This activity will help students become more familiar with their heritage and compare other cultures with the United States, while learning more about world geography.
1. By talking with your family, find out the country/countries where your ancestors lived before they came to the United States. Write down this information.
2. Go to Map Quest and type in all information known.
3. Print the most detailed map you can using information from your family. Go back to the lesson using the back arrow.
4. Using the World Atlas, determine the continent where this country is located.
5. Go to the World Fact Book and click on the continent where your country is located.
6. Using the table of contents click on your country.
7. Scroll down to flag. Click on view GIF and print the flag.
8. Scroll down to map. Click on view GIF and print a map of your country. Note the surrounding countries.
9. Using the World Fact Book find these facts for your country and write the information on paper.
a. the most common religion
b. the literacy rate.
c. the size of your country (sq. km)
d. the climate (or average temperature)
e. the population
f. the per capita income (GDP)
g. the unemployment rate
10. Use the back arrow to return to the lesson. Click on the World Fact Book page on the United States.
11. Compare the information you have found on your country (a-g) with facts about the United States. Use the same paper to write the facts.
12. Write a paragraph explaining where you would prefer to live based on the facts you have discovered. Share your paragraph with the class.
Don't forget to use back arrow to return to the original lesson. Ask the teacher for help if you have problems.
Learning geography is more interesting when it's personalized for each student searching for information about their family heritage. This lesson may also give the students some idea why their ancestors came to the United States.
This page written by Sue Cleveland
Last updated 8/21/97
This page was adapted from Bernie Dodge 's WebQuest_Template1.html by Tom March