Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

My name is miss Dhilon and last lesson you were learning about the physical features of North America.

Can you remind me what is the climates like in the Caribbean? Excellent.

So you should have said it's very hot and humid, but it also gets a lot of rain so it's quite wet as well.

In the lesson today, we will be exploring the question, what are some of North America's most important human characteristics? This is what the structure of the lesson is going to look like today.

We will start by going through the star words.

Then we will look at North America's major cities.

Then we will try to understand the economic activity in North America.

And finally, we will look to understand what natural resources are there in North America and where are these located? Please make sure you have all the equipment ready for the lesson.

You can remind yourself what you need by looking at the screen.

On the screen you can see the star words for today's lesson.

Let's save them out loud using my turn, your turn.

North America.

Human features.

Agriculture.

Forestry.

Mining.

Crude oil.

Gas.

Excellent job team.

To start the lesson we will recap our knowledge of the location of countries in North America.

On the screen you can see a map.

Write down all the countries that are missing and underneath the red boxes.

Remember to use the shape of the country, to help you work it up.

Pause the video now to complete this task.

You can now see the answers on the screen.

Take a few moments to check your answer.

How did you do? Did you get three out of three? Excellent job team.

Well done for remembering the countries in North America.

So we had Canada, United States of America and Mexico.

Okay team so geography has two branches.

And these are Physical Geography and Human Geography.

In the lesson today we will be focusing on Human Geography.

Because we are looking at some of North America's most important human characteristics.

So these are things related to the behaviour of humans.

For example, cities, villages, shops, factories, et cetera.

So looking at these major cities in North America, I wonder how many of these you know already.

So it's okay if you only recognise a few.

But I would like you to look a bit more closely and write down, which cities can you see in the pictures on the screen? Pause the video now to complete that task.

Okay team, here are the answers.

Take a few moments to check yours.

Okay, so just to give you a bit more information about these major cities, Mexico City, New York and Los Angeles are classed as mega cities, because they have a population greater than 10 million.

Toronto, which is in Canada is also considered one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world.

Which means it has lots of ethnicities living together in the country.

More 50% of the population is from outside of Canada, which is incredible.

Los Angeles, which is in California, in the USA, is one of the fastest growing cities in the continent.

So it is the second largest city in the United States.

Another fact is that Mexico City, which is in Mexico, is one of the largest metropolitan areas in the Americas.

And it is built on swampy series of islands in a valley surrounded by volcanoes.

So as the population increased in Mexico City, the area's delicate geology lead to some problems with flooding, runoff and waste water management, pollution, et cetera.

So that's some interesting facts about these cities.

You might have also noticed New York City, which you might have seen in some movies before, but there's lots of high skyscrapers in New York City.

Havana, you can see is in Cuba.

And one thing that I find helps me recognise Havana is all the colourful, lovely buildings and beautiful cars as well, which you can see in the picture.

Okay team, so now you've had a chance to recognise these cities, I would like you to match up the picture with the correct city.

So this time I've given you the cities and I wonder if you can remember which city is which picture.

So Best of luck for this task.

Pause the video now to complete the task.

Here are the answers.

Okay team, so hopefully you did much better at recognising those cities in North America.

Now we can't study all the cities in North America, but we can have a closer look at one in particular, which is New York City.

My turn, your turn, New York.

Good job.

New York is sometimes abbreviated as NYC.

Which stands for New York City.

And this is the most popular city in the United States.

What is it? The most.

Good job.

Popular city.

Now there are two very well known landmarks here.

And these are the Empire State Building, which has 102 floors, and the Statue of Liberty.

We are now going to look at three economic activities in North America.

These are activities which make money for the people and for the country.

We are going to look at agriculture, forestry, and mining.

We are now going to look at agriculture in North America.

In the tropical zones of North America, farmers harvest oranges, sugar cane, coffee, cocoa, which is what makes chocolate, which some of you might really enjoy to eat, and bananas.

And these crops grow on coastal plains near the coast, and in humid mountain slopes.

These crops are really important exports for this part of the world.

Which means that they sell these products to other countries.

Now other fruits such as avocados and chilli peppers and vegetables, and cotton.

These are also predominant in the warm subtropical zones of northern Mexico and the United States.

So these are other things that are grown in this parts of the world.

I would now like you to pause the video to complete the task on the screen.

Here are the answers.

Remember, you only needed to have two.

So that's why I've got slashes, because I've given you all the options.

We are now going to study about forestry which is a major economic activity for much of North America.

Forestry is the management, cultivation and harvesting of trees and other vegetation in forests.

And logging companies, they harvest Woods from Cedar, Fir and spruce trees.

And this timber, which is wood prepared for building and carpentry is exported throughout the world for construction purposes.

Some of the continents largest paper mills, which are mills that are producing lots of paper are found in this part of the world.

Pause the video now to complete this task.

What is timber from trees in North America, exported around the world for? Is it for transportation, construction or fuel? Here's the answer.

Did you remember that correctly? So timber is transported to other countries and mainly for construction and building.

Activities such as mining and drilling dominate the North American economy.

Mining provides billions of dollars and millions of jobs throughout the continent.

North America is the leading producer of coal, which is used in energy production.

Pause the video now to complete the task on the screen.

Here is the answer.

Remember, North America is a huge producer of coal which is used for.

Can you remember? Energy.

Good.

Energy production, well done.

Mining for metals is also very popular in North America.

For example, mining for iron and copper is very important, because it's used for construction.

And a lot of this metal is mined in North America.

Iron as you can see in the picture, can be used for train tracks and copper is used for construction which is on the right hand side.

Gold and silver mines also operate in North America.

Pause the video now to complete the task on the screen.

Here are the answers.

Well done if you matched those up correctly.

Now with a strong domestic and export economy focused on the natural resources, North America has become one of the most developed regions in the world.

We are now going to find out where these natural resources are located within North America.

North America is home to vast deposits of oil and natural gas.

What do they have lots of? Good, oil and natural gas.

Which, these have drilled for energy and for fuel.

Oil and gas extraction are key elements of the North American economy.

The United States, Canada and Mexico, which you can see in the map, are among the world's top oil producers.

On the map, you can see Alberta marked on the map of Canada.

The vast majority of Canada's oil is produced in Alberta.

Where is it produced? Good job.

In Alberta.

The Athabasca Tar Sands, which are in the Canadian province of Alberta are the world's largest reservoir of heavy crude oil.

More than 20 national and international extraction projects are established here.

Crude oil is needed for fuel for transport.

For example, petrol and diesel oil comes from crude oil.

However, a lot of people around the world are concerned about this oil extraction in Alberta, because it's causing a lot of air pollution.

I would now like you to pause the video to complete this task.

Use the key words at the bottom of the box to help you.

Here are the answers team.

The keywords are in bold.

Okay team, that is now the end of today's lesson.

I hope you had lots of fun learning about some of the human characteristics of North America.

And I wonder what have you learned today that you didn't know before.

In the next lesson we will be learning more about the climate in some parts of North America.

Bye everyone.

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