Geography: Students Identifying Opportunities and Constraints in a Place

When geographers look at the big idea of human and physical interaction, they consider 1) how the physical landscape impacts people or 2) how people leave their mark on the physical landscape. To skillfully apply more discrete thinking to the concept of human and physical interaction, students apply the skill of identifying how the local geography provides opportunities and/or places constraints on people. This skill appears in various ways throughout a student's education from preschool through 12th grade and this thinking is part of the national geography standards. (Geography Standard 15: How Physical Systems Affect Human Systems)

To monitor student achievement of this goal, we have to consider what this thinking looks like before we can start to answer the question, "What students artifact would reveal that the student is able to apply this type of thinking?"

What is "Opportunity" in a Particular Place?: Opportunities exist in situations where something can be done.  The national geography standards help teachers to break down this idea.

1. Opportunity exists when characteristics of the physical environment enable people to thrive and prosper. Some characteristics to consider include climate, water, plants, animals, or landforms. 
• How might different aspects of the climate in this location create opportunities for people to thrive and prosper in this place?
• How might the availability (or location) and abundance of water in this location create opportunities for people to thrive and prosper?
• How might the plants in this place create opportunities for people to thrive and prosper?
• How might the animals in this place create opportunities for people to thrive and prosper?
• How might landforms in this place create opportunities for people to thrive and prosper?
2. Opportunity exists when a place offers activities for people because of the physical environment.
3. Opportunity exists when communities of people can take advantage of the physical environment.
• How might a community harness the water supply in this place?
• How might a community harness the soil to create farming or gardens in this place? What crops might grow effectively?
• How might a community develop recreational activities in this place?

What is a "Constraint" in a Particular Place?: Constraints exist in situations where people are limited or restricted in some way. The national geography standards help teachers to break down this idea.

1. Constraints exist when landforms within a physical environment limits human activities. Sometimes features such as mountains, forests, deserts, the slope of hills, or flood plains limit people. These might limit the growth of agriculture, human settlement, or the ability to develop transportation systems.  
• How might different landforms limit what people can do in this place?
• How might the construction of shelter be limited by the landforms or the physical features in this place?
2. Constraints exist when the climate limits human activities. All climates limit people in some ways, including cold/polar climates, rainy climates, dry climates, or equatorial climates.
• How do facets of climate limit people in this place?
3. Constraints exist when people must adapt their transportation routes due to the physical environment.
4. Constraints exist when environmental hazards are common in a location and those hazards limit people. For example, some locations have many tornadoes, earthquakes, sand storms, hurricanes.
• How do naturally occurring weather conditions limit people in this place?
• How do the behaviors of people change in response to environmental hazards?

What is "Adaptation" connected to Opportunities and Constraints in a Particular Place?: When people adapt to the conditions of a local physical environment, they are taking a "constraint" and turning it into an "opportunity." Kids might think of the phrase, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." 

What artifacts might students create to show their ability to think this way? This is where the teacher gets to embrace creativity based on the interests of students and the tools available for students to create. As long as an artifact reveals that a students can embrace the thinking, any artifact works.

Simulation: Village to Industrial Town in 21 Stages

As students look at geographic issues, they identify different types of interactions.  They might look at the interaction between human systems and physical systems (how do physical systems cause people to adapt, how do people impact physical systems).  They might also look at human systems impacting human systems (how do human systems impact other human systems, what happens when one human system impacts another human system).

This simulation (Village to Industrial Town in 21 Stages) allows students to sense how a place changes over time, and how places solve different geographic solve.  In some cases, the solutions create additional geographic issues to try and solve.

While teachers do not have the textbook that's referenced in the simulation, this is a great starting place for examining the change in places over time...and how each change reflects a solution at one moment in time.

Rats of New York: Understanding the Geography Concept of Human and Physical Interaction

Let me begin with a virtual hooray and shout..."SOOOOOO glad I don't live in New York City after Hurricane Sandy."  One word can explain my perspective: RATS!  Here are just a few resources (organized chronologically) for those of you who haven't heard the story just yet.

• The Daily Beast - Hurricane Sandy Worsens N.Y. Rat Problem (Oct. 31, 2012)
• Gothamist - Interactive Map: Where New Yorkers Complain About Rats Most (Jan. 2, 2013)
• NYTimes  - Storm's Toll Creeps Inland, 4 Tiny Feet at a Time (Feb. 6, 2013)
• Huffignton Post - NYC Rats: Did Subway Vermin Survive Hurricane Sandy? (Feb. 8, 2013)
• National Geographic Daily News - After Sandy's New York Deluge, a Flood of Rats?

While the story of rats makes me cringe, the story allows me to don my geographer's hat and  offer concept-based geographic insight.   The story begins with the rats living all around New York City. New Yorkers were bothered by the rats, but the rats generally stayed in their own space.  Over time, rats adapted to their physical world by living in sewers and tunnels. In those sewers and tunnels, they built the necessary shelter and found local food. The rats learned about their physical surroundings and developed patterns and systems for living within the physical environment of New York.  In 2012,  Hurricane Sandy hit and the rats were spontaneously forced to adapt and move (or migrate).  The physical world of the rats changed instantly and they moved (for different reaons such as safety, food supply, warmth, etc.).  The rats were experiencing push-pull factors to move because the physical condition of their "home." They were pushed from their homes due to a change within the physical system, and they were pulled to new locations because of the opportunities related to food supply, safety, and warmth.  Throughout this story, a geographer continually recognizes the human and physical interaction.  



Conceptually, we want students to examine the concept of human and physical interaction. If rats were truly rat-people, then this would be a fine example to help students understand human and physical interaction. Sometimes the interaction of human and physical systems causes a spontaneous, quick change (such as the example immediately following Hurricane Sandy).Ssometimes human and physical interaction causes people to adapt in ways that become part of daily life (think of how the rats lived on a daily basis before the hurricane). As a conceptual thinker, I can apply what I know about human and physical interactions to more situations:

1. Early Native American groups lived differently because of the physical landscape. Their shelter, food, tools were different because of the local physical landscape and physical systems. These are adaptations that are part of each group's daily life.  The groups also had to adapt spontaneously due to changes in the physical world such as drought. 
2. When various groups of people migrated to Colorado over time, they were often brought here because of the resources that were part of the physical world.  People mined for gold, built railroads through the mountains, and eventually built reservoirs to deal with water limitations. These groups also had to adapt spontaneously due to blizzards, drought, or the migration of animals (food sources). 
3. When Europeans came to the Western Hemisphere to establish colonies, life in the northern, middle, and southern colonies looked different because of how the physical landscape and physical systems caused people to adapt. 
4. For our earliest cultures throughout the Western Hemisphere, we see differences in their lives and cultures because of the physical world and local physical systems.  The Aztecs created floating gardens for food, the Inca established Machu Picchu for defense, and the Inuit developed tools uniquely suited to colder (and often icy) climates. 

These examples show how the daily lives of people are impacted by their local physical world and physical sytems.  Yet, we can probably imagine all of the spontaneous adaptations these groups made due to the physical world.  Situations such as drought, blizzards, tornadoes or lack of seasonal water cause more spontaneous adjustments.  In all situations, geographers recognize how people use the physical world daily or spontaneously adjust to meet their ever-changing needs. This is just one way to look at the geography concept of human and physical interaction.