Geography, social studies, language arts, history, art, Grades 4-8

Produced by Kyle Lehenbauer with assistance from Cathy de Moll, Nora McGillivray. Teacher advisors: Vicki Heisler, Michael Hutchison and Kathy Guzzo.

younger and older grades have successfully completed the program, but have required teacher adaptation of the material

Next available session: September 27 – December 3, 1999

Additional sessions begin January, 2000 and March, 2000.

Imagine that you have ten weeks to explore your own geographic region with the help of national experts and that you can post all that you discover onto a "virtual quilt," being built on the World Wide Web!

In five units, we will look at the continent from different points of view. Use the unit overviews to introduce different aspects of physical and cultural geography. Pick and choose from the sub-units to delve deeper into the topics. Share the research you do in the classroom with a World Wide Web audience, keeping a steady flow of regional information and experience.

The North American Quilt is designed to bring an interdisciplinary approach to the study of geography, engaging students to participate in a growing collection of geographic and cultural information about the continent.

In the classroom students will be engaged in three major activities:

Researching their local communities and regions to gather information related to each NAQ topic and sub-topic, contributing their work to their very own NAQ Web page;

Gathering information, photos and data to create a book or multimedia presentation -- a quilt of information -- about their own community (alternative: using the collection of information on the NAQ Web site to create a book about North American geography);

Taking at least one local field trip to a geographic point of interest, and documenting it in photos, drawings and text to present in the NAQ special feature section.

By e-mail, classrooms will be receiving activities, reports and creative work from other schools, and will have an opportunity to query expert guests.

Other features include a unit essay questions, regular on-line surveys of student habits and opinions, an on-going geography bee, and commentary from fellow students.

The North American Quilt has been designed to meet the national geography standards for grades 4 - 10.

Subject Areas/Threads

We suggest that you choose 2-3 of the five units to focus on during the 10-week quarter. All will be posted for your convenience. If you wish to cover all five units, consider registering for two consecutive quarters.

Physical geography Mapping activities; the formation of the continent; geology; cataloguing regional land features; studying regional and continental weather patterns.

Ecosystems Identifying local biomes, plants and wildlife; identifying watersheds.

Humans and the Land Understanding land use and the necessary balance between human and natural, urban and rural, industrial and agricultural priorities; cataloguing the urban and agricultural distribution of each school area.

Digging Into History Understanding how we study layers of history; identifying regional Native American populations past and present; cataloguing worldwide immigration to each region; creating a time line of regional history.

A Bounty of Cultures Identifying the cultural mix, both past and present; identifying regional folk art traditions (oral, musical, craft and art); recognizing national art forms and artists; celebrating local food and other regional trademarks.