Bellringer: Encourage students to think about the geography of their immediate area. Ask them what major cities or towns their school is located near. Have students list the physical characteristics of the landscape in which they live (mountainous, flat, heavily forested, coastal), and then have them describe an area of the country or the world that has a very different geography from their own.

Contrasting: After students have read the text, have them make a two-column chart. Have them use the first column to list the ways a map would be more informative than a globe, and to use the second column to list the ways a globe would be more informative than a map. (Students might state that a map would be better for showing small details or a lot of information about a particular location. A globe, on the other hand, would be better for identifying the relationship of one location to another and for showing the geography of the entire Earth.)

Problem Solving: Have students locate North and South America on a globe. Encourage them to think about how a ship in the Atlantic Ocean would have to travel to reach the Pacific Ocean before the building of the Panama Canal. Ask: Why would a ship need to sail all the way south of South America before the Panama Canal was built? (There was no waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.) What were some of the benefits of human beings changing the land in this way? (The canal provided easier and faster travel between the two oceans.)