National Curriculum Standards

National Geography Standards: Places and Regions

• Standard 4: The geographically informed person knows and understands the physical and human characteristics of places.
• Standard 5: The geographically informed person knows and understands that people create regions to interpret Earth's complexity.
• Standard 6: The geographically informed person knows and understands how culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.

Developed by the National Council for Geographic Education

• CultureGrams World Edition: Scandinavian Countries

1. Organize the students into groups of five. Assign each group member to read the CultureGram of a different Scandinavian country:
   
   a. Norway
   b. Sweden
   c. Finland
   d. Denmark
   e. Iceland
   
   
2. Have group members discuss the similarities among the countries in their region and attempt to draw conclusions about why the countries have been grouped together. Students can discuss both human characteristics as well as physical characteristics. For example, do the people in these countries speak a common language, share a common history, follow the same religion, practice similar customs, share the same level of economic development, etc.? Are there physical boundaries that group these countries together or divide them?
   
   
3. Ask the students to summarize their findings in a bullet-pointed list.
   
   
4. Have one member of each group present the group's findings to the class.
   
   
5. Lead a discussion on how grouping countries into regions helps us understand the world's peoples.

1. What kinds of legal regional divisions exist? Discuss international treaty organizations (NATO), political unions (EU), and free trade zones (NAFTA, CARICOM, ASEAN).
   
   
2. A common phrase describing strategic regional relationships goes, "My enemy's enemy is my friend." What does this phrase mean? Ask students if they can think of any historical or current examples that would illustrate this principle. (e.g., the alliance of the United States and the U.S.S.R. during World War II) Discuss with the students whether the U.S.'s current alliance with Pakistan in fighting terrorism fits this maxim. Why or why not?

1. The Scandinavian countries fit neatly into a region; however, not all countries do. As a homework assignment, have students read the CultureGram for Turkey along with a selection of other CultureGrams from the Middle East (Iran, Syria, Lebanon, etc.) and Europe (Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, etc.). Instruct them to then compare Turkey to both regions and decide whether Turkey should be classified as part of Europe or the Middle East. Have students come to class prepared to defend their choice in a class debate. After the debate, discuss why Turkey's government might want to be classified as part of Europe since the country is attempting to gain membership in the European Union, while other elements of the population want to characterize Turkey as Middle Eastern for cultural reasons.