5. L.C. Leprechaun
____ e. Cookie Crisp
6. Tony the Tiger
____ f. Rice Krispies
7. Cornelius the Rooster
____ g. Trix
8. The Baker
____ h. Honey Nut Cherrios
9. Sonny,--Cuckoo Bird
____ I. Corn Flakes
10. The Cookie Hound
____ j. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
11. BuzzBee
____ k. Froot Loops
12. Sugar Bear
____ l. Golden Crisp
___________________________________________________________________________________
Fold Here To Hide Answers
1-k, 2-d, 3-f, 4-g, 5-a, 6-c, 7-I, 8-j, 9-b, 10-e, 11-h, 12-L
35
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 9, 2008 - Week #10
1- Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Boston, Phoenix
2-
Denver Broncos
NY Giants
New Orleans Saints
Buffalo Bills
near
over
near
over
Lincoln, NE
Trenton, NJ
Montgomery, AL
Albany, NY
3. Arkansas River SGS
4. It’s on a great bend in the Arkansas River.
5. Kansas City Chiefs. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Along the Santa Fe Trail”, March 1991,
pages 98 - 123.
6. Charlotte(CAR) Panthers * playing the Oakland Raiders. Maybe conflicting stories, but the cry,
“There’s gold in them thar hills.” was said in North Carolina to encourage the miners to stay and
not run off to California.
7. Jacksonville Jaguars
8. Atlanta Falcons
9. Many answers. Have English, reading, literature teachers and parents help.
www.paulbunyancamp.org Do you LEADER-TELEGRAM students get to the camp often?
10. Teacher, you may hear that Death Valley is:
SGS
A. 282 feet below sea level, lowest point in Western Hemisphere.
B. Highest temperature ever recorded in United States of 134 degrees on July 10, 1913.
Temperatures of 125 degrees are common. Death Valley is in the rain shadow of the
Panamint Range. The most rainfall ever received was 4.6 inches in 1941, and there
was no rainfall in 1929 and 1953.
C. Borax discovered here in 1873. Are students aware of the 20-mule teams?
D. Death Valley is a national monument.
See: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER-issue of Sept./Oct. 1998.
Mt. Whitney, at 14,494 feet above sea level, and Death Valley at 282 feet below sea level,
are the highest and lowest points in the 48 states; and they are only about 80 miles apart.
Mt. McKinley in Alaska is the highest point in the U.S. at 20,320 ft.
If you care--Death Valley is a rift valley formed by a geological feature called a graben. A graben
is a down-dropped block of the earth crust which forms when pressure is released on the faults
on either side of the block.
11. Mojave Desert of California and the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. SGS
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Death Valley”, November 2007, pages 76-95
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Lush Life in the Sonoran Desert”, September 2006,
pages 124-148.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine of September 1994 is about the Sonoran Desert.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine of May 1996 is about the Mojave Desert.
12. Green Bay Packers
13. St. Louis Rams
continued
36
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 9, 2008 - Week #10
14- WA, ID, MT, WY, CO, NE, KS, OK, MO, AR, MS, AL, FL
15. Oklahoma. Mr. Rogers said, “My ancestors didn’t come on the Mayflower, but they met the boat.”
16. A vexillologist is a person who studies the science and history of flags, so you would be studying and
trying to learn about the history of our flag. Something you might learn. Myth has it that Betsy
Ross sewed our first flag, but she didn’t. Francis Hopkinson probably designed the first flag.
The 929.9 shelf is the flag section in the library.
“God Bless American” was written especially for Kate Smith. She first sang it on Nov. 11, 1938.
* There was a Federal Mint in Charlotte from 1837 to 1913, when it was a gold mining center. How did
the 49ers get their name? Coincidence that the Panthers will fly over Knoxville, TN, named after
General Frank Knox for whom Ft. Knox is named, where most of the nation’s gold is kept.
NEXT WEEK:
Cape Cod Canal is a shortcut to Boston
Calaveras County in California
Butterfield Stagecoach Line
Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River
Robert Fulton and the Clermont on the Hudson River. Good American history.
Monument Circle in Indianapolis to honor Veterans’ Day
Badlands of South Dakota
Honoring Veterans’ Day---Honoring WWII
ww w. d d a ym u s e u m . o r g
w w w. d d a y. o r g
ww w. w wI I m e m or i a l . c om
Becoming a little bit of a vexillologist
Diamonds in Arkansas and are igneous
Big Dam Bridge in Little Rock, AR
Stuttgart, AR, is “Duck Hunting Capital of the United States”
Branson, MO, in the Ozarks or the Ozark Plateau
Math: The Tennessee Titans have sold out for 103 consecutive games. On Saturday morning, July 12th,
tickets went on sale for the eight regular-season home games, and they sold out in 32 minutes.
It isn’t so, but let us assume that all 69,143 seats were available on July 12th. The tickets were
selling at an average rate of how many per minute? Answer: 2,161 per minute.
NIE students with the OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, THE FORUM in Fargo, ND, and the GRAND FORKS
HERALD should do some research and tell us about the “battle” being waged for the preservation and/or
eradication of the black-footed ferret in South Dakota and neighboring areas. Biologists are trying to
save the ferret, but a bacterial plague carried by fleas on prairie dogs is killing them. The main food
source for a ferret is prairie dog meat, and ranchers are trying to eradicate prairie dogs.
Supply your NIE coordinator with the latest developments and the word will be passed along to this
author.
More happenings in South Dakota. In July 2008, the 57th mammoth was discovered in Hot Springs, SD.
See: www.mammothsite.com. Not to be out done, Waco, TX, may have the world’s largest mammoth
tusk and bone concentration. See: www.wacomammoth.org. Google Mammoth Site for lots of info.
37
Latitude and Longitude Exercise
ANSWER KEY
Note: Students might enjoy working with www.hometownlocator.com
LATITUDE
LONGITUDE
Atlanta
33 degrees
45' N = 34
84 degrees
23' W = 84
Baltimore
39
"
17' N = 39
76
"
36' W = 77
Boston(N.E.)
42
"
21' N = 42
71
"
04' W = 71
Buffalo
42
"
53' N = 43
78
"
53' W = 79
Charlotte(CAR)
35
"
13' N = 35
80
"
50' W = 81
Chicago
41
"
53' N = 42
87
"
38' W = 88
Cincinnati
39
"
06' N = 39
84
"
31' W = 85
Cleveland
41
“
29’ N = 41
81
“
41’ W = 82
Dallas
32
"
47' N = 33
96
"
49' W = 97
Denver
39
"
44' N = 40
104
"
59' W = 105
Detroit
42
"
20' N = 42
83
"
03' W = 83
Green Bay
44
"
31' N = 45
88
"
00' W = 88
Houston
29
“
45’ N = 30
95
“
21’ W = 95
Indianapolis
39
"
46' N = 40
86
"
09' W = 86
Jacksonville
30
"
19' N = 30
81
"
39' W = 82
Kansas City
39
"
03' N = 39
94
"
30' W = 95
Miami
24
"
47' N = 25
80
"
11' W = 80
Minneapolis(MN)
44
“
58’ N = 45
93
“
15’ W = 93
Nashville(TN)
36
“
09’ N = 36
86
“
46’ W
New Orleans
29
"
58' N = 30
90
"
04' W = 90
New York
40
"
43' N = 41
74
"
00' W = 74
Oakland
37
"
48' N = 38
122
"
15' W = 122
Philadelphia
39
"
57' N = 40
75
"
09' W = 75
Phoenix(AZ)
33
"
27' N = 33
112
“
04' W = 112
Pittsburgh
40
"
26' N = 40
79
"
59' W = 80
St. Louis
38
"
37' N = 39
90
"
12' W = 90
San Diego
32
"
43' N = 33
117
"
09' W = 117
San Francisco
37
"
47' N = 38
122
"
25' W = 122
Seattle
47
"
36' N = 48
122
"
20' W = 122
Tampa
27
"
57' N = 28
82
"
27' W = 82
Washington
38
"
55' N = 39
77
"
00' W = 77
38
= 87
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 16, 2008 - Week #11
1. San Francisco, and St. Louis will fly in near Calaveras County.
2- Atlanta
3- NY Jets, Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles
4- Mississippi River & Missouri River. Any KC STAR students going to the game?
SGS
5- Buffalo
6. Cape Cod Canal. Have any of THE ENTERPRISE students in Brockton seen the canal?
7. Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins
8. St. Louis Rams vs. San Francisco 49ers. A historical marker in front of the Daisy Airgun Museum in
Rogers, AR, recounts that Rogers was a changing station for the teams of horses on the
Butterfield Stagecoach route. Did you TIMES RECORD students know the stage came through
Fort Smith?
9. Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt. However, it was a political cartoonist who captured the moment and
made the Teddy Bear popular. President Roosevelt could not kill a bear cub when he was
hunting in Mississippi. Clifford Berryman, a political cartoonist, witnessed the incident and drew
the president along side the cub, and this was the beginning of the craze.
10. Badlands are a barren region with an eroded surface marked by steep hills and deep gullies. (Accept
very general answers as long as students understand it is a wasteland as far as agriculture is
concerned.) Know the types of erosion: Water, wind, ice and gravity are the forms of erosion.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Reefs in a Prairie Sea”, April 2004, pages 78-97. In this
same issue is a great map on bird migration(you students in McAllen know about that), chasing
tornadoes, and sand hill cranes along the Platte(you students in Omaha know about this.)
11. Indianapolis, IN. Monument Circle is why Indianapolis is called “Circle City”.
12. Hudson River. Clermont. Stony Brook University reported in July 2008, that the mercury level in the
Hudson River has decreased over the past three decades. The fish tested included striped bass,
yellow perch, carp and bass.
13. Minneapolis(MN) Vikings
14. Meridian Street would run north & south, but measure distances east & west. SGS
15. Minneapolis(MN) Vikings vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
16. You can dig for diamonds. Murfreesboro is where the only public mine in the world is found. *
Diamonds are igneous. Diamonds found in Africa and Arkansas come from a rock called
peridotite, and this type of rock is igneous. On March 10, 2007, 8-year-old twins from Houston,
TX, found a 2 1/2 carat diamond at Crater of Diamonds State Park.
17- Little Rock, AR
18- It is a pedestrian and bicycle bridge across the Arkansas River claiming to be the longest bridge in
the world serving this sole recreational purpose. www.bigdambridge.com/
19. Duck Hunting Capital
Look at the back of an Arkansas quarter. www.stuttgartarkansas.com
20. Ozarks a.k.a. Interior Uplands and the Ozark Plateau. Branson is the C&W entertainment capital of
the nation now. Nashville, TN, is called “Music City” but Branson is where the performers are.
www.Branson.com **
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Ozarks Harmony”, April 1998, pages 76-99.
continued
39
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 16, 2008 - Week #11
21- _2_ Arkansas, _1_ Colorado, _5_ Illinois, _4_ Mississippi, _3_ Missouri, _6_ Ohio
22- MN, IA, IL, IN, KY, TN, AL, GA, FL
23. Arkansas River
24. TBD. Wisconsin won the game 41 – 34, in 2007,
* About 85,000 tourists a year come to Crater of Diamonds State Park to scrounge for the stones, and
2006 was the 100th anniversary of the finding of the first diamond there. About 20% of the
diamonds are of gem quality. What design do you see on the Arkansas state flag? What do you
see on the back of the Arkansas quarter? In October 2007, a 2.28 and a 3.92 caret diamonds
were found. The 3.92 diamond was found by a couple from Appleton, WI.
It is the world's only public site where anybody can lay down $4.50 and sift the soil for diamonds.
During the peak summer season, an average of seven diamonds are found at the park every day.
Other semi-precious gemstones also can be found among them amethyst, opal, quartz and
jasper. www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com
See: “ZipUSA: Murfreesboro, AR, U-Dig Diamonds”,
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, March 2002, Page 118
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Diamonds: The Real Story”, March 2002, Pages 2-35.
How diamonds are mined in Africa and eventually get to your jewelry shop through a secretive
network. These precious gems carry a huge cost in human suffering.
** Demographers in the Census Bureau now use the term “micropolitan” to describe the 573 cities in
the U.S. like Branson, a city between 10,000 and 49,999. Too urban to be call rural, too rural to
be called urban. Have you heard the term exurbs? Means on beyond the suburbs. Exurbs tend
to be small, affluent areas. Someone call them Mayberrys with Blackberries. Not the
blackberries you eat. Micropolitan areas are somewhere between rural and exurbs. Who knows
where to draw the line? SGS
NEXT WEEK:
Route 66 from Chicago to St. Louis - Flying near Gettysburg, PA
Kudzu vines Carpet (Georgia) & furniture (North Carolina)
World War II history. USS Midway USS Indianapolis
Interstate highways - A “gumbo” jet will get you to New Orleans
Cape Hatteras and Outer Banks of North Carolina, plus lots of information
for the American history teacher
Continental Shelf and Gulf Stream
Helium producing region of the United States. Learn about the helium
monument and history in Amarillo at: www.dhdc.org/helium.html
Rain shadow of mountains. A good science lesson.
Kentucky Lake, Lake Barkley and the Tennessee Valley Authority
40
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 23, 2008 - Week #12
Be sure to ask and/or discuss who won the Minnesota—Wisconsin game. Who has the axe?
1- Cincinnati Bengals, Philadelphia Eagles, Charlotte(CAR) Panthers, Chicago Bears
2- Pittsburgh. Not too early to celebrate. On Nov. 25th, the city of Pittsburgh will be 250 years old.
Are any BEAVER COUNTY TIMES students going down to help celebrate?
3- Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
4. Chicago Bears. People from around the world are interested in the nostalgia of Route 66.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Romancing the Road”, September 1997, pages 34-51. *
The Midway Cafe in Adrian, TX, is exactly 1,139 miles from Chicago and Los Angeles.
5. NY Jets. Hanover, PA, is the Snack Food Capital of the United States **
6. Charlotte(CAR) Panthers vs. Atlanta Falcons. A study reported in May of 2005 that the use of
kudzu pills may curb binge drinking. Glad they found kudzu useful for something. This is an
invasive species from Japan that was brought here with good intentions that went wrong.
Invasive species speak of a large, insidious phenomenon that is obliterating cultures and
decimating natural ecosystems on a global scale----homogenization. Transportation of invasive
species in the form of seeds, pollen and live animals has become one of the most critical threats
to global biodiversity.
7. Foot of the mountain
SGS
8- I-85 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “North Carolina’s Piedmont: On a Fast Break”,
March 1995, pages 114-138.
9. Charlotte(CAR) Panthers vs. Atlanta Falcons. Accept Georgia & North Carolina.
Most of the carpet in the U.S. is made in a 50 mile radius of Dalton, GA. Mother probably knows
that North Carolina is the leading furniture manufacturing state in the nation. SGS
10. The USS Midway is what type of ship? Aircraft carrier
The USS Indianapolis was what kind of ship? Cruiser or heavy cruiser ***
11- Green Bay Packers. Eating sausage and listening/dancing to Cajun music.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Remembering the Acadians”, July 2005.
12- I-95. It is believed that I-95 is the busiest Interstate in the United States. The Santa Monica Freeway
(I - 10) is the busiest small stretch of Interstate in the U.S., but over all, honors go to I - 95. ****
13- I-75. Cincinnati students, help the Bucs if they stop to “Enquire”. You Blade students in Toledo,
keep the Bucs on the correct road. Don’t let them make any sharp turns. Hope all you
ENQUIRER students driving I-75 are keeping your eyes on YouBert.
14- I-55
15- Boston(N.E.) Patriots
16. Cape Hatteras is part of the Outer Banks that extend for 30 miles from the North Carolina shore.
These shoals and chain of islands are very dangerous to ships. Lighthouses and other offshore
lights warn ships away. This is part of Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Dangerous winds,
treacherous currents, shallow waters have all combined to cause more than 500 ships to sink
here. The ironclad, the Monitor, sank somewhere off Hatteras. A native of the Outer Banks said,
continued
41
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 23, 2008 - Week #12
"The sea at Hatteras is enigmatic and sometimes seemingly sorcerous, a place where winds and
currents stir the ghosts of time." Discuss the Outer Banks being a great vacation destination.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, “Cape Hatteras Lighthouse Makes Tracks”, May 2000, page 98
Did you get to the Outer Banks this year, Mr. Eck?
17. The Monitor. Is it deja vu or a retroship? ***** They brought the Monitor’s turret to the surface on
August 5, 2002. This is a must see site for all history teachers.
www.monitor.noaa.gov
www.history.navy.mil/index.html http://home.att.net/~iron.clad/2/legacy_of_the_uss_monitor.htm
18. Continental Shelf and Gulf Stream. The warm Gulf Stream makes it possible for palm trees to grow
on the southwest coast of England. The palms are small, but they are there. Family discussionClass discussion, with the price of gasoline should we allow drilling for oil along the outer
Continental Shelf? The outcome of the recent election may have a bearing on this question. SGS
19. The panhandles of TX & OK, and the corners of KS, NM, & CO. Helium balloons are now being used
to lift heavy loads. In addition to the number of cubic feet to fill a balloon, have students listen or
somehow find out about how expensive it has become to fill a balloon. SGS
20.
7_ Arkansas, 2_ Delaware, 1_ Hudson, 4_ Illinois, 5_ Mississippi, 6_ Missouri, 3_ Ohio, 8_ Rio G.
21. As clouds rise and cool to get over the Cascades, they drop their moisture on the west side. The
Great Plains are divided into the short grass prairie to the west and the wetter tall grass prairie to
the east. Things are drier just east of a mountain because of the rain shadow. ****** SGS
You students in Kansas know about the Tall Grass Prairie around Emporia. Any of you KC STAR
students in Overland Park ever play in Tallgrass Creek?
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Tallgrass Prairie”, April 2007, pages 120- 141
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “The American Prairie--Roots of the Sky”, October 1993,
pages 90-117. Great map of grasslands on page 100. www.nps.gov/tapr is tallgrass prairie.
SPOKESMAN-REVIEW students, how much devastation had the pine beetle done to your trees?
22. This land is between what lakes? Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley
The Tennessee River was dammed to form Kentucky Lake.
The Cumberland River was dammed to form Lake Barkley. Point out that at this point these
rivers flow north, different than most rivers of the United States.
23. Tennessee Valley Authority. A National Geography Bee question. On July 22, 2008, it was
announced the Nissan Corp. is working with the seven(7) states served by the TVA to try and
spur the development of the electric car. The TVA produces a lot of electricity. SGS
* Have two or three students search the websites for Route 66 and compile a list of a few interesting,
educational or quirky places along Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles. For example, the
Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ
** Sept. 26, 2008, the Gettysburg Cyclorama reopened after a 5-year restoration. www.npa.gov/gett
*** History teachers, let your imagination run wild with learning potential from these sites. The USS
Indianapolis had delivered the first components of the atomic bomb before being sunk by the
Japanese.
continued
42
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 23, 2008 - Week #12
**** There are about 46,726 miles of interstate highway in the United States. They are America's
circulatory system, the modern Main Street. How do you remember how mile-markers count on
Interstate highways? The sun comes UP in the east and goes DOWN in the west. Markers count
mileage UP as you travel east, and DOWN as you travel west. On a map, north is always UP and
south is always DOWN. Mile-markers count UP as you travel north, & DOWN as you go south.
***** On July 4, 2000, the Navy announced the development of a new generation of destroyers, the
DD-21. Thirty-two are to be built, and the first three are to be delivered in 2010. “In appearance,
it hearkens back to the USS Monitor--the ironclad ‘cheesebox on a raft’ of the Civil War.” History
teachers--see NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, July 2002, pages 82-101, on raising the
H.L. Hunley,(Secret Weapon of the Confederacy), a submarine used during the Civil War.
www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0207
Speaking of submarines, you PROVIDENCE JOURNAL students let Ms. Gunther-Rosenburg
know the latest on raising the 282-foot floating Russian Sub Museum that sank in your river in
2007. In July 2008, divers said they had safety concerns and some additional equipment needed
to be installed. If you inform Ms. Gunther-Rosenburg, she will tell all Pigskin Geography people.
****** The Olympic Mountains, on the western peninsula of Washington, are not very high, but they rise
almost from the water’s edge and intercept moisture-rich air masses that move in from the
Pacific. As the air is forced over the mountains, it cools and releases moisture in the form of rain
or snow in a process called adiabatic cooling. The mountains wring precipitation out of the air so
effectively that areas on the northeast corner of the peninsula experience a rain shadow and get
very little rain. The town of Sequim gets only 17 inches a year. Twelve miles from Forks on the
western side of the peninsula is the Hoh Rain Forest, and this rain forest receives 140 inches of
rainfall a year. Sequim and Forks are about 70 miles apart.
The Great Plains has short grass, mid-grass and tall grass prairies. Climatologists usually
consider the line of 100 degrees W. longitude to be the mid-point between the short grass to the
west and the tall grass to the east. Death Valley is in a rain shadow, too.
On November 18th, Mickey Mouse had his 80th birthday
NEXT WEEK:
“Filadelphia” at “Foenix”. An ornithologist is a bird lover
State capitals named after presidents
Madison, WI, is on an isthmus
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad – Chesapeake & Ohio Canal
Samuel Clemens, A.K.A., Mark Twain and the Mississippi River
Charles Schulz born in Minneapolis, MN
Neil Armstrong born in Wapakoneta, OH
Atchafalaya Swamp in Louisiana
Sonoran Desert of Arizona and Imperial Valley of California
Hells Canyon carved by the Snake River on the Oregon-Idaho border
43
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 30, 2008 - Week #13
Last week we discussed Lake Barkley, and Monday, November 24th, is Alben W. Barkley’s birthday. He
was born in 1877, and became the 35th vice-president of the United States.
1- Ohio, Texas, New York, California
2- “Filadelphia” at “Foenix” Yes, a bird lover would want to Eagles & Cardinals play.
3- Phoenix(AZ) Cardinals
San Francisco 49ers
Denver Broncos
over Jefferson City, MO
over Madison, WI
over Lincoln, NE
4. Jackson, MS. If you want to get technical, Jackson was named after General Jackson before he
became president.
5. A narrow strip of land surrounded by water on two sides.
6. Lake Mendota and Lake Monona
SGS
Think Panama.
7. Cumberland, MD. www.nps.gov/choh How many steps into American history do you want to take?
The Baltimore & Ohio was the first railroad in America. Sept. 18, 1830, is the day the horse
outran the “Iron Horse”, the Tom Thumb. See: www.borail.org/. Then the Cumberland Road
which became the National Road, etc. The C&O Canal was needed for competition with the Erie
Canal for markets in the West. The Erie Canal was completed in 1825.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “America’s First Highway”, March 1998, pages 82 - 99.
You students in Toledo and Cincinnati know about the Miami-Erie Canal.
8. Minneapolis, St. Louis
9. Minneapolis(MN) Vikings. I hope they have the “Pillsbury Doughboy” there, too.
10. Neil Armstrong
11. Atchafalaya Basin/Swamp * Recheck the websites on page 27 related to the Louisiana coast. SGS
12. Sonoran Desert of Arizona and Imperial Valley ** NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazines of
September 1994 and October 2000, have articles about the Sonoran Desert. SGS
Talk to your produce man about what we get from the Imperial Valley.
13. Hells Canyon or Grand Canyon of the Snake River is 40 miles long and from 7,900 to 8,032 feet
deep. If you dropped a rock from the top it would take a half minute for it to hit the river. Try to
get the students to realize this is a mile and a half deep. The length of 26 football fields.
www.fs.fed.us/r6/w-w/hcnra.htm or www.nps.gov/rivers/snake.html
* The Atchafalaya basin is the largest river-basin swamp in North America. Study the basin with the
northern border of I-10 between Baton Rouge and Lafayette running down to the Gulf of Mexico.
It is in trouble of silting because levees have been built 15 miles apart north and south, and oil
companies have built a series of east-west pipeline canals. All this excavation halted the natural
north-south flow of water which replenishes the marshes. Our wetlands are in trouble. We are
losing about 80,000 acres per year, or the area of a football field every nine(9) minutes. Ducks
Unlimited is an organization working to save our wetlands.
continued
44
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
November 30, 2008 - Week #13
** Much of the iceberg lettuce you will eat this winter comes from the Imperial Valley and the Gila River
around Yuma, AZ. Carrots, too. The Imperial Valley is irrigated by the Colorado. Too much
demand, too little water. Are you aware of the recent agreements between cities in CA & AZ, and
Imperial Valley farmers over rights to water from the Colorado River? Information on
www.doi.gov/water2025 www.r5.fs.fed.us/water_resources. Good site for students in California.
The Colorado River is in deep trouble. Teachers and students in Las Vegas and Grand Junction
should tell us more. They are experimenting with de-salting sea water in Yuma, AZ, and
Brownsville, TX, but it is not yet economical to do so. Time will tell. SGS
See: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “The Colorado: A River Drained Dry”, June 1991,
pages 4-34
NEXT WEEK:
A question on many Interstate highways
Capital cities along I-80 and the infamous Donner Pass
College World Series in Omaha, NE
Review of the Corn Belt – Review of spring & winter wheat
Free ice water in Wall, SD; & the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD
Who are the presidents on Mt. Rushmore?
Vidalia onions from Georgia
Vieux Carre of New Orleans and the Underground of Atlanta
San Andreas Fault - San Joaquin Valley
Mesabi Range for iron ore in Minnesota
Wolves or timber wolves in the North Woods of Minnesota
Eastern and western states bordering the Mississippi River
Population center of the United States
Niagara Falls
New Madrid in the “Bootheel” of Missouri
Earthquake in New Madrid created Reelfoot Lake in TN.
Boston is the city with the “Emerald Necklace”. Seattle is the “Emerald City”.
Red River of the North ND/MN border.
Red River on TX/OK border
In memory of Pearl Harbor
A long and detailed list of questions for next week. Please preview it carefully and
determine how many questions you want to assign.
Hope many of you OMAHA WORLD-HERALD students are planning on attending the Ethnic Holiday
Festival next week at the Durham Museum. www.dwhm.org
In July 2008, TRAVEL + LEISURE magazine reported on a poll showing the top 10 travel destinations of
their readers. The list is: 1) Bangkok, Thailand; 2) Buenos Aires, Argentina; 3) Cape Town, South Africa;
4) Sydney, Australia; 5) Florence, Italy; 6) Cuzco, Peru; 7) Rome, Italy; 8) New York City; 9) Istanbul,
Turkey; 10) San Francisco, CA.
Can students locate all these countries on a world map? Good project to have them do so.
Note: Bangkok was #3 in the 2007 poll. Florence was #1 in 2007, and Cuzco, Peru is a newcomer to
the list. www.travelandleisure.com
45
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 7, 2008 - Week #14
1- Nashville, Denver, Phoenix, Indianapolis
SGS
2-
Atlanta Falcons near
Montgomery, AL
Cleveland Browns near
Columbus, OH; & Frankfort, KY
Minneapolis(MN) Vikings near
St. Paul, MN; & Lansing, MI
Tampa Bay Buccaneers over
Columbia, SC
3- San Diego
4. Oakland on I - 5, Kansas City on I - _70, Boston(N.E.) on I - 90, Minneapolis(MN) on I - 94,
Cincinnati on I - 74, Philadelphia on I - 95, NY Jets on I - 80. Inform the students that I - 90,
running from Boston to Seattle is the longest Interstate in the nation. SGS
5. I – 80. Des Moines, IA; Lincoln, NE; Cheyenne, WY; Salt Lake City, UT; Sacramento, CA. Be sure
to stop at The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument over I-80 in Kearney, NE!! A lot of
pioneer history here!! www.archway.org
6. Donner Pass. Named from the Donner family and group that died here in a winter storm in 1846-47.
A short report anyone? It would be a gory report. The Donner/Reed party left Springfield, IL, on
October 28, 1846. Did all you STATE JOURNAL-REGISTER students know this?
7. OH, IN, IL, IA, NE. Review #14 on page 28. *
8. College World Series. Winner in 2008 was Fresno State, a real Cinderella team. FRESNO BEE
readers are still celebrating.
9. Ice water
10. Corn Palace. www.cornpalace.org
11. G. Washington, A. Lincoln, T. Jefferson, T. Roosevelt. SGS The presidents were given
a “facial” in July of 2005 to remove decades of damaging dirt, grime & lichens.
Washington = Liberty/Independence; Lincoln = Unity/Preservation; Jefferson =
Growth/Expansion; Roosevelt =Courage/bravery/conservation. www.nps.gov/moru
12. San Andreas Fault and San Joaquin Valley. **
13.
1. Castroville
2. Fallbrook
3. Fresno
4. Gilroy
5. Indio
6. Lompoc
7. Napa Valley
8. Oxnard
9. Richvale
10. Sacramento
11. Salinas
12. Stockton
13. Tulare County
14. Tulelake
15. Ventura County
16. Watsonville
17. Yuba City
SGS
_10__ almonds & pears
This website may help. www.cfaitc.org
__1__ artichokes
www.artichoke-festival.org
_12__ asparagus
www.asparagusfest.com
__2__ avocados
__5__ dates
__6__ flowers
__8__ fruit & vegetable seeds
__4__ garlic
www.gilroygarlicfestival.com
__7__ grapes
_13__ horseradish
_14__ lemon festival in September
_13__ “milk it for all it’s worth”
_17__ prunes
__3__ raisins
__9__ rice
www.mbsf.com
_11__ spinach
_16__ strawberries
continued
46
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 7, 2008 - Week #14
NOTE: You may not choose to do the above matching activity as students may care little about Calif.
If this is the case, you are encouraged to have your students do research and come up with the
same type of activity for cities within YOUR STATE. It doesn’t have to be about produce. Let it
be about whatever a city is noted for. Just an example of what you might do for Illinois.
1. Belleville
2. Bloomington
3. Carbondale
4. Chicago
5. Collinsville
6. Granite City
7. Moline
8. Peoria
_8_ Caterpillar
_2_ Insurance
_7_ John Deere Co.
_4_ John Hancock Building
_1_ Scott Air Force Base
_3_ Southern Illinois University
_6_ Steel mills
_5_ World’s largest catsup bottle
www.catsupbottle.com
14. Sweet Vidalia onions are an herb-vegetable belonging to the lily family. You students in Longmont
probably know about onions, too. Find out about the “1015” onion developed in Texas.
15. Atlanta Falcons vs. New Orleans Saints. Discuss the future of New Orleans with your students.
Seek opinions from the students’ parents. See: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Should
New Orleans Rebuild?”, August 2007, pages 32 – 67.
16. Chiefs over winter wheat, Patriots over spring wheat. See page 26 for review information. SGS
17. Mississippi River. The Mississippi drains 31 states and parts of Canada. SGS
18. Mesabi Range ***
19. Wolf or Timber wolf. The name of the NBA team in Minnesota is the Timberwolves. www.wolf.org
20. Eastern border—west side = MN, IA, MO, AR, LA
Western border—east side = WI, IL, KY, TN, MS
21. Houston Texans ****
22- Niagara Falls. A highway has been renamed, and many fans will be driving to the game on
Timothy J. Russert Memorial Blvd.
23. The “Bootheel” of Missouri
24. An earthquake with quakes that lasted to February 12, 1812. It is reported the Mississippi River ran
backwards, and this earthquake created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee. Madrid is pronounced
Mad’ rid. Not Ma drid’ as in Spain.
25. Boston is the city with the “Emerald Necklace” because of a string of parks around the city. Seattle is
the “Emerald City” as it is lush green from the frequent drizzles, but it only gets 37.07 inches of
annual rainfall. SGS
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Frederick Law Olmsted’s Passion for Parks”,
March 2005, pages 32 – 51
26. Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior. Want to have a student give a one or two
minute report on the purpose of the totem pole for the Indians in the great Northwest?
27- Red River
28- Red River of the North
29. Most rivers of the Great Plains flow in a somewhat southeasterly direction. Red River of the North
flows north. Anyone in Fargo ever float to Grand Forks? SGS
continued
47
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 7, 2008 - Week #14
30. Pearl Harbor
* Has anyone in class been keeping a list of the pros and cons of ethanol? Congress has mandated
that the automobile industry build more fuel efficient cars, and at the same time mandated the
United States use nine billion gallons of ethanol by 2009. This is a major paradox, we have to
build more fuel efficient car to be powered by less fuel efficient biofuel.
In July of 2008, a consortium of large companies formed the Alliance for Abundant Food and
Energy to promote the idea that we can have food and fuel at the same time. Over time, it is
predicted this business group will get deep into your pockets as prices related to food will be
inflated. In 1980, 0.37% of grain went to ethanol, in 2008 it was 28.5%. Source: Earth Policy
Institute.
** On July 29, 2008, there was a 5.4 earthquake centered 29 miles southeast of downtown Los
Angeles. Little damage was done, but the quake was felt in San Diego and Las Vegas.
The Northbridge earthquake, 6.7, did major damage on January 17, 1994, and there was a 7.1
quake in the desert in 1999. Many people will recall the devastating earthquake in San Francisco
during the World Series in 1989, and we won’t mention San Francisco 1906.
*** A formation in the Iron Range, dubbed the Duluth Complex, is drawing attention from geologists as
they think there is a deposit of perhaps six billion metric tons of ore laden with copper, nickel,
platinum, palladium, gold and cobalt. Ms. Jenko, tell us about this. I’ll spread the word.
**** Have a student(s) plot the shifts in the center of population on a map from 1790 to 2000 by
consulting THE WORLD ALMANAC-2008, page 593. On April 23, 2001, a brass marker was
placed in concrete at Edgar Springs, MO, to commemorate it being the population center of the
United States based on the 2000 census. This new center is 12.1 miles south and 32.5 miles
west of the 1990 center which was 9.7 miles southeast of Steelville. The new center is bases on
a population count of 281,421,906. We now have over 300, 000, 000 people.
NEXT WEEK:
Transcontinental flight
Source and mouth of the Missouri River
Metropolis, IL, is “Superman City”
Rust Belt of the United States
Snake migration in southern Illinois near Cape Girardeau, MO
Royal Gorge Bridge and the Arkansas River
French Broad & Holston rivers form the Tennessee River near Knoxville
Washington, D.C., Cincinnati and Kansas City near the 39th parallel
Highway 61, the “Blues Highway” through Mississippi. Play some blues in class.
Jacksonville, FL, is largest city in the U.S. in land area, 834 sq. miles.
How many of you HERALD-WHIG readers are going on the “Quincy Preserves Christmas Candlelight
Tour” next Sunday?
What do you CHRONICLE-TELEGRAM students know of Marjorie H. Buell, the creator of the comic strip
character “Little Lulu”? Ms. Buell died in Elyria on May 30, 1993.
Starting on December 8th, look at your newspaper daily for the time of sunrise and sunset to calculate
the hours of daylight leading down to the winter solstice on December 21st. SGS
48
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 14, 2008 - Week #15
1- Missouri, Texas, Florida
2- NY Jets
3- Pittsburgh Steelers, Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns
4- San Francisco 49ers
5. Missouri River
6- “Superman” AKA Clark Kent was a reporter in “Metropolis.” Superman is 60-years-old. Trivia
for you: Metropolis is the only city in the United States so named. There is a Superman
Celebration in Metropolis each June. Google Metropolis, Illinois for lots of information.
7. Seven(7) games. Chicago, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, NYC, St. Louis, Philadelphia SGS
Clip newspaper articles related to population and employment movement away from the Rust Belt
and toward the Sun Belt. * This is a perfect follow-up to last week’s lesson on the population
shifting to the Southwest. However, be aware of this trend in cities. Young professionals, retired
elderly, empty nesters and baby boomers are moving back into the cities. They don’t need the
traditional familial setting with a big yard. Traffic congestion and high gasoline prices have people
seeking housing closer to jobs and public transportation.
8. Cape Girardeau, MO. ** Many people say this is the only inland city in the United States with the
word “Cape” as part of its name.
9. No, you would not want to walk the road as you would be afraid of snakes.
10. Minneapolis(MN) Vikings. Arkansas River SGS
11. World's highest suspension bridge soars 1,053 ft. above the Arkansas River.
12. Denver Broncos
13. Tennessee River
14. West. Washington & Cincinnati are near the 39th parallel. SGS
15. Kansas City is on the 39th, too.
16- San Francisco 49ers
17- Green Bay Packers
18- I – 55
19. Jackson, MS; Springfield, IL
20. Blues Highway runs through Mississippi on highway 61. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine,
“Traveling the Blues Highway”, April 1999, pages 42-69
www.deltabluesmuseum.org in Clarksdale, MS
www.visitthedelta.com is hwy 61 through the Miss. Delta
In November of 2007, markers were placed to note the Mississippi Blues Trail.
Google for the Blues Trail.
21. Invented the cotton gin, and the cotton pickers were not singing the blues so much anymore.
22. Atlanta Falcons as the cotton gin was invented in Savannah, GA.
23. The land area of Jacksonville covers 834 square miles.
24-
San Diego Chargers near
Boston(N.E.) Patriots over
Green Bay Packers over
Topeka, KS
Albany, NY & Salt Lake City, UT
Frankfort, KY
Wonder if the TIMES UNION readers around Albany are any good at Double Dutch?
continued
49
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 14, 2008 - Week #15
* Assign a couple of students to be demographers and clip and collect any articles related to trends in
population shifts in the U.S. from now to May 31. Your population table shows seven of the top 10
cities in the U.S. are in the Sun Belt. New census estimates for the nation came out in June of
2008. www.census.gov SGS
Look at THE WORLD ALMANAC 2008, page 589, and see the 10 largest counties in the U.S.
You can see that seven of them are in the Sun Belt, and the large ones in the Rust Belt have little
growth or negative growth.
** Count it as a correct answer if they have pinpointed the river close to Cape Girardeau, MO. You are
within 20 miles of Wolf Lake, IL, in the Shawnee National Forest, where a 3-mile stretch of gravel
road is closed for six weeks in each the spring and fall to allow snakes, turtles, frogs, skinks,
salamanders and lizards to migrate from the bluffs to the swamp.
www.fs.fed.us/r9/shawnee/
www.pingleton.com/field/field.htm
The road lies between a murky swamp(the summer home) and a towering bluff(the winter dens of
hibernation). This is the only place in the world where a road is closed to allow migration of at
least 59 species of reptiles and amphibians.
Teachers: Expand this into a discussion of migration of butterflies, ducks, geese, birds, whales,
whooping cranes, sandhill cranes or anything else of interest to the students. Even when the
road is not closed, reptiles constantly cross the road seeking the warmth of the swamp or the
coolness of the dens deep in the bluffs.
Last June, a national magazine asked: How will the Dallas Cowboys fare next season? What are your
predictions? Can you make a circle graph of these poll results? Check in January to see who is correct.
Super Bowl winners
35%
Super Bowl losers
8%
Bounced from playoffs
47%
Won’t make playoffs 10%
Four national magazines predicted four different Super Bowl winners. ATHLON predicted the Cowboys
over the Chargers. LINDY’S selected the Colts over the Cowboys. PRO FOOTBALL WEEKLY chose
the Patriots over the Cowboys, and THE SPORTING NEWS’ crystal ball had the Charges topping the
Cowboys. At least all four have the Cowboys going to the Super Bowl. Did they?
NEXT WEEK:
U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD
Buffalo Bill Cody’s grave in Golden, CO
Concrete ears of corn in Dublin, OH, near Columbus.
Names of world cities within Ohio. Can you do it for your state?
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN
Leadville, CO, is a unique city
Questions and information about the Great Lakes
Calculating mileage between cities, working with fractions
Great Plains and Great Basin. Learn about economic conditions on the
Great Plains at: www.ngplains.org
The plains are 15% of the USA land area, but 3% of the population.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee
Imperial Valley of California
Biosphere 2 in Oracle, AZ
Winter solstice
50
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 21, 2008 - Week #16
1- Boston
2- San Francisco 49ers and the Phoenix(AZ) Cardinals
3- Philadelphia Eagles and the Charlotte(CAR) Panthers
4. United States Naval Academy. Do you think the navy guys eat navel oranges?
5-
Baltimore Ravens near
Miami Dolphins near
Buffalo Bills over
New Orleans Saints over
Little Rock, AR
Tallahassee, FL & Montgomery, AL
Lansing, MI
Nashville, TN
6. Golden, CO, and having the constant aroma of yeast from Coors’ Brewery.
7- Cleveland, and the Bengals could get there on I – 71.
You are challenged to create a world tour within your state like Ohio. * SGS
8. Concrete. This might be a good time to discuss the meaning of the word hybrid.
9. Mayo Clinic or Mayo Brothers Clinic
10. Chicago is near the line of 88 degrees W. longitude, and so is Green Bay. SGS
11. _2_ Arkansas, _8_ Connecticut, _7_ Hudson, _5_ Illinois, _4_ Mississippi, _3_ Missouri,
_1_ Rio Grande, _6_ Susquehanna
12. Leadville is near the source of the Arkansas River. St. Louis is near the mouth of the Missouri River.
13. May be other answers related to mining, but at 10,152 ft., Leadville is the highest incorporated city in
the United States.
14- Lake Erie , then Lake Huron , south end of Saginaw Bay. Then across Lake Michigan and Green
Bay before zooming on to Seattle located on Elliott Bay.
15- Lake Michigan does not share a common border with Canada. **
16- Cascade Mountain Range
17.
A . Flathead Lake
B. Lake Michigan
C. Lake Okeechobee
D. Lake Pontchartrain
E. Lake Tahoe
_C_ 27 degrees N. lat & 81 degrees W. long
_B_ 42 degrees N. lat & 87 degrees W. long
_D_ 30 degrees N. lat & 90 degrees W. long
_A_ 48 degrees N. lat & 114 degrees W. long
_E_ 39 degrees N. lat & 120 degrees W. long
SGS
18. 175 miles + or - ***
19. 473 miles + or –
20. Great Basin, Great Plains A basin because there is no exterior drainage. That’s why the Great Salt
Lake is so salty. www.nps.gov/grba SGS
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “The Emptied Prairie”, Jan. 2008, pgs 140-157. How you
gonna keep ‘em down on the farm after they’ve seen. . . . . . . . .Grand Forks & Fargo?
21. Oak Ridge National Laboratory was established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project to build the
atomic bomb. All chemistry, physics and other science teachers will want to find out about all the
kinds of research going on at Oak Ridge now.
22. Imperial Valley and Salton Sea. Much of the iceberg lettuce you will eat this winter comes from the
Imperial Valley and the Gila River around Yuma, AZ. Carrots, too. **** SGS
continued
51
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 21, 2008 - Week #16
23. Oracle, AZ This site has the potential for many science lessons.
24. TBD. Do the students understand the equinox, solstice and the changing season? Do students
really understand the rotation and revolution of the Earth? Use that Cram globe you probably
have in your classroom. Do you OMAHA WORLD-HERALD readers know about Carhenge in
Alliance, NE? www.carhenge.com
* You can make a world tour within Ohio by visiting Amsterdam, Antwerp, Athens, Berlin, Calcutta,
Cambridge, Dover, Dresden, Dublin, Elba, Essex, Ghent, Geneva, Glandorf, Greenwich,
Macedonia, Malta, Mesopotamia, Paris, Parma, Rome, Sparta, Stratford, Syracuse, Toledo,
Toronto, Troy, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, Waterloo, Yorkshire. If you don’t like finding all these
cities, then just forget about it and go to Utopia. Sue Ann Taylor, any new ones?
** H-O-M-E-S is an acronym to remember the names of the Great Lakes. Four lakes have a common
border with Canada. Lake Michigan does not.
SGS
Lake Superior, 1,333 ft. deep, is the largest body of fresh water in the world.
Lake Michigan, 923 ft. deep, is the only one wholly within the U.S.
Lake Ontario, 802 ft. deep, is the smallest.
Lake Huron, 750 ft. deep.
Lake Erie, 210 ft. deep, has its waters plunge 193 ft. over Niagara Falls to feed Lake Ontario.
Ships get around Niagara Falls by going through the 27 mile Welland Canal.
Lake Erie is 326 ft. higher than Lake Ontario, so eight locks take ships from one lake to the other.
Is this trivia or facts you need? Lake Huron is the second-largest in area, but Lake Michigan is
second in volume.
www.cruisingthegreatlakes.org
You students living in the Great Lakes watershed must be informed about the Great Lakes
Water Resource Compact.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Down the Drain?-The Incredible Shrinking Great Lakes”,
September 2002, pages 34 - 51.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, “The Great Lakes’ Troubled Waters”, July 1987, pages 2 - 31.
Viral hemorrhagic septicemia(VHS), a deadly virus, is killing fish in the St. Lawrence Seaway,
continued
52
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 21, 2008 - Week #16
Lake Ontario, Lake, Erie and Lake Huron. The virus was unexpectedly found in the Great Lakes
in 2005. It causes fish to hemorrhage like the Ebola virus does to humans in Africa.
Did the virus return in May of 2008, when waters warm to the temperature in which the virus
thrives? 40-59 degrees. Get information from: Great Lakes Fishery Commission www.glfc.org
Disease could be catastrophic to a $4.5 billion commercial and sports fishing industry. Scientists
are not sure how VHS entered the Great Lakes, but most suspect it was the dumping of water
from an international cargo ship. Any information about the health or problems in the Great
Lakes you BLADE readers can pass on to Ms. Geyer will be passed on to all Pigskin Geography
students.
*** You will always be given a plus or minus figure with the mileage. How many miles allowed "+" or "-"
the figure given will depend upon the ability of your class. Sixth to 12th graders that can measure
to the 1/16th of an inch and divide fractions and/or decimals should only given about 10 miles
leeway. 4th and 5th graders or other students who have to use the edge of a paper marked with
the scale of miles may be given 40-50 miles.
IT IS INTENDED THE STUDENTS LEARN TO USE THE SCALE OF MILES ON THE MAP TO
CALCULATE THE MILEAGE. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A REFERENCE QUESTION WHERE
THEY GO TO AN ATLAS OR SOME INTERNET SOURCE FOR THE ANSWER.
**** The Imperial Valley is irrigated by the Colorado. Too much demand, too little water. Are you aware
of the recent agreements between cities in CA & AZ, and Imperial Valley farmers over rights to
water from the Colorado River? You LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL students understand the
problem with water. One city official said, “We can’t continue to have unlimited growth with a
limited water supply.” Information on: www.usbr.gov/water2025/
NEXT WEEK:
Lots of review and potpourri
Food: Chili in Cincinnati, BBQ in Kansas City
Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border
Math: Rainfall difference between Seattle and Phoenix
Finger Lakes of western New York
Welland Canal around Niagara Falls
Cruising the Great Lakes from Detroit to Green Bay
London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, AZ, and you can send an e-postcard
Florida oranges for juice. California oranges for table fruit
Fall Line cities
Richmond, VA, is a Federal Reserve city, but not a NFL city.
James Edward Oglethorpe founded Savannah, GA
Evolution and curtailment of the Pledge of Allegiance
53
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 28, 2008 - Week #17
1- Atlanta, Indianapolis, Phoenix
2- Buffalo, Indianapolis, San Diego
3- Boston(N.E.) Patriots, Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns. Any VINDICATOR students going to the
game? Poll your class and let Ms. Taylor know---Is the fan base in Youngstown split 50-50
between the Browns and Steelers? Ms. Beck knows all the BEAVER COUNTY TIMES students
are Steelers fans.
4- Tampa Bay
5- Lake Powell. John Wesley Powell can be the subject of an interesting report in American history to
illustrate courage and perseverance. SGS
6- Seattle Seahawks
7- Miami Dolphins
8- _1_ Mississippi, _2_ Ohio, _3_ Tennessee
9- The KC Chiefs would sail down the Missouri River to its confluence with the Mississippi River just
north of St. Louis; then on down to Cairo, IL, to the confluence with the Ohio River. I think you
will find it was Charles Dickens that called Cincinnati the “Queen City of the West”. SGS
10. Cincinnati known for chili. Kansas City is known for BBQ. KANSAS CITY STAR students had better
not miss this question. If you STAR students do well, Mr. Sajevic might buy you a slab. Hope
you CINCINNATI ENQUIRER students do well, also. Ms. Garrison might buy you two bowls of
chili, but Mr. Wyatt’s students will probably have to buy their own.
11. 37.07 – 8.29 = 28.78 inches
SGS
12. Boston(N.E.) Patriots Glaciers made the Finger Lakes. *
www.visitfingerlakes.com and
www.fingerlakes.org
SGS
13. 10,000 Lakes. Glaciers
14. Ships get around Niagara Falls by going through the 27 mile Welland Canal. ** SGS
15. The Lions could cruise north on the Detroit River, across Lake St. Clair, up the St. Clair River, across
Lake Huron, through the Straits of Mackinac, across the north end of Lake Michigan, around the
tip of the Door Peninsula and south into Green Bay.
16. London Bridge was disassembled, shipped to the U.S. and reassembled at Lake Havasu City. It
was dedicated on October 10, 1971, and it isn’t falling down.
See: www.golakehavasu.com Click on photos & postcards. Send someone an e-mail postcard
of the London Bridge.
17. Florida and California.
Most of the oranges from Florida are squeezed for juice.
Most of the oranges from California are used as table fruit. SGS
18. Raleigh, NC; Richmond, VA
19. The Fall Line marks the farthest point inland a ship can go up a river. The Fall Line of the
Eastern United States goes from Newark, NJ, to Alabama, and is a great source of electric
power. The falling water can be used to turn turbines to generate electricity. For these reasons
many important cities are found along the Fall Line. Some of the cities are: Columbus, GA,
Macon, GA, Columbia, SC, Raleigh, NC, Richmond, VA, Fredericksburg, VA, Washington, DC,
Baltimore, MD, Philadelphia, PA, and Newark, NJ, and into southern New York. Have two
students connect these cities with push-pins and yarn on a map. *** SGS
continued
54
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
December 28, 2008 - Week #17
Just 12 miles from the heart of Washington, D.C., you’ll find Great Falls National Park where a
series of waterfalls drops the Potomac 76 feet over a granite escarpment in a distance of 3,500
feet. A wonderful illustration of the Fall Line. www.nps.gov/gwmp/grfa/falls/falls.htm SGS
Students at Liberty High School are raising money to restore a 19th century gristmill on
Monocracy Creek in Bethlehem, PA. For information on how this project is coming along,
contact:
Karen Dolan
Liberty High School
1115 Linden Street
Bethlehem, PA 18018
www.illicksmill.org
20. Richmond, VA. 1) Boston; 2) New York City; 3) Philadelphia; 4) Cleveland; 5) Richmond;
6) Atlanta; 7) Chicago; 8) St. Louis; 9) Minneapolis; 10) Kansas City; 11) Dallas
12) San Francisco.
21. “Tornado Alley” Make sure the students remember Enterprise, AL, and Greensburg, KS. ****
22. Atlanta Falcons, as Oglethorpe founded the British colony of Georgia.
23. Savannah, GA
24. December 28, 1945. The words “under God” were added to the Pledge in 1954, but in 2002
* The area is made up of 11 finger-shaped lakes of different sizes, running lengthwise in a northsouth direction. The region is within a “box” of a line drawn from Rochester to Syracuse to
Binghamton to Corning to Rochester.
** Lake Erie, 210 ft. deep, has its waters plunge 193 ft. over Niagara Falls to feed Lake Ontario. Ships
get around Niagara Falls by going through the 27 miles Welland Canal. Lake Erie is 326 feet
higher than Lake Ontario, so eight locks take ships from one lake to the other.
*** Tell your students to "keep their noses to the grind stone." Falling water was a source of power for
turning millstones to grind corn and wheat. If the stones became too close the friction would burn
the grain. Therefore, keeping your nose to the grind stone made it possible to smell if the finely
ground grain was being scorched. The Fall Line cities are on the eastern side of the Appalachian
Mts. in the Piedmont or hilly section. The Fall Line marks the dividing line between the
Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Piedmont means "foot of the mountain."
On December 16, 2006, a fire destroyed the last waterpowered gristmill in Lancaster County, PA.
Records show a mill had stood here since 1760, and this latest mill was believed to date to 1852.
**** The five deadliest U.S. tornadoes: April 1936, Gainesville, GA. (203 killed); April 1936, Tupelo, MS.
(216); May 1896, St. Louis, MO. (255); May 1840, Natchez, MS. (317); March 1925, MO-IL-IN
(695) Source NOAA. These disaster dates make you appreciate our warning systems today.
The tornado in Enterprise, AL, killed eight students. Ten people were killed in Greensburg, KS,
as winds reached 205 mph and the storm cut a path 1.7 miles wide and 22 miles long.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, June 2005, shows inside a tornado on pages 110-113.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, “Chasing Tornadoes”, April 2004, pages 4-37
People in Texas might want to know that the ten top counties in Texas for tornadoes are:
Harris 210, Hale 119, Galveston 108, Jefferson 99, Nueces 93, Lubbock 83, Dallas 82, Lamb 82,
Tarrant 80, Johnson 79. From NOAA records from 1950 – 2000.
You CHRONICLE readers take notice that Harris County leads the group.
55
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
City, State, Team Name
Matching Exercise
1. Atlanta
2. Baltimore
3. Boston(N.E.)
4. Buffalo
5. Charlotte(CAR)
6. Chicago
7. Cincinnati
8. Cleveland
9. Dallas
10. Denver
11. Detroit
12. Green Bay
13. Houston
14. Indianapolis
15. Jacksonville
16. Kansas City
17. Miami
18. Minneapolis(MN)
19. Nashville(TN)
20. New Orleans
21. New York
22. New York
23. Oakland
24. Philadelphia
25. Phoenix(AZ)
26. Pittsburgh
27. St. Louis
28. San Diego
29. San Francisco
____Arizona
____California
____California
____California
____Colorado
____District of Columbia
____Florida
____Florida
____Florida
____Georgia
____Illinois
____Indiana
____Louisiana
____Maryland
____Massachusetts
____Michigan
____Minnesota
____Missouri
____Missouri
____New York
____New York
____New York
____North Carolina
____Ohio
____Ohio
____Pennsylvania
____Pennsylvania
____Tennessee
____Texas
____Bears
____Bengals
____Bills
____Broncos
____Browns
____Buccaneers
____Cardinals
____Chargers
____Chiefs
____Colts
____Cowboys
____Dolphins
____Eagles
____Falcons
____Forty-Niners
____Giants
____Jaguars
____Jets
____Lions
____Packers
____Panthers
____Patriots
____Raiders
____Rams
____Ravens
____Redskins
____Saints
____Seahawks
____Steelers
30. Seattle
31. Tampa
32. Washington
____Texas
____Washington
____Wisconsin
____Texans
____Titans
____Vikings
Note: The numbers of the cities may be interchanged in the STATES that have two or three teams. The numerical order of the
CITIES may be interchanged with the matching team NAMES for the two teams from New York City.
56
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
Answer Key
This will be a fun quiz to give the students about the 4th or 5th week of the season.
City, State, Team Name
1. Atlanta
25__Arizona
6__Bears
2. Baltimore
23/28/29__California
7__Bengals
3. Boston(N.E.)
29/23/28__California
4__Bills
4. Buffalo
28/29/23__California
5. Charlotte(CAR)
10__Colorado
6. Chicago
32__District of Columbia
10__Broncos
8__Browns
31__Buccaneers
7. Cincinnati
15/17/31__Florida
25__Cardinals
8. Cleveland
17/15/31__Florida
28__Chargers
9. Dallas
31/17/15__Florida
16__Chiefs
10. Denver
1__Georgia
11. Detroit
6__Illinois
14__Colts
9__Cowboys
12. Green Bay
14__Indiana
17__Dolphins
13. Houston
20__Louisiana
24__Eagles
14. Indianapolis
2__Maryland
15. Jacksonville
3__Massachusetts
16. Kansas City
11__Michigan
17. Miami
18__Minnesota
1__Falcons
29__Forty-Niners
21/22__Giants
15__Jaguars
18. Minneapolis(MN)
16/27__Missouri
19. Nashville(TN)
27/16__Missouri
20. New Orleans
4/21/22__New York
21. New York
22/4/21__New York
5__Panthers
22. New York
21/22/4__New York
3__Patriots
23. Oakland
5__North Carolina
24. Philadelphia
7/8__Ohio
25. Phoenix(AZ)
8/7__Ohio
22/21__Jets
11__Lions
12__Packers
23__Raiders
27__Rams
2__Ravens
26. Pittsburgh
24/26__Pennsylvania
32__Redskins
27. St. Louis
26/24__Pennsylvania
20__Saints
28. San Diego
19__Tennessee
30__Seahawks
29. San Francisco
9/13__Texas
26__Steelers
30. Seattle
13/9__Texas
13__Texans
31. Tampa
30__Washington
19__Titans
32. Washington
12__Wisconsin
18__Vikings
57
PIGSKIN GEOGRAPHY®
V ER B S a n d t h e S P O RTS P AG E
S t u d e nt R ef e r e n c e I nf or m at i o n
Listed are verbs you might want to utilize with the sports page in your NIE program. Most headlines on
the sports page are written with interesting, exciting verbs, but many are not. Many results are reported
as Buffalo 21, Minnesota 20; Detroit 27, Green Bay 13; Raiders 16, Seattle 14; etc.
Rewrite the headline game results with the verb of their choice inserted. For example, Buffalo edges
Minnesota 21-20; Lions rip Packers 27-13; Raiders nip Seattle 16-14. Make sure appropriate verbs are
used. Do not use a verb like "edge" in a game won by a wide margin, or "clobber" in a close game.
Picking verbs to match the team name is a mental exercise you may enjoy. Examples are: Flames
singe Hawks; Stars outshine Blues; Sabres stab Bruins; Pistons churn past Nets; Blue Jays peck Angels;
Pirates master Cards, Lightning bolts to first Stanley Cup. See if you can select a verb to go with the
name of each NFL team. Lions roar by, Giants stomp, Cowboys lasso, Bears maul, Redskins scalp, etc.
Be creative with some game results as: Magic make Kings look like jesters. Celtics make Wizards look
like dunces. Diamondbacks can’t scale Rockies. Red Sox climbed the Rockies with ease.
VERB LIST
batter
blank
bolt
breeze past
burn
chill
churn past
claw
clip
clobber
club
crush
dazzle
derail
dismantle
down
ease by
edge
explode on
foil
kick
nip
nudge
outdraw
outlast
outshine
outslug
paste
peck
pluck
rally past
repel
riddle
rip
roll past
romps by
romps past
rout
saddle
sear
singe
sink
slam
slap
slash
slaughter
slip past
smite
sneak past
squeeze past
stab
Find more verbs to augment this list.
58
stifle
stun
stymie
subdue
suppress
swamp
thump
top
topple
torpedo
trim
trip
trounce
tumble
whip
wipe out
zap