1. AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY
Reading British &
American Culture
Week 10
Professor Hayashi

2. TODAY’S CLASS
• attendance
• article presentations – CHAT CHAT!
• review: the american people
• KWL chart
• American Geography

3. Review
• American families • Rise in one
parent families
• More single
mothers
• Household Expenditures
• More on health
• Less on
travel/food
#1

4. Leisure & Sport
• Most popular participation sports:
MEN- swimming
WOMEN- walking
• Both enjoy cycling
• Aerobics are more popular for
women
• Fishing & basketball for men

5. American College students:
• Top concern
- environment
• New concern
- government hand-gun control efforts
• More conservative about
- drugs & crime
• More liberal about
- abortion

6. Pop Music/Economy
• Rap and heavy metal were under attack
Positive Changes Negative Changes
- GNP doubled during the 1980’s - GNP doubled through borrowing
- lots of people prospered - national debt tripled
- 20 million new jobs were created - corporate & personal debt soared
- booming international trade is spreading
wealth around the world
- widening gap between rich and poor
- poverty increased
-new jobs were low paid service positions
- USA was the world’s biggest creditor
then largest debtor

7. K-W-L Table
• Know – Want to know – Learn
K W L

8. KWL Chart
• In partners, write down what you know
about American geography
• Next, write down what you want to know,
what you’re curious about
• Go through the chapter together and write
down what you’ve learned

9. Important Facts
• the 50 states – 48
continental/conterminous
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=WhDrGnjacvA
• Surrounded by the Atlantic & Pacific
Oceans
• Coastal Plains – East, long, gently rolling
lowland
• Rockies – high, discontinuous chain of
mountains containing metals
• Appalachians – West of Atlantic coastal
plain, low, unbroken, contain iron, coal

10. Important Facts
• Mount McKinley in Alaska is the highest point;
Death Valley in California the lowest
• Longest river: Missouri
• Population 245,000,000 (317 M now)
• flow chart – pg. 59
• most of country has humid continental climate
– hot summers/cold winters
• US has ¼ of world’s coal, 1/7 of petroleum

11. Important Facts
• People go by cars, trucks, planes
• Commercial goods go by trucks
• Freight goes by rail

12. Important Facts
• Main industrial area: midwest
• Banking & Insurance: New York
• almost half of the land (47%) is farmland
• Midwest: agriculture
• South: traditional crops
• West: cattle, wheat farming
• Texas: cattle, sheep, cotton and rice