Geography Online Freebies

It is always great when you have free resources to use in your geography classroom! Throughout the years, I search and search for free quizzes, videos, and such I could incorporate into my lessons. I’m fairly picky when it comes to lessons. They have to have various attributes. I look for lessons that have the following criteria: (1) Is it fun? (2) Is it challenging? (3) Is it engaging? (4) Does it match the objective (5) Will students walk away with more information than they came in with? (5) Will it allow students at different learning levels to be successful in their own way?

Here are some I have found that I am excited to use in the classroom (may need tailoring and modifications for your students’ needs):

(1) FACING HISTORY AND OURSELVES

I have heard about this organization since I began teaching geography and history in 1997 at age 25. Okay, I just gave away my age. This community has continued to thrive and grow over the last 25 years. I remember sitting in professional development and being handed free resources from FH&O. They were always something I could implement into my class, whether fully or partially. If I remember correctly, this is how I learned to use political cartoon analysis in the classroom. Check out their resource page. Use the search bar to see what you can find.

Click Here: Facing History Library

(2) H2O For Life

You will find lessons are sometimes more geared toward elementary school, maybe you can pass those on to your teacher friends. In just looking this site over there are lessons you could use and adapt to older middle school students. One lesson stood out to me: Don’t Fence Me In, which deals focusing on water scarcity and how it affects animal life. Students are provided an article to read (I would suggest as a group) and Water Stress Map (Map reading skills!!!) Then students will complete a research activity.

Another lesson that you can download, modify and adapt for your students’ needs is Geographic Impacts of the Global Water Crisis. However, the country study was a little too basic and lacked excitement and interest for my taste. They have lessons for all disciplines that you can pass on to your friends. Even some for math! You can find them here: H2O LESSON PLANS

Click Here: H20 for Life

(3) TEACHER VISION

You can access free lessons from Teachervision.com. You will have to sign up with an account, but once you are in, you can scroll to the bottom for the free account. There are free resources you may download. You may find subjects from math to geography to social studies to government. You will have to upgrade to access over 20K lessons, but even without it, you can find free resources you can use within your lesson and planning. I wouldn’t necessarily say these are full lessons as a lesson has an intro, procedure, and closure, but they are useful resources.

Here are some samples of free resources:

Click Here: Teacher Vision

(4) JETPUNK

These quizzes are so fun! Need a fill-in, activity after work is done, or a game for a half day of school? I love the first one Countries of the world quiz. You could have your students work in groups and see how many countries they can name in 14 minutes. The group with the highest score wins! This is something you can use over and over again. Love it!

Click Here: Teacher Vision

(5) OPEN GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

Online Geography education provides multiple links that can be used and incorporated into your lessons, such as resources for physical, environmental, and human geography. These would include World Fact Book, Census Bureau, Population Pyramids, Famine Early Warning System, Storm Prediction Center and more.