Students define the rules as they see fit for dividing the resources of the North Sea. They create a map defining those borders and allocating resources to individual countries.
DIRECTIONS
1. Have a whole-class discussion about the guiding question for this activity.
Remind students that, in addition to providing transportation routes, oceans and seas contain valuable natural resources, such as oil trapped below the sea floor and fish. Ask:
- Who has the rights to these resources?
- How do we define the borders of country rights?
- Who ensures that resources are not being exploited beyond sustainability?
Write students' ideas on the board.
2. Introduce the activity.
Divide students into small groups. Explain to students that their tasks will be to define the rules, in any way that they see fit, for dividing the resources of the North Sea and to create a map defining those borders. Make sure students understand that the borders they draw within the North Sea will allocate resources to individual countries. The only rules are that a country must have a coastline that borders the North Sea. Students do not necessarily need to give every country a share of the North Sea.
3. Have students label their maps.
Distribute a copy of the map Borders Within the North Sea to each group. Display the MapMaker 1-Page Map of Europe on the board. Invite volunteers to investigate which countries border the North Sea, and therefore have a potential claim to resources within the North Sea, and have all groups add country labels to their North Sea maps. Then invite volunteers to use the MapMaker 1-Page tool to navigate to the map for each of those countries and have groups add any other features from these maps to the Borders Within the North Sea map that might help in their decision-making. Prompt students with questions such as: Are there large port cities in any of these countries? How might this affect how a country wants to use the North Sea waterways?
4. Have students define the rules for creating the borders and draw borders.
Ask groups to discuss the ways in which they wish to define the rules for creating the borders. Then have them map the borders between countries that will divide the resources of the North Sea among the individual countries. Encourage students to consider how those rules would change if ocean or sea borders moved due to climate change and sea level rise.
5. Have groups present their borders and rules to the whole class.
Regroup as a whole class and have each small group present their borders and the thinking behind their decision-making. Allow other groups to ask questions after each group presents.
Informal Assessment
Evaluate groups' completed maps and presentations based on their geographic reasoning, or ability to reason about the characteristics of the location of the North Sea and its connections to the various countries with a coastline bordering the North Sea. Ask students to work independently to write a short essay on the importance of the ocean as a natural border.
Extending the Learning
Have students use the OSPAR Commission website to compare their own border scheme with existing international agreements.
Before Moving on to the Next Activity
Make sure you have groups' completed maps from Lesson 1, Activity 1 in the Beyond Borders unit.
Students explore how specific features of physical geography affect nearby country borders. They conduct research on the North Sea, Scandinavia, the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Netherlands.
DIRECTIONS
1. Build background about how countries share geographical features such as oceans.
Remind students about their decision-making in Lesson 5, Activity 1 regarding ocean and sea borders. Ask: How do you think countries actually divide and share ocean resources? Explain to students that each country abides by an international agreement establishing an exclusive economic zone (EEZ), an area extending 200 nautical miles off a country’s coast. According to this agreement, each country has the right to explore and exploit the living and nonliving things in its EEZ. Ask: How might sharing a geographical feature, like an ocean, or a natural resource within it create problems between the countries that share them? Students may mention disagreements surrounding environmental preservation, distribution of resources, commercial activity, residential and military occupation, and travel and tourism.
2. Have students compare and contrast possible conflicts around specific physical features.
Ask students to keep in mind their ideas about how countries may disagree about sharing ocean resources. Then remind students of what they explored in Lesson 4: Conflict on the Danube. Two countries had to share the Danube River, leading to some conflict. Ask: Do you think the same issues could cause conflict around an ocean? A mountain range? Another physical feature? How are each of these scenarios similar or different? Capture students' ideas on the board.
3. Have students research case studies of countries' disputes over physical geography.
Distribute a copy of the worksheet Physical Geography Research Project to each student. Then divide the class into small groups of four. Assign each group one of the four examples to research, using the provided websites. Give groups maps according to the examples they are assigned:
- Example 1: The North Sea—Map: Major Bodies of Water in Europe
- Example 2: Scandinavia—Map: Physical Map of Scandinavia
- Example 3: Strait of Gibraltar—Map: Major Bodies of Water in Europe
- Example 4: The Netherlands—Map: The Netherlands: Reclaimed Land
Tell students they will become experts on their assigned case study, and will need to be prepared to share their expertise with classmates in Lesson 5, Activity 3 of this unit. Have them turn in their completed worksheets, or publish them in the classroom so students can see or read their classmates' work.
Informal Assessment
Evaluate students' completed Physical Geography Research Project worksheets.
Extending the Learning
Encourage students to find a new example that is not listed, and research and report on it.
Students use the jigsaw cooperative learning strategy to discuss and present research on four case studies of conflicts due to physical geography in Europe. Then they make generalizations about physical features and country borders in a whole-class discussion.
DIRECTIONS
1. Have students use the jigsaw cooperative learning strategy to discuss their case studies.
Have students regroup in their small groups from Lesson 5, Activity 2 and make sure they have their completed worksheets from that activity. Remind students they are in their "expert" groups. They have studied one case study in depth. Regroup students so that each new group of four has at least one member from each expert group. Have each expert in a group report on their case study. Other students learn from the experts and complete their worksheets.
2. Have groups present their findings.
Have each group present their case study to the class by reading aloud the scenario and explaining the answers they arrived at while conducting their research.
3. Make generalizations about the impacts of physical features on country borders.
Hold a class discussion about physical features and their impact on country borders using the questions below as prompts. Encourage students to cite their research projects or other specific examples to support their answers.
- How are mountain ranges important in defining borders? How would the answer be similar or different for rivers?
- When a country borders an ocean, how might that impact the borders of that country? Consider uses of oceans, and also changes in the oceans over time in your answer.
- How are our relationships with physical features changing with increased technology? Are mountains, rivers, and oceans important barriers to movement, trade, and culture anymore? How is this different from 100 or 1,000 years ago?
Informal Assessment
Check for student understanding by observing their presentations and jigsaw and whole-class discussion contributions. Evaluate how well students are able to integrate small-group research findings into the whole-class discussion.
Extending the Learning
Have students research additional physical features in their own region or state and present their findings. Provide students with the following questions to research: What physical features are important in your area? How do physical features impact state, city, and other borders? Have there ever been conflicts around those borders?
Subjects & Disciplines
- English Language Arts
- Geography
Objectives
Students will:
- research examples of physical features in Europe that intersect with country borders in interesting ways
- develop generalizations about physical features and their impacts on country borders
- define the rules for dividing natural resources of an ocean or sea
- create a map defining those borders
Teaching Approach
- Learning-for-use
Teaching Methods
- Cooperative learning
- Discussions
- Hands-on learning
- Jigsaw
- Reading
- Research
- Writing
Skills Summary
This lesson targets the following skills:
-
21st Century Student Outcomes
- Information, Media, and Technology Skills
- Learning and Innovation Skills
-
Critical Thinking Skills
- Analyzing
- Applying
- Remembering
- Understanding
- Geographic Skills
Connections to National Standards, Principles, and Practices
What You’ll Need
Required Technology
- Internet Access: Required
- Internet access: Required
- Tech Setup: 1 computer per classroom, Projector
Physical Space
- Classroom
Setup
- None
Grouping
- Large-group instruction
- Small-group instruction
Accessibility Notes
- None
Other Notes
Depending on the depth of the research, this activity could take one class period or up to several days.
Background Information
Oceans cover approximately 71% of Earth’s surface and contain 97% of the total water resources of the planet. The oceans are considered a common property resource; that is, no one country owns the world’s oceans or controls the resources found in them. As a result, oceans are often subject to the tragedy of the commons—the idea that if a resource is held in common for use by all, then ultimately that resource will be destroyed. Individuals, countries, or corporations often have little incentive to preserve or protect the ocean’s resources. However, countries with ocean or sea borders do have some control over a limited area extending into the ocean from their coastal borders. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was signed on December 10, 1982. According to it, each coastal country’s sovereign territorial waters extend to a maximum of 22 kilometers (12 nautical miles) beyond its coast. Beyond these territorial waters, every coastal country can establish an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extending 370 kilometers (200 nautical miles) from shore. Within the EEZ, a coastal country has the right to exploit and regulate fisheries, construct artificial islands and installations, use the zone for other economic purposes, and regulate scientific research by foreign vessels. Every coastal country has exclusive rights to the oil, gas, and other natural resources in the seabed up to 200 nautical miles from shore.
In Europe, where many countries have ocean and sea borders and adjacent countries share them, conflicts can ensue. In this lesson, students explore examples of physical geography and borders including peninsulas, straits, and seacoasts:
- A peninsula is a piece of land jutting out into a lake or into the ocean. Because they are surrounded on three sides by water, peninsulas usually have long coastlines. The term peninsula comes from two Latin words, which together mean "almost an island." The Scandinavian Peninsula in northern Europe is one physical feature where there are three countries: Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
- A strait is a narrow passage of water that connects two larger bodies of water. One of the best known is the Strait of Gibraltar, which links the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, straits have had great strategic importance. Whoever controls a strait is likely to control the sea routes of an entire region. The countries controlling the Strait of Gibraltar control the flow of traffic into and out of the Mediterranean Sea.
- The edge of land that borders the ocean along a continent or an island is called the coast, or seacoast. Most people think of coasts as fixed, enduring boundaries that mark the land’s end. Yet all coasts are constantly changing in an endless battle with the ocean. In some areas of Europe, countries struggle with their water borders. They have had to erect barriers against the ocean to prevent coastal flooding caused by high winds and tides or by seismic sea waves called tsunami. For 800 years, the Netherlands has been successfully fighting against the North Sea to keep its coastline. Sixty-five percent of the Netherlands would be underwater today if it were not for the dikes constructed by humans.
Prior Knowledge
- None
Recommended Prior Lessons
- None
Vocabulary
large settlement with a high population density.
a disagreement or fight, usually over ideas or procedures.
geographic territory with a distinct name, flag, population, boundaries, and government.
learned behavior of people, including their languages, belief systems, social structures, institutions, and material goods.
zone extending 200 nautical miles off a country's coast. A country has the right to explore and exploit the living and nonliving things in its EEZ.
to use or take advantage of for profit.
series or chain of mountains that are close together.
a material that humans take from the natural environment to survive, to satisfy their needs, or to trade with others.
naturally occurring geographic characteristics.
increase in the average reach of the ocean. The current sea level rise is 1.8 millimeters (.07 inch) per year.
buying, selling, or exchanging of goods and services.
movement of people or goods from one place to another.
For Further Exploration
Articles & Profiles
- National Geographic Education: Europe—Resources
- National Geographic Education: Europe—Physical Geography
Maps
- National Geographic Education: Europe MapMaker Kit
- NG MapMaker Interactive: Europe
- NG MapMaker 1-Page Map: Europe
Websites
Tips & Modifications
Modification
The case studies can be presented orally or in writing.
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Physical Boundaries
In geography, boundaries separate different regions of Earth. A physical boundary is a naturally occurring barrier between two or more areas. Physical boundaries include oceans, cliffs, or valleys. Select from these educational resources to teach middle school students more about physical boundaries.
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More Human Geography and Borders
Students research four additional examples of human geography and borders. They explore how language, culture, and religious differences affect country borders in Europe.
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Research Examples of Physical Geography
Students explore how specific features of physical geography affect nearby country borders. They conduct research on the North Sea, Scandinavia, the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Netherlands.
-
Political Borders
Students think about regions and borders by determining where they would place borders in an artificial continent, based on a set of physical and cultural features of the area.
-
Physical Boundaries
In geography, boundaries separate different regions of Earth. A physical boundary is a naturally occurring barrier between two or more areas. Physical boundaries include oceans, cliffs, or valleys. Select from these educational resources to teach middle school students more about physical boundaries.
-
More Human Geography and Borders
Students research four additional examples of human geography and borders. They explore how language, culture, and religious differences affect country borders in Europe.
-
Research Examples of Physical Geography
Students explore how specific features of physical geography affect nearby country borders. They conduct research on the North Sea, Scandinavia, the Strait of Gibraltar, and the Netherlands.
-
Political Borders
Students think about regions and borders by determining where they would place borders in an artificial continent, based on a set of physical and cultural features of the area.