Nancy Siler

A Comparison of the Geography of China and the United States

Emphasis on Natural Resources

Introduction: As the daughter of a coal miner and having lived in Marion County, Tennessee my entire life, natural resources are part of my everyday life. During one summer water had to be carried by a fire tanker so that my neighbors had water to flush toilets and bath. Luckily I had a well that had been dug during a drought and had safe, clean water. An emergency grant from the federal government brought city water from Alabama to our little community. More recently, national news about the water shortage in Georgia and California has caused concerns for southern Tennessee. This study will compare the presence, conservation, and use of natural resources in China and the United States.

Goal: From a sociological perspective students will study the necessity of natural resources for survial and more specifically in the countries of China and the United States.

Time: Approximately three class periods (You will want to view all of the resources and decide which ones are more applicable to your class.)

Objectives: Students will be able to:

  1. Explain that the world’s population is growing quickly and the reasons for its rapid growth.
  2. Describe how Thomas Malthus explained the relationship between population growth and economic development.
  3. Summarize the demographic transition theory.
  4. Recall projections of future world population growth.
  5. Describe voluntary and compulsory methods of population control and their effectiveness.
  6. Define the dependency ration.
  7. Explain the meaning of urbanization.
  8. Summarize the characteristics of a preindustrial city and how the industrial Revolution led to the rise of modern cities.
  9. Describe patterns of world population.
  10. Analyze factors that make sububanization possible.
  11. Describe the central-city dilemma.

Materials Needed

Text: Sociology & You by Jon M. Shepard, Ph.D and Robert W. Greene from McGraw-Hill 2014 (Chapter 15, Section Two, “World Population” and Section Three, “The Urban Transition.”)

Vocabulary: census, doubling time, exponential growth, demographic transition theory, zero-population growth, population momentum, replacement level, population control, family planning, population pyramid, dependency ratio, city, urbanization, over-urbanization, central-city dilemma, gentrification, edge city

Included in Section Two is a map of the world depicting the urbanization by percentages of the country’s total population. The United States to have from 65-79% urban and China to have only 35-49% urban.

The following link shows the energy produced and consumed by China, based on the year 2013. From here there are links to compare its consumption and production to other nations. The link includes information about fossil fuel, nuclear energy, petroleum production, consumption, importation, and exportation.

My second link is for the energy used by the United States. This one is on a chart that shows what has been produced and what is predicted up and until 2020.

I have also included the link below where you may experiment and choose various topics related to this research.

The link below is a great map that shows the location of various natural resources in China.

The following link contains an article that talks about the need for water and its transport to areas of high population. There is also a graph showing the population growth by age. This is particularly interesting if one notes the time period during which families were limited to having only one child. The second link is an article that was written during the one child time period. Below is also a quote from this article. To me it appeared to be a bit of propaganda.

“In discussing the country's population policies, the giddy bureaucrats turned again and again to the economic rewards. "We want to get rich before we get old," was a common refrain.”

The following article explains the wealth of natural resources in China. More and more of these are being harvested but it seems that due to the vast population, the economy remains poor for many.

This one is of the world so that comparisons may be made.

National Geographic has the best resources. I am sharing a link to those just for China.

Here are some of the same resources for the United States.

The water drought and scarcity of water in the United States is in this article with maps.

The link below for the United States allows you to “North America’sphysical geography,environmentandresources, andhuman geographycan be considered separately.” You click on links and explore these afore named areas. You can register for emails from National Geographic and as a service watch their videos.

A great video.

This article compares all the countries of the world.

Another source to find your own material is found in Education about Asia, “Teaching the Geographies of Asia,” Volume 16, Number 1, Spring 2011.

Game or Quiz/Test

Since it is password protected by each user I am including a link to a game site. This may be used as a game or as a quiz/test situation. Both have been used by me. You will need to create an account and then you are ready to create questions for your students. If I use it as a game I have my students to register under a factious name. As each question is shown on my screen, students or teams of students are given so long to correctly answer the question. They send the answer to my computer where it is marked correct or incorrect. If this is a game situation, there will be bar graphs showing who is winning and scores for all. If it is a quiz/test then the site grades it for the teacher and I keep the answers hidden from the class. It even keeps high school students entertained.

I will use my account to first review my students, using the game version. The next day there will be a quiz over the same material with similar questions.