Fulbright-Hayes Brazil Project - Brazil: A Map Study

Brazil: A Map Study

As a result of this lesson, students will be able to:

identify the five major themes of geography.
apply the five major geographic themes to the geography of Brazil.
evaluate the impact of geography upon Brazil's history, growth, and development.

1. Distribute the student handout entitled The Five Geographic Themes, and direct students to read the section of the handout entitled "Place."

To illustrate the physical character of a place, ask students to describe the particular characteristics of the place in which they reside.
To illustrate the importance of the relationship between people and place, ask students to take a sheet of scratch paper and to draw, as best they can, a map of their school and its surroundings. (Allow a few moments for students to create their own maps.)
Now, ask students to label the places on their maps in Portuguese. When students respond, ask them why they would have difficulty doing so.
Explain to the class that this illustrates the importance of language and cultural institutions as a part of the concept of place.
Explain that shared language and culture also explain why people have deep rooted ties to the region of the world they call "home."
Write the word "Brazil" on the chalkboard and ask students if they know what language is spoken in Brazil. Why would Brazilian students have an easy time labeling their maps in Portuguese?

2. Direct students to read the section of the handout entitled "Location."

To illustrate the concept of absolute location, provide students with specific coordinates of the school or of nearby sites of significance, such as cities, towns, lakes, etc. (Example: 38° 532 42.43 N, 77° 022 12.03 W are the coordinates for Washington, DC)
To illustrate the concept of relative location, utilize the relationship between the school and their neighborhoods. Why is the school located on this particular site? How does it relate to the communities around it? (A broader example: Why would New Orleans be considered a significant location for trade and commerce?)

3. Direct the students to read the section of the handout entitled "Regions."

To illustrate the concept of physical unifying factors, write the term "biomes" on the chalkboard. Explain that this term refers to physical regions with common characteristics (i.e. desert biome, grassland biomes, forest biomes, etc.)
Write the terms "formal region" and "vernacular region" on the chalkboard.
Explain that formal regions refer to the fixed boundaries of states, counties, and other administrative units of government. However, vernacular regions refer to the cultural landscape of a place and peoples interaction with it.
Explain that a vernacular region transcends formal regions because, like a mental map, it is part of a group of people's cultural identity that has developed through their interaction with their environment. (Example: Appalachia refers to both a physical region in the United States but also to a sub-culture that is identified with that region.)

4. Direct the students to read the section of the handout entitled "Movement."

Explain that movement across time and space is a result of both push and pull factors. Push factors are those that force people to leave an area and move to another; pull factors are motivational forces that draw people away from their current location.
Ask students to provide examples of pull factors that might draw a person away from "home" or hearth.
Write the terms "folk culture" "cultural map" and "cultural diffusion" on the chalkboard.
Explain that the unique culture people develop in a particular region is folk culture. As people move out from the hearth, they bring their culture with them. The extent and nature of this movement creates a "cultural map" as their culture diffuses and intermingles with the culture of others.
As an example, ask students why the primary language spoken in Brazil is Portuguese.

5. Direct the students to read the section of the handout entitled "Human- Environmental Interaction."

Explain that human beings just by living within the environment have an impact upon it.
Ask students to provide examples of both positive and negative impacts in their own community.

6. Explain to the class that they are now going to apply these five geographic themes to the nation of Brazil.

Place the phrase "5/5" on the chalkboard.
Explain that Brazil is the fifth largest nation in the world in land area and also the fifth largest in population.
Place the figures "86 million people" and "3,290,000 sq. mi." on the chalkboard.
Ask students to note that in land area, the country is only slightly smaller than the United States, yet the population is less than 2/3 of the United States.
Ask students to hypothesize why this is the case? What role do they think geography might play in this regard?

7. Distribute a copy of the student handout entitled Analyzing Brazil to each student.

Divide the class into work groups of two or three students.
Assign each group one of the Brazilian estados (states) listed on Map #6. (Note: Since class sizes and, therefore, the number of groups will vary, be certain that Amazonas, Pernambuco, Mato Grosso, São Paulo, and Rio Grande do Sul are among those assigned. This will ensure that the class will be made aware of the diversity of Brazil's geography by examining each of the five regions (Norte, Nordeste, Centro-Oeste, Sudeste, and Sul, respectively.)
Distribute a set of the six maps to each group, and direct the students to analyze their estado using the data contained on the maps. (Note: You may wish to make this a whole-class activity by utilizing the PowerPoint presentation that can be downloaded from the project website.)
Circulate among the groups and provide assistance in map reading and analysis as needed.
Upon completion of the questions, ask each group to present its findings to the class, focusing on how their estado reflects the five geographic themes.