Then ask them to analyze their findings and write an essay supporting their choice of sites. Have students bring in the international section of a daily newspaper and select two cities currently in the news to locate on a map. Assign teams of students to research and to present their findings on ways in which the two cities are connected. They might be linked, for example, by human-migration routes, weather patterns, economic concerns, communication systems, or transportation networks. All places have characteristics that give them meaning and character and distinguish them from other places on earth.
Geographers describe places by their physical and human characteristics.
Physical characteristics include such elements as animal life. Human characteristics of the landscape can be noted in architecture, patterns of livelihood, land use and ownership, town planning, and communication and transportation networks. Languages, as well as religious and political ideologies, help shape the character of a place. Studied together, the physical and human characteristics of places provide clues to help students understand the nature of places on the earth. Activity Ideas Give each student a folded piece of paper on which you have written the name of a place that is known and easily described by the students.