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    Impact of Resources in a Region

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    Subject: History, Social Studies

    Lesson Length: 1 hour

    Topic: Understanding Regional Economic Development and Growth

    Grade Level: 4

    Standards / Framework:

    Brief Description: Students will recognize and understand the impact resources have in the development and growth of their region, either locally or statewide.

    Know Before You Start: Students should have an understanding of what a resource is, e.g., natural or man-made, and a basic understanding of supply and demand.

    Hook:

    • Brainstorm items deemed popular by your students, e.g., PS5, iPhone.

    • Discuss why these items are important to them, asking questions that relate to supply and demand, such as:

      • Why are these items popular?

      • Why do people stand in line to purchase these items when they are first released?

      • Are these items a need or a want? 

    • Read and discuss the sample comic.

    • Discuss resources that are necessary in your region, e.g., gold in California, steel in Pennsylvania, cotton in South Carolina.

    Activity:

    • Have students research a resource, e.g., current or historical, that is important to the development and growth of their region.

    • For planning and prewriting, provide students with a mind map graphic organizer. Have students place the name of their resource in the center and add the before, during, and after titles.
    • Research the resource and add notes to the mind map.

    • Using the sample comic as a guide, create a before, during, and after comic showing the impact that resource had on the region.

      • Panel 1: Show what the region was like prior to the resource being developed, found or brought to the region.

      • Panel 2: Illustrate the impact of the resource during the highest demand.

      • Panel 3: Show what the region looked like after the resource declined in demand, or make a prediction of the future of the region if the resource continues to be in demand.

    Closure:

    • In 30 seconds or less, students will use the “elevator pitch” strategy to give the big ideas of how their selected resource impacted their region. 

    Differentiation:

    • Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.
    • Allow students to use the voiceover feature to read their comics aloud.

    • Have students classify all the resources as either a man-made resource or a natural resource.

    • Allow students to work in groups or pairs.

    • Provide sentence frames as needed. 

    • Use a graphic organizer to plan ideas.

    Resources:

    Suggested Content Packs:

    Related Ideas

    Name That Region

    Students will learn how the colonial regions; northern, middle, and southern differed economically by exploring the advantages of their locations and what they exported.