Glencoe Earth Science

Unit 6: You and the Environment

Land use in past 200 yrs

Project Type: History
Have students research and display land use maps of the United States throughout history.  Ask students to design flip charts to demonstrate location and amount of land that has been used for different activities: farming, cities, parks and natural resources, industry, and undeveloped land.  Using their flip charts, students compare how land use has changed in the past 200 years and predict how it will continue to change in the future.

Student can make the flip charts on 8½ inch by 11inch sheets of paper or on transparencies.

Resources:
These sites will help students research land use in the United States for the past 200 years.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
http://www.epa.gov/greenkit/historic.htm

Historical Maps
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/hist_sites.html#US