Geography

Happy trails! In Geography, kids can take a trip through the hills, valleys, mountains, and rivers that make up the Earth’s diverse landscapes. Along the way, they’ll learn how geography constrained and influenced the development of Washington, D.C., and pick up info about how the Earth is divided and measured by latitude and longitude. The science behind time zones and dates is investigated, as well as the different kinds of map projections, like the Mercator, Robinson, Cylindrical, and Plane.

Then take a look at the ways that immigration and emigration are shaped by geography; for kids, this will be both an interesting history lesson and an eye-opening tale of hardship and survival. Find out how the Dust Bowl drought pushed people to seek out more fruitful lands, and how forced migration in the form of slavery, and the immigration of those seeking gold or employment, also pushed people across continents and oceans. Next, kids can travel around the world, checking out how people have adapted to inhospitable geography by creating terraced farmlands, ice hotels, and much more. Read up on the role that rivers play in shaping human settlements by providing water, hydroelectric power, and an easy means of trade, then wrap things up with an examination of the transformation of geography, for kids, through weathering and erosion over millions of years.