This World Geography Class will be built around the five themes of geography:  location, place, region, human-environment interaction, and movement.  This course will give students a foundation for understanding global issues in the context of physical and human geography. 

Each live class will build upon the information that learners have explored in the assigned lessons.  Using interactive slides and discussions, students will explore some of the following topics: refugees, immigration, trade issues, aging populations, indigenous people's rights, and energy resources.  

Course Outline:

Unit One:  Canada and the United States
Week One: Settlement Patterns and Ways of Life in Canada
Week Two: The Great Lakes:  The U.S. and Canada's Freshwater Treasures
Week Three: Urban Sprawl in North America:  Where Will It End?
Week Four: National Parks:  Saving the Natural Heritage of the U.S. and Canada
Week Five: Consumption Patterns in the United States
Week Six: Migration to the United States

Unit Two: Latin America
Week Seven: Spatial Inequality in Mexico City
Week Eight: Indigenous Cultures:  The Survival of the Maya in Mesoamerica
Week Nine: Dealing with Extreme Weather
Week Ten: Land Use Conflict in the Amazon Rainforest
Week Eleven: Life in the Central Andes

Unite Three: Europe and Russia
Week Twelve:  Supranational Cooperation in the European Union
Week Thirteen:  Population Dilemmas in Europe
Week Fourteen:  Invisible Borders:  Transboundary Pollution in Europe
Week Fifteen:  Russia's Varied Landscape
Week Sixteen:  Nation-States from the Old Soviet Empire:  How Have They Succeeded

Each week students will receive three to five lessons in the Outschool Classroom.  Students can expect to spend 1-2 hours outside of the live class each week learning about geography.  

There will be three projects throughout the course of the semester that students will complete.  Projects will be based on a geographic theme chosen by the teacher.  Students can then pick from a list of projects or decide to do a self-chosen project that has been approved by the teacher.