B. People and Environments · Global Communities

Be a Geographer: Investigating a Community

B2 B1 B3.5 B3.7About 45 minutes

Learning goals

I can ask good questions about how the environment affects people in a community.
I can find information in books, maps, globes, pictures and with a grown-up online, and check that it is reliable.
I can organize information in a chart or a map with a title, legend and compass rose.
I can share what I found out using social studies words.

Words to know

geographer
A person who studies places, the land, climate and how people live in different places.

inquiry
A way of learning by asking a question and finding out the answer step by step.

source
Where information comes from, like a book, map, website, photo or a person.

reliable
Able to be trusted. A reliable source gives true, careful information.

conclusion
What you decide is the answer after looking at all your information.

You are the geographer!

In Grade 1 you were a social studies detective in your own community. Now you will be a geographer and investigate a community somewhere else in the world.

Geographers ask questions like: Where is this place? What are its climate and land like? How do people live there, and why?

A small Arctic town of colourful houses beside a bay with floating ice, seen across rocky land with patches of snow. — A geographer looks closely at a place: What is the land like? What is the climate like? How have people built their homes to fit? AI-generated image

Step	What you do	Questions to ask yourself
1. Ask	Choose a community and write a question.	What do I want to find out?
2. Gather	Find information in sources: books, an atlas, a globe, maps, photos, videos, websites (with a grown-up) or people who have lived there.	Is this source reliable? Is it recent?
3. Organize	Sort what you learned into a chart, a map, or a simple graph.	What goes together?
4. Think	Look for patterns and make a conclusion.	What is the answer to my question? What surprised me?
5. Share	Tell others with a poster, a talk, a slideshow or a book. Use geography words.	How can I make it clear?

The five steps of an inquiry

Good questions

A good inquiry question cannot be answered with just "yes" or "no". It makes you find out and explain.

Not so good: Is it cold in Iqaluit? (Answer: yes.)
Better: How does the cold climate in Iqaluit affect the way people live?

Good questions often start with how or why.

Is my source reliable?

Ask these questions:

Who made it? A library book, an atlas, a museum, a government website or an encyclopedia is usually reliable.
Is it recent? Old books and photos may show how things used to be.
Does it match another source? Check facts in two places.
Is it a fact or an opinion? "Iqaluit is the capital of Nunavut" is a fact. "Iqaluit is the best place" is an opinion.

Always look things up online with a grown-up.

Worked example

Let's investigate Iqaluit, Nunavut

Question: How does the cold climate in Iqaluit affect the way people live?

Ask: We wrote a how question about climate and people.
Gather: We found Iqaluit on a globe: on Baffin Island, in Canada's Arctic, far north of Toronto. We read about it in a library book and on the Nunavut government website with a grown-up.
Organize: We put the facts in a chart (below) and drew a map with a title, legend and compass rose.
Think: Pattern: almost everything, from homes to food to travel, is adapted to cold and snow. Conclusion: The cold climate affects how people build homes (on posts over permafrost), what they wear (very warm clothing), how they travel (snowmobiles and planes) and how they get food (planes, summer ships, hunting and fishing).
Share: We made a poster called "Life in Iqaluit" with a map, the chart and pictures, and presented it using the words climate, permafrost, adapt and Arctic.

The cold Arctic climate affects homes, clothing, travel and food in Iqaluit. People there have adapted in many ways.

Just for fun

Geographers love to ask how and why. So do little kids: "Why? But why? But WHY?" Maybe every toddler is a geographer in training!

	Iqaluit, Nunavut	Toronto, Ontario
Average temperature in January	about −27°C	below 0°C (much warmer than Iqaluit)
Average temperature in July	about 8°C	about 22°C
Trees nearby?	no (too cold for trees)	yes, many
Roads to other cities?	no	yes, many highways

Organizing information in a chart. Temperatures are rounded averages over many years.

The chart's July temperatures as a bar graph. You can see right away that Toronto's summer is much warmer than Iqaluit's.

Making a map to share

A map is a great way to share your findings. Remember the parts:

a title (like Where Is Iqaluit?)
a legend with your symbols (for example, a star ★ for a capital city, a blue line for a river)
a compass rose (N, E, S, W)
labels for important places, like the continent and the nearest ocean

A sharing map with all the parts: a title, a legend that explains the star, a compass rose and labels.

Hands-on activity

My geography project

You need: paper or poster board, crayons or markers, and books or websites to read with a grown-up.

Ask: Choose a community anywhere in the world (maybe one where a family member or friend has lived). Write a how or why question about it, for example: How does the climate in ____ affect what people eat and wear?
Gather: Find it on a globe or world map. Which continent? Is it near the equator or a pole? Find 4 or 5 facts from two reliable sources, or interview someone who has lived there.
Organize: Make a chart with rows for climate, land, homes, food, clothing, travel. Draw a map with a title, legend and compass rose.
Think: Write one sentence that answers your question: The climate in ____ affects people because ____.
Share: Present your poster to your family. Use at least three geography words.

Your turn

What does a geographer study?

Put the inquiry steps in order: Share, Ask, Think, Gather, Organize.

Which is a better inquiry question? (a) Is Tokyo big? (b) How do people in Tokyo get around such a big city?

Name two sources you could use to learn about a community far away.

Look at the chart. What is the average July temperature in Iqaluit?

What three parts should your map have?

Is "Iqaluit is the best city" a fact or an opinion?

More practice: warm-up

What is a source?

What does reliable mean?

Who should be with you when you look things up online?

Good inquiry questions often start with which two words?

What is a conclusion?

More practice: on your own

Look at the chart. How much warmer is Toronto than Iqaluit in July?

Why are there no trees near Iqaluit?

You find a book from 1950 about life in Japan. Why should you check a newer source too?

Turn this into a better inquiry question: "Is the Sahara hot?"

Two websites say different things about a city. What should you do?

Challenge

Use the chart to write a conclusion sentence about how the climate in Iqaluit and Toronto is different.

Your inquiry question is "How does living beside the ocean affect people in a fishing town in Newfoundland and Labrador?" Name three things you could put in your chart.

Why is it a good idea to interview someone who has lived in the community you are studying?

Check your understanding

Quiz

What is the first step of an inquiry?

Which is the best inquiry question?

Which source is usually most reliable?

Which is a fact?

Which part of a map shows north, south, east and west?

From the chart, about how warm is Iqaluit in July?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Geographers investigate places using the inquiry process: ask a question, gather information from reliable sources, organize it (charts, maps, simple graphs), draw a conclusion and share it.

How to help at home:

Help your child choose a community they care about, perhaps where a relative has lived. Personal connections make the project meaningful.
Use the public library: ask for recent children's books about the country, and an atlas.
Supervise all online searching. Children's encyclopedias, government tourism or statistics sites and museum sites are good choices.
Keep the project small: 4 or 5 facts, one chart, one map, one conclusion sentence.

Common difficulties:

Yes/no questions. Help turn them into how/why questions.
Copying sentences. Ask your child to tell you the fact in their own words before writing it.
Using old or unreliable pictures. Check the date and look for a second source.
Note on numbers: the Iqaluit temperatures are rounded long-term averages from Environment and Climate Change Canada climate normals.