Lesson Three

Components of Communities, Similarities and Differences

Lesson Objective: The students will be able to describe the components that make up communities. They will be able to use these components to describe different types of communities. They will move from a general discussion of communities to a more specific discussion by beginning to describe the network of communities in Humboldt County.

What are the Components of a Community?

Show a transparency made from Overhead Transparency Master 1, "Types of Communities." Use the following questions for discussion:

What is a community? Communities are groups of organisms that live, work and play in the same general area, have things in common, and depend on each other. Some examples of communities are families, schools, neighborhoods, and cities. The children, teachers, principle, and bus driver are some of the people that make up the community at a school. The classrooms, lunchroom, gym and playground are also a part of the community at a school. Everyone at the school uses the things in the community and depends on each other every day.

While most people think of human communities, there are other kinds of communities. Animals live in communities, such as on a farm. The horses, cows, pigs, cats, and sheep live in a community with the farmer, barn, farmhouse, and fields. Plants also live in communities, such as in the forest. The plants in the forest depend on each other and to grow, eat, drink, and survive.

Explain that for the rest of this lesson, students will be focusing on the communities at the city level and the network of communities in a county.

Note: Be sure students understand the concepts of city and county.

Cities are formed when the people that live in an area agree to incorporate and elect a city government. Cities commonly have a city council, a police force, a fire department, and other city services. Counties are the largest territorial division for local government within the state. Counties can have many cities within them. There are 58 counties in California. We live in one of them -- Humboldt.

What things make up the community of a city and network of communities in a county? Ask the students to recall the book Seedfolks and the discussion that followed. What picture formed in their head about what that community was like? What clues in the story helped form that picture? The clues they heard that formed the picture of the Gibb Street neighborhood in their head are the things that make up a community.

The city and network of communities in a county are made up of many living and non-living things. For example, a city and county may include:

• People of different race, ethnicity, religion, age, and gender;
• Homes that are big and small, and apartments;
• Land such as parks, farms, streets, and parking lots;
• Animals like dogs, cats, cows, coyotes, snakes, fish and pigeons;
• Geography that includes mountains, rivers, oceans, fields, and deserts;
• Buildings such as a library, fire station, museum, movie theater, and baseball stadium;
• Transportation such as cars, bikes, trains, buses, taxis, and subways;
• Government made up of policeman, mailmen, garbage men, and the mayor;
• Economy including the businesses that produce goods and services and workplaces such as factories, stores, and offices.

All of the above living and non-living components of communities are considered sources of wealth.

What is wealth? When most people think of wealth, they picture money, factories, buildings, cars, etc. Wealth is usually defined as all the things that have a monetary value or are useful. Wealth can be more inclusive than simply material items, however. Wealth can be all of the things that make life better for people. Often, life is made better by things such as safe neighborhoods, knowledge, or a beautiful and healthy outdoor setting.

Some economists divide the sources of wealth into three categories: economy, people and environment. The economy category includes factories, buildings, roads, houses and income. The people category includes all the people in a community and the skills and talents those people possess. For example, a community with many teachers, doctors and carpenters is wealthy in skilled workers. The environment category includes the benefits that are derived from the natural world, whether or not they have a dollar value. Examples of environmental wealth would include clean air and water, fish and wildlife and a beautiful place to live.

The similarities and differences between communities can be identified by comparing the sources of wealth that each community has.

Similarities and Differences between Communities

Not all communities contain all of the things discussed above. While communities may have many similarities, they also have many differences that make them unique.

In order to begin to understand what makes the network of communities in Humboldt County special, the students should have a familiarity with the geographic setting of the county. Part of what is unique about this lesson plan is that it focuses on what the students know best -- the place where they live, play and have grown up. Throughout the lesson, give the students an opportunity to share with the class what they already know about their home.

Begin by showing a transparency made from Overhead Transparency Master 2, "Political Map of Humboldt County." Explain that a political map shows the things that humans have made. Important things to point out on this map include the major cities throughout the county, Highways 101, 299 and 36, the Hoopa Reservation, Redwood National Park, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Six Rivers National Forest, the Arcata Airport, and the Samoa Bridge.

"4.5.5 Students understand the structure, functions, and powers of the United States local, state and federal governments as described in the US Constitution, in terms of the components of California's governance structure (i.e., cities and towns, Indian rancherias and reservations, counties, school districts." History/Social Science Content Standards for Grades K-12.

Students should also be familiar with the natural features of the county. Show a transparency made from Overhead Transparency Master 3, "Relief Map of Humboldt County." Explain to the students that a relief map shows the natural features of an area. On this map, it is important to discuss the location of the major rivers in the county, the Pacific Ocean, Humboldt Bay, the Klamath Mountains, and the Yolla Bolly Mountains. A general discussion of the physical layout of the county can follow.

"3.1.1 Students describe the physical and human geography and use maps, tables, graphs, photographs, and charts to organize information about people, places and environments in a spatial context by identifying the geographical features found in their local region." History/Social Science Content Standards for Grades K-12.

The students will now participate in an activity to reinforce their understanding of the similarities and differences between communities.

Activity Identifying What Makes Communities Similar and Different (optional)

Materials:

• Scratch paper (1 sheet per 4 students)
• Marker (1)
• Large sheet of butcher paper for Venn diagram (1)
• Post-it Notes (medium size) (1 pad)
• Masking tape or scotch tape (4 short pieces)

Materials included in this lesson packet:

• Postcards of various communities

Procedures:

Divide the students into small groups. Give each group one postcard of a community and one sheet of scratch paper. A variety of different postcard settings have been provided so that the groups will be discussing different communities. Ask the groups to list the characteristics of the community that is represented on the postcard. Allow 10 minutes for the students to work in their groups. You can circulate around the classroom helping the groups create their lists. Once the groups have finished making their lists, each group should share their postcard and their list of characteristics with the class. After each group has shared, emphasize several points:

1. Communities are in different geographic places (near rivers, mountains, oceans, and deserts).
2. Communities have different populations, spatial distribution, and amounts of open space.
3. Communities are known for different things:

• Natural beauty – volcanoes on the Hawaiian islands,
• Growing food – wheat growing in Kansas,
• Natural resource extraction – coal mining in Kentucky,
• Entertainment and tourism – making movies in Hollywood, California,
• Industry – making cars in Detroit, Michigan,
• Ethnic and religious diversity – neighborhoods of New York City,
• Technology – making computer chips in Silicon Valley, California.

After discussing some of these characteristics of communities, tape the sheet of butcher paper to the wall using the masking/scotch tape. Use the marker to draw two large, overlapping circles on the paper (a Venn diagram). Label one circle "My Community" and label the other circle "Other Communities." Ask the students to give you ideas about what makes a community special – both our community and other communities. They may use the ideas that they wrote down on their scratch paper. As the students give you ideas, write each idea on a Post-It note. Use a marker pen to write the idea so that the students can read what ideas have already been given. Place the Post-It note on the butcher paper within the corresponding circle. After the students have given ideas about what makes communities different, ask for ideas about what similarities all communities have. You may stimulate their thinking by suggesting such things as kids, parks, schools, policemen, and neighborhoods. Write down the ideas on the Post-It notes and place them in the overlapping portion of the two circles.

Lesson Closure:

At this point the students have been introduced to the concept of communities in general. They should be able to describe characteristics of communities and explain how communities are similar and how they are different.

Students are now ready to take a closer look at the network of communities in Humboldt County. They will explore how Humboldt County has changed over time in order to prepare them to think about the future of Humboldt County.

References:

Lesson plan adapted from: "How Communities Are Different." <http://www.lessonplanspage.com/SSCommunityDifferencesVenn3.htm>

Fleischman, Paul. 1997. Seedfolks. HarperCollins Publishers: New York.