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Alaska Department of Education & Early Development

Alaska Standards and Key Elements for Geography

The Alaska Geography Standards were modeled after the national geography standards, Geography for Life (1994). The state and national standards share a common vision, as expressed in the Geography Education Standards Projectís publication:

The . . . Standards aim to create a geographically informed person: someone who understands that geography is the study of people, places, and environments from a spatial perspective, someone who appreciates the interdependent worlds in which we all live. The study of geography has practical value through the application of a spatial view to life situations (Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994:26,29).

Alaska teachers and administrators will find the above-noted publication invaluable in describing the standards, age-appropriate activities, and indicators of mastery at the elementary, junior high, and senior high levels.

The Alaska Geography Standards also derive from the five themes of geography which have focused classroom inquiry since the publication of Guidelines for Geographic Education: K-12 (1984). The themes ñlocation, place, human/environmental interactions, movement, and region ñremain central to the Alaska Standards, though reorganized under six standards.

Geography is a holistic discipline; it ties the natural, physical sciences with the social sciences and humanities. The integrated world view it fosters provides students an integrated approach to problem solving and encourages their development as total, world-aware citizens. Geography is an especially important discipline in Alaska, with its mosaic of cultures and complex economic realities closely tied to resource use and human-environment interactions. Ironically, the strength of the discipline ñits holistic approach ñcan also be its downfall. Too often districts assume that geography will be taught within history or government classes, and so fail to address the particular spatial and scientific/social perspectives that only geography offers. The development of the Alaska Geography Standards is an indication of the Alaska State Board of Educationís belief that the discipline should not be lost, but rather addressed directly in district curriculum.

With the aid of the conceptual framework provided by the Alaska Geography Standards, and the use of new computer and imaging technologies, Alaskaís educators can offer vital courses in the field. The key to excellent geography education lies in the recognition that geography is a wide discipline that includes a study of geographic features, resources, physical and human systems, and the interactions among them. A complete curriculum attends to all six of the standards.

A Thumbnail Sketch of the Alaska Standards for Geography

Standard A. Seeing the World in Spatial Terms
A student should be able to make and use maps, globes and graphs to gather, analyze, and report spatial (geographic) information.

• RATIONALE: Use of maps, globes and other information systems sets the stage for a lifetime of geographic learning. Knowing how to access and use these resources develops the ability to analyze spatial data.

Standard B. Places and Regions
A student should be able to utilize, analyze, and explain information about human and physical features of places and regions.

• RATIONALE: Knowledge and insight into place helps us make informed decisions about where to live, work, travel, and seek opportunities. Regions help us to see the earth as an integrated system of places and features organized by such principles as land form types, political units, economic patterns, and cultural groups. Students should understand that people vary in how they organize, interpret, and utilize information about places and regions.

Standard C. Physical Systems
A student should understand the dynamic and interactive natural forces that shape the earthís environments.

• RATIONALE: Physical systems and processes create natural landscapes that are significant to human activities. Within the natural landscapes are interdependent associations of plants and animals interacting with the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and cryosphere. An understanding of physical processes is indispensable in assessing world economic, political, and social conditions.

Standard D. Human Systems
A student should understand and be able to interpret spatial (geographic) characteristics of human systems, including migration, movement, interactions of cultures, economic activities, settlement patterns, and political units in the state, nation and world.

• RATIONALE: The worldís distribution of people is uneven and ever-changing. Human needs create patterns of activity and movement locally and worldwide. These patterns include human migrations, information flows, economic activities, settlement patterns, and forces of cooperation and conflict.

Standard E. Environment and Society
A student should understand and be able to evaluate how humans and physical environments interact.

• RATIONALE: Basic resources such as land, water, and air are components of the physical systems essential to human survival. Resource use varies from culture to culture. Many of the important issues facing societies involve the consequences of interactions between human and physical systems. Complex interrelationships between societies and their physical environments influence conditions locally, regionally, and globally.

Standard F. Power of Geography
A student should be able to use geography to understand the world by interpreting the past, knowing the present, and preparing for the future.

• RATIONALE: Viewing history from a geographic perspective leads to greater awareness and depth of understanding of cultural and physical events. Solutions to the worldís problems require the use of geographic knowledge for making informed choices and predicting consequences.