Fifth grade students in Michigan begin their study of American history with American Indian peoples before the arrival of European explorers and conclude with the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791.

Students will pretend that they are exploring North America for the first time. They will describe and draw features of major geographic regions of North America: Coastal Plain, Appalachian Mountains, Canadian Shield, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, Basin and Range, and Coastal Range.

This activity will ask students to locate geographic regions and features on a class map using longitude and latitude measurements. Using the longitude and latitude data, students will be able to visualize geographic features in the actual location in order to analyze the living conditions of various regions.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2010256.Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Students will apply their knowledge of the characteristics of the five major regions to create if-statements. As a warm-up students will complete a table using IF statements.During student-facing project, students will:Create 2-3 additional variables within the conditions chart that will direct the flow to determine the correct region.Record responses provided by their partner on an excel spreadsheet.Students will use responses provided to draw a conclusion of which region their partner is “located”.