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Geography · Grade 4

Design a Responsible Regional Plan

The Grade 4 capstone. Made-up Willow County needs room for 200 new homes and a new park, but it also has a river that floods, a wetland full of wildlife and some of the best farmland in the state. Learners study how people and places shape each other, read the county's planning map for evidence, listen to stakeholders, score three sites against criteria, see how the best choice changes when some criteria count more, and write a recommendation that admits its trade-offs.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 90 minutes
  • Regional plan check: 10 questions
  • Ways to answer: choose an answer, plot points, highlight a text, match pairs, type a number and put in order
See plans Included with Family, Teacher and School plans. Open in PlayOwl

What learners will discover

  • Explain how people depend on, adapt to and modify their environment, and why planners pay attention to floodplains, wetlands and farmland.
  • Read a planning map and site table to find evidence about flood zones, wetlands, farmland and roads.
  • Identify stakeholders and their concerns, and use criteria, rules and scores to compare options and their trade-offs.
  • Recommend and justify a plan with map evidence, naming its trade-offs and responding to stakeholders.

Lessons

  1. People and places shape each other 7 steps4 practiceabout 20 min
  2. Read the Willow County map 8 steps4 practiceabout 22 min
  3. Stakeholders, criteria and scores 7 steps4 practiceabout 23 min
  4. Decide and justify 7 steps4 practiceabout 22 min
  5. Regional plan check 10 questions at the end

Keep exploring

Games to practice with

  • Globe ExplorerSpin a real 3D globe, flip to the flat map, and find continents, oceans and countries.
  • Pin the PlanetDrag the pin onto wonders, cities and exact latitude and longitude points.
  • Mapmaker QuestFollow directions to make a map, then read its legend, compass rose and scale.

More 4th grade geography

Guide for grown-ups