Background Essay
Background Essay
Most states are divided into two types of regions: geographic regions and tourism regions. While the two types of regions often share some attributes, the criteria for dividing the regions are very different.
Geographic regions are characterized by physical geography, human geography, and environmental geography. Physical geography refers to the type of atmosphere and ecosystems found within a region, and how much water a region contains above ground and underground. Human geography refers to the different human communities and cultures found within a region. Environmental geography refers to the way the people and natural world within a region interact with each other.
Tourism regions are designated by a state’s tourism bureau. Each region is determined based on common cultural and/or environmental traits. These regions are designed specifically to enhance tourism within a state, so they are named to emphasize positive characteristics of a region in order to appeal to tourists. They may be named after regional historical events, foods, cultural rituals, topography, physical environment, man-made attractions, or a combination of any of these.
For example, in far western Kentucky, the Mississippi River crosses the Madrid Fault. This area is part of the geographic region known as the Jackson Purchase. This same area combines with part of the Pennyroyal geographic region to form the tourism region known as Western Wetlands.
Kentucky’s rich geographic and cultural diversity provides it with a total of six geographic regions (Jackson Purchase, Pennyroyal Region, Eastern Mountains and Coal Fields, Knobs Region, Bluegrass Region, and Western Coal Fields) and nine tourism regions (Western Wetlands; Bluegrass, Blues & Barbecue; Caves, Lakes & Corvettes; Kentucky’s Southern Shorelines; Daniel Boone Country; Kentucky’s Appalachians; Northern Kentucky’s River Region; Bluegrass Region; and Bourbon, Horses, & History).
Use the KET interactive Regions of Kentucky to learn more about each of these regions and find out where they are located.
Discussion Questions
1. What is the difference between geographic regions and tourism regions?
2. After viewing the Regions of Kentucky interactive, what can you conclude about how the geographic regions were determined? What specific geographic characteristics and natural boundaries were considered for each geographic region?
3. After viewing the Regions of Kentucky interactive, what can you conclude about how the tourism regions were determined? What specific environmental and cultural characteristics were considered for each tourism region?
4. Tourism regions are named to emphasize positive characteristics of a region in order to appeal to tourists. In what ways do/don’t the names of Kentucky’s tourism regions emphasize their positive characteristics?
Teaching Tips
The time frame for this lesson is 3-4 days.
Promote a Region
In this lesson students will identify the characteristics specific to each of Kentucky’s geographic and tourism regions.
Materials
· Access to a class set of computers with Internet access for research and a word processing program and printer for developing a brochure.
· Downloadable brochure template. There are many templates available on the Internet. You need to find one that works best with your computers. To save time, ask your school technology resource person to have this template loaded onto the computers you will be using prior to the day you are ready to start.
Step-by-Step Procedure:
1. Divide class into groups of two and assign each pair one of the fifteen geographic and tourism regions to research. Adjust the number of students in each group as needed so that each region is represented, but not more than once.
2. Have students go to the computers and research their regions. Make sure they find information about the distinguishing characteristics of their region. They also need to find interesting facts and pictures.
3. Once they have all of their information, they need to put the information and pictures into the brochure template. Review with them what a brochure looks like and how to write for a brochure. Also remind them that they cannot cut and paste the information from their source. That is plagiarism. They need to put the information in their own words, and they need to write the brochure as though they were making it for a visitor’s bureau. In other words, they need to make their region appealing.
4. Once everyone has completed their brochures, place each one around the room with a comment sheet next to it. Have each group go around and assess each of the other brochures and write constructive comments on their comment sheets. You may wish to go over what the students are looking for when they are peer assessing and what constructive comments look like.