Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Knows the basic elements of maps and globes (e.g., title, legend, cardinal and intermediate directions, scale, grid, principal parallels, meridians, projection)

*Interprets topography using aerial photos and maps

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Knows the location of school, home, neighborhood, community, state, and country

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Knows major physical and human features of places as they are represented on maps and globes (e.g., shopping areas, fast food restaurants, fire stations, largest cities, rivers, lakes, wetlands, recreation areas, historic sites, landforms, locations of places discussed in history, language arts, science, and other school subjects)

*Knows the approximate location of major continents, mountain ranges, and bodies of water on Earth

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

* Knows the absolute and relative location of a community and places within it (e.g., parks, stores, landmarks)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Knows patterns on the landscape produced by physical processes (e.g., the drainage basin of a river system, the ridge-and-valley pattern of the Appalachians, vegetation on the windward and leeward sides of a mountain range)

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Knows the physical and human characteristics of the local community (e.g., neighborhoods, schools, parks, creeks, shopping areas, airports, museums, sports stadiums, hospitals)

*Knows that places can be defined in terms of their predominant human and physical characteristics (e.g., rural, urban, forest, desert; or by types of landforms, vegetation, water bodies, climate) Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Knows how the characteristics of places are shaped by physical and human processes (e.g., effects of agriculture on changing land use and vegetation; effects of settlement on the building of roads; relationship of population distribution to landforms, climate, vegetation, or resources)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Understands ways in which people view and relate to places and regions differently (e.g., how children, mothers, joggers, and city park workers view a park)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Knows the physical components of Earth's atmosphere (e.g., weather and climate), lithosphere (e.g., landforms such as mountains, hills, plateaus, plains), hydrosphere (e.g., oceans, lakes, rivers), and biosphere (e.g., vegetation and biomes)

*Understands how physical processes help to shape features and patterns on Earth's surface (e.g., the effects of climate and weather on vegetation, erosion and deposition on landforms, mud slides on hills)

*Knows how Earth's position relative to the Sun affects events and conditions on Earth (e.g., how the tilt of the Earth in relation to the Sun explains seasons in different locations on Earth, how the length of day influences human activity in different regions of the world)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Knows the components of ecosystems at a variety of scales (e.g., fungi, insects, plants, and animals in a food chain or food web; fish and marine vegetation in coastal zones; grasses, birds, and insects in grassland areas)

*Knows ways in which humans can change ecosystems (e.g., clearing forests, widening channels of waterways, draining wetlands, wetting or suppressing fires)

*Knows plants and animals associated with various vegetation and climatic regions on Earth (e.g., the plant and animal life supported in a midlatitude forest in North America, the kinds of plants and animals found in a tropical rain forest in Africa, animals and trees that thrive in cities)

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Knows ways that people solve common problems by cooperating (e.g., working in groups to pick up trash along a road, participating in a neighborhood crime-watch group, participating in community house-building projects)

Level I: Primary (Grades K-2)

*Knows ways in which people depend on the physical environment (e.g., food, clean air, water, mineral resources)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Knows the ways people alter the physical environment (e.g., by creating irrigation projects; clearing the land to make room for houses and shopping centers; planting crops; building roads)

*Knows the ways in which the physical environment is stressed by human activities (e.g., changes in climate, air pollution, water pollution, expanding human settlement)

Level II: Upper Elementary (Grades 3-5)

*Knows how humans adapt to variations in the physical environment (e.g., choices of clothing, housing styles, agricultural practices, recreational activities, food, daily and seasonal patterns of life)

*Knows how communities benefit from the physical environment (e.g., people make their living by farming on fertile land, fishing in local water, working in mines; the community is a port located on a natural harbor, a tourist center located in a scenic or historic area, an industrial center with good access to natural resources)

*Knows the ways in which human activities are constrained by the physical environment (e.g., effects of weather, climate and landforms on agriculture, recreational activities, availability of water, expansion of settlement)

*Knows natural hazards that occur in the physical environment (e.g., floods, wind storms, tornadoes, earthquakes)