Texas TEKS 2.5.A
The Standard
identify ways in which people have modified the physical environment such as clearing land, building roads, using land for agriculture, and drilling for oil
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students examine photos, maps, or nearby places and identify changes people made to the land or water. They name the change and explain why people made it.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given an unfamiliar image, a student points out a human-made change and explains its likely purpose. The student can separate natural features from areas changed by people and cite visible evidence.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think anything outdoors is natural, including farms, ponds, and cleared fields. They may also identify a road or oil well without explaining how its construction changed the land.
How to Assess It
- Show a photo of a highway crossing a wooded area. Ask: What did people change, and why did they make that change?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Build a clay landscape, then add a road, farm, or oil well and label how the land changed.
Compare before-and-after land photos and write: People changed ___ by ___ because ___.
Play a card sort using images labeled natural, changed by people, and unsure, then defend each choice.
Walk around the school grounds, sketch one human-made land change, and explain its purpose.
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Printable 2.5.A Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 3.3.C
describe the effects of human processes such as building new homes, conservation, and pollution in shaping the landscape.
- 2.5.B
identify consequences of human modification of the physical environment; and
- 6.5.C
identify and analyze ways people have modified the physical environment such as mining, irrigation, and transportation infrastructure
- 4.8.A
describe ways people have adapted to and modified their environment in Texas, past and present, such as timber clearing, agricultural production, wetlands drain...
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