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World Geography

Spatial Thinking and Skills

1. Properties and functions of geographic representations (such as maps, globes, graphs, diagrams, internet-based mapping applications, GIS, GPS, RS, and geographic visualizations) affect how they can be used to represent, analyze and interpret geographic patterns and processes.
2. Geographic representations and geospatial technologies are used to investigate, analyze and communicate the results of geographic problem solving.

Environment and Society

3. Human modifications of the physical environment in one place often lead to changes in other places (e.g., construction of a dam provides downstream flood control, construction of a city by-pass reduces commercial activity in the city center, implementation of dry farming techniques in a region leads to new transportation links and hubs).
4. Human societies use a variety of strategies to adapt to the opportunities and constraints presented by the physical environment (e.g., farming in flood plains and terraced farming, building hydroelectric plants by waterfalls and constructing hydroelectric dams, using solar panels as heat source and using extra insulation to retain heat).
5. Physical processes influence the formation and distribution of renewable, nonrenewable, and flow resources (e.g., tectonic activity plays a role in the formation and location of fossil fuels, erosion plays a role in the formation of sedimentary rocks, rainfall patterns affect regional drainage patterns).
6. There are costs and benefits of using renewable, nonrenewable, and flow resources (e.g., availability, sustainability, environmental impact, expense).
7. Human interaction with the environment is affected by cultural characteristics (e.g., plowing with oxen or with tractors, development of water resources for industry or recreation, resource conservation or development).

Movement

8. Physical, cultural, economic, and political factors contribute to human migrations (e.g., drought, religious conflicts, job opportunities, immigration laws).
9. Human migrations impact physical and human systems (e.g., stress on food supplies in refugee camps, removal of natural obstacles to movement, harvest productivity and migrant labor, calls for an official language in countries with high immigration, reduction in city tax revenues due to urban emigration).
10. Activities and patterns of trade and communication create interdependence among countries in different regions (e.g., seed corn grown in Iowa and planted in South America, high-definition televisions manufactured in Japan and viewed in the United States, news outlets from many countries available around the world via the Internet, instant access to data affects stock markets in different countries).

Region

11. Criteria are used to organize regions and as the criteria change, the identified regions change (e.g., types of economic activities, ethnic groups, natural vegetation).
12. The characteristics of regions change over time and there are consequences related to those changes (e.g., industrial belt to rust belt, pristine locations to tourist attractions, colony to independent state).
13. There are interconnections within and among physical and human regions (e.g., river systems, transportation linkages, common currency).
14. Regions are used as a basis to analyze global geographic issues (e.g., desertification, political disputes, economic unions).

Human Settlement

15. Patterns of settlement change over time in terms of functions, sizes, and spatial patterns (e.g., a canal town becomes an industrial city, a rural area becomes a transportation hub, cities merge into a megalopolis).
16. Urbanization provides opportunities and challenges for physical and human systems in cities and their surrounding regions (e.g., development of suburbs, loss of habitat, central markets, squatter settlements on city outskirts, regional specialization in services or products, creation of ethnic enclaves).

Globalization

17. Globalization has shaped new cultural, economic, and political ideas and entities (e.g., universal human rights, European Union, terrorist networks).
18. Globalization has cultural, economic, physical and political consequences (e.g., Internet access increases availability of information, outsourcing leads to regional unemployment, development of infrastructure impacts local ecosystems and economies, computer hacking into sensitive data bases leads to insecurity).
19. Global trade and communication systems reduce the effect of time on the distribution of goods, services, and information (e.g., reliance on local foods versus global trade in perishable foods, online brokering versus personal brokers, Internet access versus library access).