1. Have students brainstorm descriptions of your school.
As a class, brainstorm a list of descriptions about your school. Write students’ ideas on the board. Make sure the descriptions include the following information:

  • the location of the school, such as what it is near and how far most kids travel to get to it
  • information about the school itself, such as what its name is and what it looks like

 

2. Categorize the descriptions by location and place.
Ask students if their responses are about the location of the school or the place. Place an “L” next to descriptions of the location. Place a “P” next to those that describe place.

3. Have students complete the worksheet to apply a geographic perspective to your school.
Divide students into pairs and provide each pair with the worksheet Your School: A Geographic Perspective. Have pairs work together to complete the worksheet.

Informal Assessment

Use the provided rubric for Your School: A Geographic Perspective to assess pairs' completed worksheets.

Subjects & Disciplines

Learning Objectives

Students will:

  • identify the difference between location and place as it applies to their school

Teaching Approach

  • Learning-for-use

Teaching Methods

  • Hands-on learning

Skills Summary

This activity targets the following skills:

Connections to National Standards, Principles, and Practices

National Geography Standards

  • Standard 4:  The physical and human characteristics of places

What You’ll Need

Materials You Provide

  • Pencils
  • Pens

Physical Space

  • Classroom

Grouping

  • Large-group instruction

Background Information

A geographic perspective is a way of looking at the world. Location helps you answer where. Place helps you answer what or who. You can use a geographic perspective to learn more about your school.

Prior Knowledge

  • understanding location versus place

Recommended Prior Activities

Vocabulary

geographic perspective
Noun

a way to understand a topic or area using spatial features and relationships.
location
Noun

position of a particular point on the surface of the Earth.
place
Noun

area having unique physical and human characteristics.

Maps

  • Credits

    Media Credits

    The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited.

    Editor

    Christina Riska Simmons

    Expert Reviewer

    Michal LeVasseur, Ph.D., National Geographic Alliance Network Liaison

    Sources

    adapted from National Geographic Xpeditions lesson “Welcome to Your New School!: Using a Geographic Perspective”

  • User Permissions

    For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service. If you have questions about how to cite anything on our website in your project or classroom presentation, please contact your teacher. They will best know the preferred format. When you reach out to them, you will need the page title, URL, and the date you accessed the resource.

    Media

    If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

    Text

    Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service.

    Interactives

    Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives.