Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 601 The National Geography Standards may be accessed from the NCGE at: http://ncge.org/geography-for-life 2 Current Wyoming K-12 education standards may be accessed from the Wyoming Department of Education web site: http://edu.wyoming.gov/educators/standards It is our hope that the Wyoming Student Atlas serves as a useful resource to educators for teaching students about Wyoming’s past and present physical and human geography. The maps and supporting information in this publication have been developed with a focus on learners in upper elementary through junior high grades. One guiding set of principles in designing the Atlas was the National Geography Standards for grades K through 12 published by the National Center for Geographic Education (NCGE) on behalf of the Geography Education National Implementation Program.1 First published in 1994 and revised in 2012, the National Geography Standards continue to serve as the foundation for geography curriculum design and instructional material development in many of the 50 states, including Wyoming. There are 18 Standards grouped according to six Essential Elements (see accompanying table). Grade-level knowledge themes and content, as well as corresponding student performance statements are specified for three grade bands (4th, 8th and 12th). National Geography Standards Essential Elements The World in Spatial Terms Places and Regions Physical Systems Human Systems Environment and Society The Uses of Geography Source: Heffron and Downs 2012. The National Geography Standards’ content encompasses a wide range of human and physical geography topics, corresponding closely to the geography element (“People, Places and Environment”) of the most recent version of the Wyoming Social Studies Content and Performance Standards.2 The Standards can also be related to components of the latest (pending) update of the Wyoming Science Content and Performance Standards including content associated with “Earth’s Systems,” “Earth and Human Activity,” and “Ecosystems.” Above all, the Standards embody the philosophy that “the goal of teaching geography is to equip students with the knowledge, skills, and perspective to do geography” [emphasis added] (Heffron and Downs 2012, p. 13). That is, combining geographic information with geographic thinking to support well-reasoned decision making and successful problem solving. We believe the Wyoming Student Atlas supports this goal by combining factual geographic knowledge with visual geographic representations to help students better understand what is happening in our state, why it happens where it does, how it has changed from the past, and how it may change in the future. We hope you find the Atlas useful in your teaching. More information about potential classroom uses of the Wyoming Student Atlas may be found at the Wyoming Geographic Alliance web site (www.uwyo.edu/wga), including digital versions of many of the Atlas maps, additional ancillary data, web resources, and sample lesson plans. Note to teachers 2