U.S. Geography: Where in the US is Carmen San Diego?

US Geography: Where in the US is Carmen San Diego?

by Naree

Used in my American Society & Culture class for Junior university students. In this class I tend to not give them as much homework as I could. If adapted, I would have students do more of the research and presentation. Be sure to hand out a map of the US to them (I forgot this – woops! And many wanted one afterwards). Chinese students really do enjoy learning about American culture and geography is a good place to start since it shows the diversity of cultures pretty quickly (visually, accents, food).

1. Show a picture of Carmen – ask students who she is... a fictional character: she was a good detective (ACME) but then turned bad because she was bored and found it more challenging to steal famous monuments throughout the world. Kids watched the cartoon/game show to learn about world geography. Play the famous Carmen song “Where in the World is...” (I have this)

2. Now introduce this game – Where in the US is she? They will be shown pictures (or you could describe a place?) and they need to guess what state she is in.(I also have a ppt of all the pics if you're interested)

3. Show/draw a map of the US – colored regions of the map – to illustrate which state she is in. Be sure to introduce the region that state belongs to (the South, NE, West, Midwest)

4. After finishing all the states and regions (be sure to give examples of accents and unique culture – southern food, hospitality, bigger people?, drawl “ya'll” ; northeast NY accent if possible and be sure to do a mini- 9/11 talk on how many Americans felt all over the country even though it only happened in one city (think Nanjing and Japan), oldest area in the US bc first colonists here ; Midwestern standard American accent b/c of TV broadcasters, best cheese, Great Lakes, “the mitten” / hand reference to MI & WI ; the West with a Cali valley girl accent, etc

5. Show pics of a few tourist destinations in the US and give them the names (and a handout – included – with a brief description). Have them take notes on which ones they like (from your mini-presentation)

6. Put them in groups of 4 and have them collectively decide on only 3 tourist destinations because they are stuck traveling together. They have to do a rank and debate type discussion.

7. Afterwards get their feedback and see which places are more popular in their eyes.