World Geography
October 2015
Lesson: Regions
TEKS: 9(A) – The student understands the concept of region as an area on Earth’s surgace with
related geographic characteristics. The student is expected to (A) identify physical and/or human
factors such as climate, vegetation, language, trade networks, political units, river systems, and
religion that constitute a region; and (B) describe different types of regions, including formal,
functional, and perceptual regions.
Warm Up: Describe the Movement theme of geography, and give three examples.
Closure: Compare and contrast Formal, Functional, and Perceptual regions.
Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) Questions: Why would a subway system be considered a
functional region? Why would the Middle East be considered a cultural region? Give an example
of a perceptual region and explain why.
Activity: SEE ATTACHED
Make Up Work Assignment: Printed PowerPoint with Notes worksheet; Perceptual Regions
worksheet, plus map.
Required Materials:
1. PowerPoint
2. Formal Regions Activity – “Regions Cards,” ~2in x 2in squares of paper with either a picture
of corn, soybeans/peas, or wheat. The majority of the cards you give out need to be of corn.
3. Functional Regions Activity – Full-page pictures of a skyscraper, a café, two of a house, and
one of a power plant, and some string.
4. Perceptual Regions Activity – Full-page pictures (one per group) that shows the map of the
US with new “state boundaries” (really perceptual regions), and those places are numbered.
Video: “Mapping How Americans Talk: Soda vs. Pop vs. Coke” (4 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HLYe31MBrg
Agenda of Lesson (For Teacher):
1. Warm Up
2. PowerPoint with Notes Worksheet
3. Activities in PowerPoint
World Geography
October 2015
Formal Region
“Congratulations! You all are new citizens of Iowa, Illinois, or Indiana!” CLICK “Oh,
and you’ve also been given a lovely, bountiful farm!”
“You will now be given a card that has a picture of a crop on it. What you need to do is
find people with the same crop as you, and get in a group.”
Students will assemble in their groups. There will be mostly corn, but some will be
soybeans, and wheat.
The teacher can draw a table on the board that looks like this:
Crop
# of Students
Soybean
Wheat
Corn
“All right, so let’s count how many people are in this class. Now let’s count how many
people have soybeans. How many have wheat? How many have corn?”
“What is it called/what do you have when you put a bunch of information and numbers in
a chart?” [Data]
“Refer back to what we just talked about. What are the three main types of regions?”
“Do any of those have to do with data?”
“So what might we call this region that we are in?” [Formal Region]

Second Activity --
Functional Region
Place a picture of a power plant somewhere in the room. Around the room, place pictures
of places that use electricity, such as houses, skyscrapers, restaurants, etc.
“Congratulations! Whoever gave you that farm must be extremely generous, because they
also just gave you a city!” CLICK “Oh, and the power just went out.”
“Let’s call an electrician and see what the diagnosis is.” / “Do you want the bad news
first, or the good news?” / “Bad news, I guess.” / “Bad news, boss. The wires are fried. We’re
going to need to replace them all.” / “So what’s the good news?” / “The guy who gave you this
city said he’d pay for it, you just have to get the job done.”
Set up the room so that you have the picture with the power plant on one side of the
room, and you have the pictures of the other buildings scattered throughout the room. Have the
students figure out a way to get power from the power plant to the other buildings. Students can
either make chains of people to stretch from the plant to the places, or you can have them use
string.
They should see that there is one central location from which all of the power comes from
(the power plant), and see that all those other buildings can “function” because they are
connected to the power plant.
World Geography
October 2015

Third Activity --
Perceptual Region
“Your hard work has definitely been paying off. Mr. Magnificent, the guy who gave you
the farm and city, made a deal with Obama, where now you get to have all of the continental
United States! The catch is, though, that they don’t want 48 states anymore, but 6 plus Texas. He
said it’s up to you to name them, but it has to be based on the types of people who live there. For
instance, if one of the states has a lot of people who like golf, maybe you should call them the
Golf States.”
Students will be in groups of 3-4, and each group will get a paper with the picture of a
map of the US with the regions outlined and numbered.
They will create Perceptual Regions for each of the numbered regions/new states.