Virginia SOL WG.2.b
The Standard
showing the influence of resources on patterns of economic activity and land use
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science · The student will apply history and social science skills to evaluate the significance of natural, human, and capital resources by
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students use maps, images, and data to connect natural, human, and capital resources with farming, mining, manufacturing, services, and settlement. They explain why particular activities and land uses develop in certain places.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students identify relevant resources and use evidence to explain an economic or land-use pattern. They can also compare two places and explain why similar resources may produce different outcomes.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think resources only mean raw materials or that one resource always creates one type of economy. They often overlook workers, technology, transportation, investment, government decisions, and environmental limits.
How to Assess It
- Give students a resource map and a land-use map of one region. Ask them to identify one pattern and explain it using two pieces of map evidence.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs resource and land-use maps of Brazil, then have them overlay tracing paper and mark three links between resources and economic activity.
Ask students to write: Why do farms, factories, and mines cluster in some places but not others?
Play a matching game with resource, worker skill, investment, and land-use cards, then require a one-sentence justification for each match.
Use a local zoning map to explain how roads, water, workers, and investment shape the locations of stores, housing, and industry.
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