Students will examine the significance of the location of shopping malls. Huntsville, Alabama, is used as an example to illustrate that different human activities have different location requirements.
Refer to Mission Geography Module 3, Investigation 1 for content background information and more details.
1. Have students develop a list of different topics that they think NASA scientists are studying. Share the list with the class. Discuss the topics presented and have students identify which topics are local issues and which may be global issues.
2. Using this discussion as a starting point, explain to students that NASA scientists study many different topics and use photos and data gathered by airplanes as well as images and data gathered by satellites. Sometimes the topics that NASA scientists study are very important in local communities. In all locations, it is important for us to know how human activities affect the use of land.
3. Open the discussion of the impact of shopping malls on the landscape by asking students to write some reasons why it is important to have convenient places to shop. List the reasons on the board or overhead transparency.
4. Ask students to identify some advantages and disadvantages of walking versus driving to shopping places. Discuss the differences between walking to shopping places and driving to shopping places.
5. Ask students to read the Briefing on malls and distribute Log 1. Small groups may discuss the questions and complete the rankings of land uses most important for malls to be near. Display group responses.
6. Distribute Log 2. Ask students to complete the activity ranking the features that are most important and least important to the location of community facilities (sports stadium, airport, high school, fire station, and hospital). Discuss the results.
Materials Needed:
Mission Geography Module 3, Investigation
1: Briefing Handout (one copy of each per student) [MG_logs_activity1a.pdf]
Mission Geography Module 3, Investigation
1: Log 1 Handout (one copy of each per student) [MG_logs_activity1b.pdf]
Mission Geography Module 3, Investigation
1: Log 2 Handout (one copy of each per student) [MG_logs_activity1c.pdf]
Assessment information:
Mission Geography Module 3, Investigation
1: Logs 1 and 2 Assessment [MG_logs_assessment1.pdf]
Teacher Resources:
Mission Geography Module 3, Investigation 1 [MG_mod3-1.pdf]
Instructional Sequence | Environmental Issues: Land Use Change
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