Colorado Academic Standards Online

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Identify key attributes of a variety of geographic tools. For example: Globes, maps, and GPS (Data Literacy).
2. Find information using geographic technologies (Critical Thinking and Analysis).

Inquiry Questions:

1. How would an individual describe how to get somewhere without an address?
2. What if we didn’t know how to use geographic tools?
3. Why can’t a round globe be represented accurately on a flat map?
4. Why don’t people carry globes to help find their way?
5. Why is an address necessary?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers use geographic tools to study and represent places.
2. Geographic thinkers use geographic terms, tools, and technology in work and play to describe and find places. For example: Pilots use maps to make flight plans, hikers use compasses to determine directions, and vacationers use maps to find unfamiliar places.
3. Geographic thinkers use addresses to help locate places. For example: Knowing an address is necessary for an ambulance to find a location or for an individual to receive mail.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Apply the disciplinary concept of geographic perspective to identify and reflect upon their place in the world.
2. Integrate multimedia as effective tools for presenting and clarifying information.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Identify and reflect upon personal connections to one or more families within the community (Social Awareness).
2. Make observations and draw conclusions about the relationship between groups of people and their surroundings (Social Awareness).

Inquiry Questions:

1. How are other communities both similar to and different from your community?
2. Why do people celebrate traditions?
3. How do people use resources in the local community?
4. How do individuals in the community use the environment?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers study resources and their availability and use them as a key to understand human interactions with their environment and each other.
2. Geographic thinkers study human and environmental interactions and the consequences of those interactions.
3. Geographic thinkers understand that people from various cultures are both similar and different and that these differences may be reflected in clothing, language, and culture, etc.
4. Geographic thinkers understand that boundaries and the need for boundaries affect everyday life. For example: Boundary lines determine who owns a piece of property.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Use disciplinary vocabulary in sentences.
2. Identify maps, graphs, charts, and diagrams as sources of information.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Identify key attributes of a variety of geographic tools. For example: Globes, maps, and a compass rose (Data Literacy).
2. Find information using geographic technologies. For example: GPS and satellite imagery (Critical Thinking and Analysis).

Inquiry Questions:

1. How do you define, organize, and think about the space around you?
2. What is a human feature and a physical feature?
3. Why do we use geographic tools such as maps, globes, grids, symbols, and keys?
4. How would you describe a location without using geographic words?
5. How can using the wrong geographic tool or term cause problems?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers use visual representations of the environment.
2. Geographic thinkers identify data and reference points to understand space and place.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Construct maps, graphs, and other representations of familiar places.
2. Describe spaces and places and the relationships and interactions that shape them using geographic tools. For example: Maps, graphs, photographs, and other representations.
3. Use maps, globes, and other geographic models to identify cultural and environmental characteristics of places.
4. Analyze and use information presented visually in a text that supports the words in a text. For example: Graphs, charts, flowcharts, diagrams, models, and tables.
5. Analyze different texts (including experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia texts) to compare competing theories, points of view, and arguments in the discipline.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Recognize problems within a community related to the environment and their respective solutions (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
2. Make observations and draw conclusions about the relationship between a community and their environment (Critical Thinking and Analysis).

Inquiry Questions:

1. How do available resources and their uses impact a community?
2. How do we know when we are being good stewards of renewable and non-renewable resources? For example: Reduce, reuse, and recycle.
3. How does the environment influence people’s decisions about where they live?
4. How do humans change the environment of a place over time?
5. How does the environment influence the culture and lifestyles of a place?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers compare information and data and recognize that environmental factors influence change in communities.
2. Geographic thinkers study the uneven distribution and management of resources.
3. Geographic thinkers recognize that problems can be identified, and possible solutions can be created.
4. Geographic thinkers identify and reflect upon personal connections to community systems.
5. Geographic thinkers understand that they must manage resources in the environment such as conserving water, safeguarding clean air, managing electricity needs, and reducing the amount of waste.
6. Geographic thinkers, within communities, collaborate to modify, manage, and depend on the environment. For example: Elected officials decide how to manage resources, and communities may limit hunting, water usage, or other activities.
7. Geographic technology is used to gather, track, and communicate how resources might be managed or modified. For example: Ski areas track snowfall rates, analyze data for avalanche danger and even create snow.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Describe how human activities affect the cultural and environmental characteristics of spaces or places.
2. Generate questions to guide research, gather information from print and digital sources, determine biases and credibility of sources, cite sources accurately, and use evidence to answer their research question.
3. Demonstrate positive social behaviors when using technology.
4. Synthesize information from multiple sources to demonstrate understanding of a topic.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Articulate the most effective geographic tools to access information needed for developing spatial thinking (Critical Thinking and Analysis).

Inquiry Questions:

1. What questions do geographers ask?
2. How does the geography of where we live influence how we live?
3. How do physical features provide opportunities and challenges to regions?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers use and interpret information from geographic tools to investigate geographic questions.
2. Geographic thinkers use geographic tools to answer questions about places and locations such as where to locate a business or park and how to landscape a yard.
3. Geographic thinkers develop the skills to organize and make connections such as reading a map and understanding where you are, where you want to go, and how to get to the destination.
4. Geographic thinkers use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Use information gained from illustrations such as maps and photographs, as well as the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text. For example: Where, when, why, and how key events occur.
2. Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration the different opinions people have about how to answer the questions.
3. Find information using technology.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Investigate a variety of places and communities and draw conclusions about regions (Critical Thinking and Analysis).

Inquiry Questions:

1. Are regions in the world more similar or different?
2. Why do people describe regions using human or physical characteristics?
3. What are the geographic characteristics of a region?
4. How do cultures lead to similarities and differences between regions?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers analyze connections among places.
2. Geographic thinkers compare and contrast characteristics of regions when making decisions and choices such as where to send children to school, what part of town to live in, what type of climate suits personal needs, and what region of a country to visit.
3. Geographic thinkers can explain how natural and human-made catastrophic events in one place affect people living in other places.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Use information gained from illustrations such as maps and photographs, as well as the words in a text to demonstrate understanding of the text. For example: Where, when, why, and how key events occur.
2. Compare and contrast the most important points and key details presented in two texts on the same topic.
3. Identify disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question that are open to different interpretations.
4. Find information using technology.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Articulate the most effective tools to access information about the geography of Colorado (Media Literacy).
2. Ask questions to develop further understanding about the geography and development of Colorado (Critical Thinking and Analysis).

Inquiry Questions:

1. Which geographic tools are best to locate information about a place?
2. Why did settlements and large cities develop where they did in Colorado?
3. How are the regions of Colorado defined by geography?
4. How does the physical location of Colorado affect its relationship with other regions of the United States and the world?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers gather appropriate tools to formulate and answer questions related to space and place.
2. Geographic thinkers use tools to compare and contrast geographic locations.
3. Geographic thinkers use geographic tools to answer questions about the state and region to make informed choices. For example: A family reads a weather map to research road conditions to inform their decision to go to the mountains in the winter.
4. Geographic thinkers use geographic tools to collect and analyze data regarding an area where people live.
5. Geographic thinkers identify evidence that draws information from multiple sources in response to compelling questions.
6. Geographic thinkers use evidence to develop claims in response to compelling questions.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
2. Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.
3. Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic.
4. Provide a concluding statement or section related to the information or explanation presented.
5. Identify disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question that are open to different interpretations.
6. Access relevant information needed for a specific purpose.
7. Find and communicate information using technology.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Define the problems faced by people in Colorado because of the physical environment they encountered (Critical Thinking and Analysis).

Inquiry Questions:

1. What physical characteristics led various cultural groups to select the places they did for settlement in Colorado?
2. How did Colorado settlers alter their environment to facilitate communication and transportation?
3. How does the physical environment affect human activity?
4. How does human activity affect the environment?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.
2. Geographic thinkers evaluate how physical features affect the development of a sense of place.
3. Geographic thinkers consider geographic factors when making settlement decisions. For example: Colorado Springs has a dry climate that is favorable for computer companies, and ski resorts developed in the Rocky Mountains.
4. Geographic thinkers can describe how environmental and cultural characteristics influence population distribution in specific places or regions in Colorado.
5. Geographic thinkers explain how cultural and environmental characteristics affect the distribution and movement of people, goods, and ideas.
6. Geographic thinkers explain how human settlements and movements relate to the locations and use of various natural resources.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided.
2. Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
3. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
4. Introduce a topic clearly and group-related information in paragraphs and sections; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful in aiding comprehension.
5. Identify disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question that are open to different interpretations.
6. Explain how supporting questions help answer compelling questions in an inquiry.
7. Articulate the most effective options to access information needed for a specific purpose.
8. Find information using technology.
9. Communicate information using technology.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Investigate geographic resources to form hypotheses, make observations, and draw conclusions about communities in the United States (Global and Cultural Awareness).

Inquiry Questions:

1. How can various types of maps and other geographic tools communicate geographic information incorrectly?
2. How do you think differently about data when it is displayed spatially?
3. How and why do we label places?
4. How have places and regions in the United States been influenced by the physical geography of North America over time?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers use geographic tools to evaluate data in order to answer geographic questions.
2. Geographic thinkers locate places and identify resources, physical features, regions, and populations using geographic tools.
3. Geographic thinkers use geographic technologies to enhance the ability to locate and analyze maps to answer questions. For example: Historians use maps to help recreate settings of historical events, and individuals use maps to learn about different geographic areas.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.
2. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
3. Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
4. Report on a topic or text or present an opinion, sequencing ideas logically and using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Consider purpose, formality of context and audience, and distinct cultural norms when planning the content, mode, delivery, and expression of analysis of historical events and movements (Interpersonal Communication).
2. Identify and explain multiple perspectives when exploring ideas about conflict in the United States (Global and Cultural Awareness).

Inquiry Questions:

1. What human and physical characteristics have motivated, prevented, or impeded migration and immigration over time?
2. How can migration and immigration, voluntary and involuntary, be represented geographically?
3. How has the movement of people and their belongings affected the environment both positively and negatively?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers study patterns of human movement.
2. Geographic thinkers understand how technology has influenced movement to, colonization of, and the settlement of North America.
3. Geographic thinkers examine how the migration of individuals affects society including economic and environmental impacts.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Draw evidence from geographic tools or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
2. Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration the different opinions people have about how to answer the questions.