The purpose of this resource is to identify a reqion for study as a system, and to establish a list of characteristics and features useful for determining the boundaries of regional systems. Students discuss their current understanding of what Earth systems are and how they work, and consider how to identify the boundaries of a region for Earth system study. In small groups, they select a region for recommendation to the class, and they make a list of characteristics and features that can mark the boundaries of regional systems. After presentations by each group, the class chooses one region for study as an Earth system. Then they mark the boundaries of their chosen region on their Landsat image, topographic map, or other map. Educational levels: Middle school, High school

The GLOBE Program, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)

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Digital Library for Earth System Education

GLOBE® 2005  RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries Learning Activity - 1 Earth System Science
A
ppendix
W
elcom
e
Introduction
Protocols
Learning A
ctivities
Regional Connections: Earth Systems at a Regional Level
RC1: Defining Regional  
Boundaries
Purpose
To identify a region for study as a system, and 
to establish a list of characteristics and features 
useful for determining the boundaries of regional 
systems 
Overview
Students discuss their current understanding 
of what Earth systems are and how they work, 
and consider how to identify the boundaries of 
a region for Earth system study. In small groups, 
they select a region for recommendation to the 
class, and they make a list of characteristics 
and features that can mark the boundaries of 
regional systems. After presentations by each 
group, the class chooses one region for study as 
an Earth system. Then they mark the boundaries 
of their chosen region on their Landsat image, 
topographic map, or other map.
Student Outcomes
Students will be able to,
-  define “region” as an area which has 
similar features throughout;
-  identify a specific region for study as 
an Earth system by finding boundaries; 
and 
-  describe the region’s boundaries so 
that others can find them on a map. 
Science Concepts
Earth and Space Sciences
Weather changes from day to day and 
over the seasons.
The sun is the major source of energy at 
Earth’s surface.
Solar insolation drives atmospheric and 
ocean circulation
Each element moves among different 
reservoirs (biosphere, lithosphere, 
atmosphere, hydrosphere).
Physical Sciences
Heat is transferred by conduction, 
convection and radiation.
Heat moves from warmer to colder objects.
Sun is a major source of energy for changes 
on the Earth’s surface.
Energy is conserved.
Chemical reactions take place in every part 
of the environment.
Life Sciences
Organisms can only survive in 
environments where their needs are met.
Earth has many different environments 
that support different combinations of 
organisms.
Organisms’ functions relate to their 
environment.
Organisms change the environment in 
which they live.
Humans can change natural environments.
Plants and animals have life cycles.
Ecosystems demonstrate the 
complementary nature of structure and 
function.
All organisms must be able to obtain and 
use resources while living in a constantly 
changing environment.
All populations living together and the 
physical factors with which they interact 
constitute an ecosystem.
Populations of organisms can be 
categorized by the function they serve in 
the ecosystem.
Sunlight is the major source of energy for 
ecosystems.
The number of animals, plants and 
microorganisms an ecosystem can 
support depends on the available 
resources.
Atoms and molecules cycle among the 
living and non-living components of the 
ecosystem.
!
?
GLOBE® 2005  RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries Learning Activity - 2 Earth System Science
Scientific Inquiry Abilities
Analyzing maps
Collaborating with classmates
Communicate results and explanations.
Time
One or two class periods 
Level
Middle, Secondary
Materials and Tools
Landsat image of your school (provided by 
GLOBE)
Topographic maps and/or others such as 
vegetation, physical, soil maps of the 
region covered by the Landsat image 
(as available)
Preparation
Review the Landsat image and maps.
Make student copies. (See Step 1, 
Preparation.)
Prerequisite
Students must have some familiarity with 
Landsat images and maps for this activity.
Crosswalk to Other GLOBE Learning 
Activities
Hydrology Investigation: Model a 
Catchment Basin
Watersheds provide useful boundaries for study 
of the Earth system, and this activity introduces 
students to their watershed and how it works. It 
also builds their skills of interpreting maps and 
images, as they use these to construct a three-
dimensional model of a watershed.
What to Do and How to Do It
Step 1. Preparation
Review the Landsat image and maps to 
find regions you may wish your students to 
identify.
GIS (Geographic Information System) images 
showing watersheds, soils, and vegetation and 
other land cover types can enrich the activity. 
Identifying a Region
The region or regions you identify may be large 
or small. They should be larger than a study site, 
(defined by what one might see while standing 
in one place), and small enough for students to 
learn about them in a short period of time. If you 
need a specific size guideline, select an area that 
is about 5 km on a side.
Natural boundaries are best, but if by using only 
natural boundaries you have a region that is too 
large, use a man-made feature, such as a road.
Do not worry if regional boundaries cannot be 
sharply defined.
Because one of the great values of this module is 
the opportunity it provides for integration with 
the rest of your students’ work on GLOBE, you 
may want your students to identify a region that 
includes one or more GLOBE study sites. 
With your preparatory review of the Landsat 
images and maps, you will be able to gauge 
whether or not your students need help in 
interpreting them before they do this activity.
Make Student Copies 
Section of the Landsat image that includes 
the regions you have selected for student 
investigation
GIS images (if you plan to use them) 
 Work Sheets:
 Identifying a Region for Study 
 Student Self-reflection Log: Identifying a  
 Region
 Assessment rubric for this activity (You  
 may want to share with students.)
GLOBE® 2005  RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries Learning Activity - 3 Earth System Science
A
ppendix
W
elcom
e
Introduction
Protocols
Learning A
ctivities
Step 2. Explain the purpose of the activity: to 
better understand the Earth at the regional scale 
by viewing it as a system. 
Explain that students will explore a new way of 
looking at the Earth – that is, as one system, a set 
of interconnected parts or components.
If you have any question about your students’ 
grasp of what a system is, you might wish to 
take a few minutes to have each of them write 
a definition and share it in discussion with the 
class. 
Advanced students should need little help here. 
Beginning students may need to consider some 
familiar systems. You can elicit their ideas about 
what some systems might be: a car, a social 
group, a sports team, the human body. You 
might draw a simple diagram of such a system 
on the board or on an overhead, or ask students 
to do that for the class.
Explain to students that they will work with 
their GLOBE Landsat image, maps, and possibly 
other materials to identify and delineate the 
boundaries of a region for study as a system. In 
the next activity, they will consider the inputs 
and outputs of that regional system, i.e. what 
enters and leaves it such as water, soil particles, 
living things, energy, and chemicals. 
Make it clear to students that there are no right 
or wrong answers in this activity, and there is 
no one region that students will be expected to 
identify. What is important is for them to improve 
their skills at analyzing geographic information, 
at viewing regions as systems, and at justifying 
whatever choices of regions they make. 
Step 3. Have the class focus on and describe the 
area around the school, or a selected GLOBE 
study site, or other sites that may be familiar 
to them.
Distribute the student copies of the Landsat 
image and any topographic maps or other maps 
of the area that you have. Look at the image and 
maps with students, and help them interpret 
what they see. What are the general features of 
the area? Discuss them. What can you conclude 
about land cover types, vegetation, and soils 
from the maps? Can you determine where all 
the water at the site comes from, and where it 
goes? 
Explain that a region should have some 
features that are homogeneous throughout, 
and boundaries that can be described. Do any 
regions become apparent to the class?
Step 4. Ask students for a definition of “region.”
Discuss their suggestions. 
A region can be defined as a geographic area that 
has some consistent features or characteristics 
throughout. Regional boundaries are places 
where those features or characteristics change. 
Regions can be large or small.
Step 5. Ask students what characteristics and 
features one might use to define a particular 
region. 
If they need prompting, suggest they consider 
the characteristics listed here. 
Bodies of water: streams, canals, rivers, 
ponds, lakes, or an ocean 
(A watershed makes an effective region for 
study as an Earth system.)
Topographic features such as mountains, 
plateaus, or valleys
Vegetation types: Forest, meadow, wetland, 
desert 
Soil types
Soil moisture
Dams 
Roads, bridges, and other areas of human 
development (homes, office buildings, 
factories, and shopping centers) if they 
are large enough to affect inputs and 
outputs to the region
Political boundaries such as county or state 
lines 
Parks 
Have one student record a class l ist of 
characteristics on the board.
Step 6. Distribute the Identifying a Region for 
Study Work Sheet. Organize students into small 
groups, and ask them to identify a specific 
region to recommend to the class for study in 
the next activity.
Students should keep in mind the purpose 
of defining a region for Earth system study 
in this set of activities, because, in the next 
activity, they will look at the region as a system 
GLOBE® 2005  RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries Learning Activity - 4 Earth System Science
of interacting components and will explore 
what enters the system and what leaves it. The 
regional boundaries they establish now will 
have much significance in the next activity, as 
students attempt to identify what crosses those 
boundaries.
Tell them that each group will be asked to 
describe its chosen region to the class and to 
justify the choice. 
Reques t  tha t  each  g roup  des igna te  a 
spokesperson.
Step 7. Have student groups present and justify 
their chosen regions.
Explain that the class will now choose one 
region to study as a system. The region the class 
ultimately chooses is of less importance than 
the process of student thinking about regions 
as systems, and of their collaborative work with 
each other. If you conduct Activity RC2, your 
students will have an opportunity to discover 
how well their characteristics and features for 
regional boundaries work when they consider 
specific inputs and outputs to the region as an 
Earth system.
Step 8. Help the class reach consensus on which 
region would work best for study as a system.
If the class has difficulty reaching consensus, 
encourage them to look at how clearly a given 
region is defined by its boundaries, and how 
feasible and interesting it might be to study a 
particular region as a system with inputs and 
outputs.
Step 9. Have students draw the boundaries of 
the class region on their copies of the Landsat 
image or map.
Have students keep their copies of the map, 
or collect them for safekeeping until the next 
activity.
Step 10. Collect the Identifying a Region for Study 
Work Sheet, and distribute the Student Self-
reflection Log: Identifying a Region Work Sheet .
The Self-reflection Log can be completed either 
in class or as homework.
Student Assessment
These student products can be used for 
assessment:
Work Sheets
Identifying a Region for Study
Student Self-reflection Log: Identifying a 
Region 
Copies of maps on which students draw the 
boundaries of their group’s selected region 
An assessment rubric covering the first work 
sheet, (group presentations and maps) is 
provided. Students’ responses to the questions 
on the Self-reflection Log cannot be quantified, 
yet they play a special role in student learning. 
Students experiencing confusion or other 
problems with the topic may be more comfortable 
expressing themselves on the work sheet than 
in front of the whole class.
Further Investigations 
Earth System on Foot
Take students to explore the selected Earth system 
region. Visit the areas that students identified as 
regional boundaries, and invite them to reconsider 
the appropriateness of those boundaries. Give 
them an opportunity to modify their list of 
characteristics and features.
Land Management with Earth System 
Science
Ask land management professionals how they 
define regions for their work, what criteria they 
use, and how effective they think those criteria are. 
Find out which land management issues are being 
addressed on the basis of watershed boundaries, 
and why.
Usefulness of Diagrams at Different Scales
For students who have completed Activity LC2 
or LC4: Ask students to predict how well their 
diagrams of the local study site will apply to the 
regional scale, without looking again at those 
diagrams. Then have them retrieve the diagrams, 
evaluate how well they apply to the regional scale, 
and complete a short written report on their 
evaluation.
As mentioned earlier in this activity, the regional 
scale is geographically larger than the local scale, 
but many of the processes that shape the Earth 
system act in similar ways over a range of scales.
GLOBE® 2005  RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries Learning Activity - 5 Earth System Science
RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries
Identifying a Region for Study
Work Sheet 
Name:________________________________ Class: ______________________Date:___________
1. What is a region? Write your definition here.
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
2. With the other members of your group, find a region to recommend to the class for study as 
a system. Describe it here. 
 Remember that you want a region you can look at in terms of what goes in and comes out 
of it (inputs and outputs).
 a. What features or characteristics are you using to identify your region? Why?
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 b. How will you describe your region to the class? List the geographic landmarks that will 
help you identify the full circumference of the region’s boundaries – north, south, east, and 
west. You can use latitude and longitude lines, if necessary.
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________________________________________
GLOBE® 2005  RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries Learning Activity - 6 Earth System Science
RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries
Identifying a Region
Work Sheet-2: Student Self-reflection Log  
Name:________________________________ Class: ______________________Date:___________
Your responses to the questions below are intended to help your teacher become aware of 
what you’re thinking and what you need help in understanding. You will not be graded on these 
responses. 
1. What have you learned about identifying regions that you feel confident about?
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________  
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________  
2. What are you having trouble understanding about regions?
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________  
3. What more would you like to know about the region you have identified?
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________
 _____________________________________________________________________________  
GLOBE® 2005  RC1: Defining Regional Boundaries Learning Activity - 7 Earth System Science
 
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Defining Regional Boundaries

http://www.globe.gov/documents/356823/356868/earth_la_connections_rc1.pdf

Defining Regional Boundaries

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Digital Library for Earth System Education