Southern and Eastern Africa: Geographic Passport

Students are introduced to the physical geography of Southern and Eastern Africa. They label a map of the region with countries, physical landscapes, and waterways. Then they research and report on conflicts in East Africa that are directly related to climate change. Finally, they consider the role of tourism on the environment in East Africa, exploring how different points of view affect how humans approach a specific environment.

This learning experience is designed for device-enabled classrooms. The teacher guides the lesson, and students use embedded resources, social media skills, and critical thinking skills to actively participate. To get access to a free version of the complete lesson, sign up for an exploros account.

Engage

Overview

In this experience, students examine the physical geography of Southern and Eastern Africa and analyze how landforms, water, vegetation, and natural resources influence human activity. They investigate how environmental changes affect the choices people make and how human activities can modify physical environments. Finally, students examine tourism at Ngorongoro from multiple perspectives to evaluate how economic opportunities, conservation, and community needs can be balanced.

Objectives:

Describe major physical features, water systems, vegetation patterns, and resources of Eastern and Southern Africa
Explain how physical geography influences where and how people live and work
Analyze ways people adapt to and modify environments in Eastern and Southern Africa

skyscrapers alongside shorter buildings and water

Geography affects human life in many ways. Landforms, climate, water, vegetation, and natural resources can influence where people settle, what kinds of work are possible, and how communities travel or obtain food and water.

But the relationship works in both directions. People also change environments by building cities and roads, farming land, using water, mining resources, and developing places for tourism.

Eastern and Southern Africa include large cities, mountains, plateaus, river systems, lakes, grasslands, forests, deserts, and coastlines. Understanding the region requires looking at both its physical geography and the ways people interact with those environments.

In this experience, you will examine the physical geography of Eastern and Southern Africa and investigate how people adapt to, depend on, and modify the environments around them.

Objectives:

Describe major physical features, water systems, vegetation patterns, and resources of Eastern and Southern Africa
Explain how physical geography influences where and how people live and work
Analyze ways people adapt to and modify environments in Eastern and Southern Africa

What evidence in this photograph shows ways people have modified the physical environment?

Post your answer

After students respond, invite several students to identify the evidence they used.

Use the discussion to distinguish physical features from human-made features. Students may identify buildings, roads, the waterfront, transportation systems, or other evidence of urban development. Explain that cities provide one clear example of people modifying environments, but human-environment interaction also occurs in rural areas through farming, grazing, mining, water use, and tourism.

Possible follow-up questions include:

Which features in the image are human-made?
Which features are part of the physical environment?
Why might a city develop near water?
How can building a city change the surrounding environment?
What resources might a large city require?
In what other ways do people change environments?
How might the physical environment also limit what people can build or do?

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