1. Write the following question on an overhead transparency or board: “How are history and geography connected?” Tell students to think about the question and then write a brief answer in their social studies journal. Have students share their journal writing with a partner and then choose volunteers to share with the whole class. Possible answers to the question include:
• When you study history you often learn about how the geography of a place changes over time.
• To understand the history of a group of people, it is important to know what the geography was like where they lived. The way people live is influenced by the geography.
• To study the history of places, you need to know where places are located and what the places are like.
2. Remind students that in fourth grade they used the five themes of geography to study the geography of Michigan. Make an overhead transparency of “The Five Themes of Geography. Ask students to think about the previous lesson on the migration of early people into the Americas. Then, ask students, “To which of the five themes was that lesson most connected?” Discuss student responses and guide them to the idea that the lesson explored the theme of “movement.” Briefly review the lesson by exploring the question: What are some of the theories about how and why early people moved into the Americas?
3. Using “The Five Themes of Geography, Overhead #1,” point out the section on the theme of regions on the transparency. Explain that this lesson and the next two will explore the theme of regions. Remind students that a region is an area with at least one feature, or characteristic that sets it apart from other areas. Geographers say that these common features, or characteristics, help “bind a region together.” Explain that one way to study the early history of Native American groups in the United States is to look at different regions of Native Americans. Show students a map detailing the different Native American regions, such as the one located at: <http://www.u-s-history.com/natammap.html.
4. Explain to students that they are going to be the ones teaching the class about four regions of the Native Americans, and to do that they will need to complete a web quest which has all of the instructions and details to complete the assignment.
5. Place the students into four groups and assign them the different regions.
6. Give the students the following web site and have them follow the directions indicated.
http://www.teacherwebquest.com/WQ/ElementarySchool/NativeAmericansAcrosstheUnitedStates/wqr1.stm
7. Oncethe students have completed their PowerPoint presentations, have them type a reflection about how they think the project went. Have them answer the following questions in their reflections:
• Was it easy or difficult?
• Was the Web quest easy to follow?
• How did the groups work together?
• What (if anything) went wrong?
• What would you do differently next time?
