Glencoe World Geography

Chapter 16: Russia Today

Web Activity Lesson Plans

"The New Russia"

Introduction
In this chapter students have learned how life in Russia has changed since the collapse of communism and about the major challenges Russians face in transforming their country to a market economy. More and more tourists around the world are visiting Russia to enjoy its beautiful and historic cities and to explore its natural treasures. In this activity students will visit a site that exhibits some of Russia's most historic and popular destinations.

Lesson Description
In this activity students will visit a Web site featuring some of Russia's most famous and historic destinations—Moscow, St. Petersburg, Lake Baikal. After exploring these topics, they will answer four questions about what they have read and will then draw a map of the route traveled by the famous Trans-Siberian rail line.

Instructional Objectives

Students will be able to relate the history and importance of several of Russia's most famous destinations.
Students will be able to extract relevant information from the Web site to map the route traveled by the Trans-Siberian rail line.

Applied Content Standards
Standard 11: The geographically informed person knows and understands the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth's surface.
Standard 13: The geographically informed person knows and understands how the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth's surface.
Standard 16: The geographically informed person knows and understands the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.
Standard 18: The geographically informed person knows and understands how people apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future.

Student Web Activity Answers

The Kremlin is one of the largest museums of the world. It contains state regalia, icons, and treasures of Russian tsars.
Students' choices and reasons will vary.
Lake Baikal is the largest lake in Eurasia and the deepest lake in the world. In summer its waters are transparent to a depth of 40 meters, and the region is home to an enormous variety of plants and animals, most of which—like nerpas, the lake's freshwater seals, and its trademark delicacy, the omul salmon—are found nowhere else in the world. Bears, elk, lynx, and sables also live in the surrounding forests.
The Trans-Siberian Railway is the longest continuous rail line on Earth, running almost 6,000 miles over one-third of the globe. The usual route taken by travelers is the Trans-Siberian line, which runs from Moscow to Vladivostok.
Students' maps should reflect the starting (Moscow) and ending (Vladivostok) points of the route, as well as the cities of Yaroslavl, Ekaterinburg, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ulan Ude, and Khabarovsk through which the train passes. Details about each city can be found on the Web site.