Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Trackjen.

You've made a great choice to learn geography with me today.

I will be guiding you through every step of today's lesson, and we're going to have a great time learning together.

Are you ready to get started? Great.

Let's start our learning journey.

Welcome to today's lesson from our unit, the Americas: How diverse are their places and landscapes? This lesson is called, "Planning a Journey Through the Americas." You'll be using research to design a trip covering six geographical highlights of North and South America.

Some of this learning is brand new, but I am here to help you.

This links back to previous learning you might have done, learning about the continents of North and South America and thinking about their climates, biomes and major cities, as well as human and physical features.

I'm really excited to get started, I hope you are too.

Here are the keywords we'll be using today; tourist attraction, physical, geographical feature, human geographical feature and route.

We'll be using these keywords during our lesson and learning more about them later.

Let's do my turn, your turn.

Tourist attraction.

Tourist attraction.

Physical geographical feature, physical geographical feature.

Human geographical feature, human geographical feature.

Route, route.

Well done.

I want you to be using these key words, throughout our lesson.

Now, let's think about what these keywords mean.

Here are the definitions of our keywords.

A tourist attraction is something that people travel to see or do.

A physical geographical feature is natural and has not been built by humans.

A human geographical feature is something that humans have made or built and a route shows the starting point and end point of a journey.

Sometimes with stops in between.

Here are the learning cycles that we'll be completing together in today's lesson.

First, we'll be thinking about why a tourist might visit the Americas, and then we'll be thinking about evaluating our tourist routes.

Are you ready to begin? Let's get started.

Tourism is when people travel somewhere else for pleasure and relaxation.

Tourists might visit another country or somewhere else within their own country.

Have you ever been somewhere on holiday? What did you do there? Pause the video now and discuss this as a think, pair and share activity with the rest of your class.

Great.

I'm sure you had a really good discussion.

People go on holiday for different reasons.

They might travel somewhere to learn about the history and culture of the place, explore its scenery and nature or take part in leisure activities.

Tourism is an important economic activity in many countries around the world, including the UK.

The places that tourist visit are called tourist attractions.

Can you think of any popular tourist attractions in the UK? Pause the video now and answer this question.

Great.

Did you talk about Buckingham Palace in England or the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland or Edinburgh Castle in Scotland? Well done.

There's also many other tourist attractions in the UK.

Good job.

I'll give you a thumbs up.

Let's continue with our learning.

Tourist attractions might be human geographical features, such as museums and art galleries or they might be physical geographical features, such as mountains, beaches and forests.

It's time for a check now, which of the following is not a reason why a tourist might visit somewhere on holiday? A, to visit a museum, B, to go hiking in the mountains, C, to work or D to go to the beach? Pause the video now and answer this question.

How did you get on? Did you answer C? That's correct.

So, tourists would not visit somewhere on holiday to work.

Good job.

Tourism is an important economic activity in North and South America.

Can you think of any popular tourist attractions on these continents? Think about what you've learned about the physical and human geography of North and South America.

Pause the video now and answer this question.

Popular tourist attractions in North America, include the Grand Canyon in the USA, the Banff National Park in Canada.

Asla Diablo in Panama and Universal Studios in the USA.

Popular tourist attractions in South America include Machu Picchu in Peru, to Torres del Paine in Chile, Iguacu falls in Argentina or Brazil and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.

It's time for another check.

Name a popular tourist attraction in North or South America.

Think about all of the learning you've done in this unit so far.

Pause the video now and answer this check.

How did you get on? Did you think about some of the places that we've talked about already? Here are some pictures to remind you.

Good job, let's continue with our learning.

Tourists will often follow a route which takes in different localities and tourist attractions.

Tourist will usually want to know where a place is located, why they should visit this place, what the climate is like in this place and what possible activities they could do there.

So, things like going to museums and art galleries or exploring physical, geographical features like hiking.

Different sources of information can be used to investigate the tourist attractions of North and South America.

These information sources include the internet, tourist information leaflets or maps and atlases, and it could be also talking to friends and family that have visited those places as well.

Let's have another check here.

Name a source of information that could be used to investigate the tourist attractions of North and South America.

Pause the video here and talk to your partner.

How did you get on? Did you say the internet, tourist information leaflets, maps, and atlases.

And it could also be through talking to other people about those places as well.

Good job.

You can give yourselves another thumbs up.

It's now time for task A.

Andeep and Laura are going on holiday to North and South America.

You've got to research and plan a route they could take.

Their journey should start in the north of North America and end at the southern end of South America.

So, you're looking at both continents.

Take in six different locations across these continents and visit areas with contrasting climates and environments and a variety of interesting physical and human geographical features.

Complete the table to describe your planned route.

So, things that I'd like you to include in the table would be the destination, the country where it's located, why that place is special, the climate.

So, think about the temperature and the rainfall and then possible activities that you could do in that destination or country.

Pause the video now and complete part one of task A.

How did you get on? Here's an example of a possible destination that could be on your route.

The destination I've Chosen is Glacier National Park.

The country where it's located is the USA.

Reasons why it's special is physical geographical features, such as glaciers, mountains, valleys, lakes and waterfalls are present there and plants and animal species, including the grizzly bear and the lynx are also native to that area.

Thinking about the climate, so the temperature and the rainfall.

I've written that in the winter there's a lot of snow and it can be very cold and that temperatures are warmer in July and August and types of activities that you could do there are hiking, camping, cycling, fishing, boating, cross country skiing and photography.

Well done for completing that table.

You worked really hard there.

Let's move on to the next parts of task A.

I want you to use an atlas to mark the six destinations, along your route on this map of North and South America.

Pause the video now and complete part two of task A.

How did you get on? Here's an example of a partially completed map with just the first stop on there.

So, Glacier National Park, and there it is.

I've located it on my map of North and South America and I'm sure you've done that with all six destinations in your table.

Good job.

Let's continue with our learning.

So, now we are going to evaluate the tourist route that you've completed in your first task.

Evaluating means checking how well you've done something and deciding whether you've done it in the best way possible.

It could also be used to make improvements.

What was effective about your work? So, that's the work that you've just completed for task A.

How could it be improved? Pause the video now and use your task A examples to answer these questions with a partner or your whole class.

Great.

I'm sure you had some really interesting discussions with your partners and the rest of your class.

Evaluating is an important skill.

It helps us to make sure that our work is the best it can be.

It also helps us to improve the way we approach our work in the future.

Have you used evaluation in other subjects? What did you evaluate? Pause the video now and think about what you've evaluated in other subjects.

How did you get on? Did you talk about evaluating your writing in English? Did you talk about evaluating a science experiment? Did you talk about evaluating a product that you might have created in design and technology or maybe an art piece that you've drawn in art? You use your evaluation skills in lots of other subjects.

Good job.

I'm sure you talked about all of that as well.

It's now time for a check.

This is a true or a false check.

So, you've got to think really carefully, about if this statement is true or false.

Evaluation is where we plan our work.

Is that true or false? Pause the video now and answer this question.

How did you get on? Did you answer false? That's right, well done.

Now, let's think about justifying our answer and thinking about why this statement is false.

Here are the two reasons.

A evaluation is where we describe our results, or B, evaluations where we think about how our work can be improved.

Think about those two reasons and justify why that statement is false.

Pause the video now.

How did you get on? Did you say B? Evaluation is where we think about how our work can be improved.

Well done.

That's right, good job.

I'll give you another thumbs up.

Let's continue with our learning.

It's now time for task B.

You've got to evaluate your tourist route by completing this table.

So, the table has three columns in it.

Criteria, comment and then you can rate yourself red, amber or green.

So, let's go through the criteria that you've got to evaluate your tourist route by.

The first criteria is the trip starts in the north of North America and finishes at the southern end of South America.

So, you've got to look at your route, write comment and rate yourself.

The second criteria says the six different localities in North and South America are located on the map.

So have you done that? Then the third criteria says the climate of each locality is clearly described.

So, think about whether or not you've done that as best as you can and what can be improved.

The fourth criteria says the trip visits a variety of localities and their physical and human features are well described and illustrated.

So, think about if you've got the balance right, between human and physical features or if you need to include more or less of each type.

And the fifth criteria says the possible activities at each locality are clearly described.

Have you included a range of activities and do you think you could include any more? So, it's now time for you to complete task B and evaluate your tourist routes.

Remember to think really critically, about each of these criteria and what you could do to improve your work.

And then rate yourself as red, amber, or green.

So, red if it needs to be improved.

Amber, if you think it's okay but can have a little bit of adjustment and green, if you think you've done it right and it doesn't need any improvement.

Pause the video now and complete task B.

How did you get on with task B? Here's an example of how I've evaluated my tourist route.

So for the first criteria, the trip starts in the north of North America and finishes at the southern end of South America.

The comment that I've written is yes, my route started in Glacier National Park in Northern USA and ended in Torres del Paine in southern Chile.

So, I've rated myself as green there, because I've done that right, and it doesn't need any improvement.

For the second criteria, the six different localities in North and South America are located on a map.

I've written yes and I've also put that as green, because I've done that criteria.

I've achieved it and it doesn't need improving.

The third criteria, the climate of each locality is clearly described.

So, I've commented and said that, some climate data was provided, but this could have been described more clearly.

So, I've rated myself as amber, which means that I've got to do a little bit more work there to improve that answer.

For the fourth criteria, the trip visits a variety of localities and their physical and human features are well described and illustrated.

I've rated myself as green and I've said yes, my route takes in mountains, historic monuments and beaches.

So, mountains and beaches are physical geographical features and then historic monuments are human geographical features.

So, I think I've got that balance right.

And then for the next criteria, the possible activities at each locality, are clearly described.

I've described some activities, but could have researched more examples and I've rated myself as amber, because I've got a little bit more work to do to improve that.

So, I need to add a few more different examples of activities that someone can do when they visit those areas.

So, that's how I've done.

Hopefully your answer looks similar to mine and you thought really carefully, about how you can improve your tourist route.

Well done.

That was a really tricky learning, but you've done so well today.

Let's go through a summary of the learning that we've completed together.

People are attracted to visit places as tourists for different reasons.

There are numerous physical and human geographical features which attract travellers to North and South America.

Different sources of information can be used to investigate the tourist attractions of North and South America.

Well done.

You've been fantastic with your learning today.

Give yourselves one last thumbs up.

It's been really tricky, but you've worked through it so well.

Thank you for joining me today and for sharing your learning with me.

See you next time for more geography lessons soon.

Bye.