This lesson is for my students in my 10th grade class on our study of the country Ukraine. From this web page my students should gain knowledge on the country Ukraine, through the information given. You should also learn how to relate the geography standards to this information.
UKRAINE
CAPITAL: Kiev
TOTAL
AREA: 233,089.87
sq mi
603,700.00 sq km
(slightly smaller than Texas)
POPULATION: 48,760,474 (July 2001 est.)
LANGUAGES: Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian
GOVERNMENT TYPE: Republic
The flag represents a blue sky over a field of grain or sunflowers and the trident (tryzub) is an ancient symbol of Ukraine.
LOCATION
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north-east, Belarus to the north, and Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland to the west. Romania and Moldova to the south-west. The Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the South. Ukraine's geographical location between Europe and Asia meant that much of its early culture was a mix of Eastern and Western influences. It is important for you to notice the location, lines, points, distance, and direction of Ukraine. As students you must understand spatial structures, spatial relationships, and spatial processes and how they influence the patterns of places.Most of Ukraine consists of fertile plains (steppes) and plateaus, mountains being found only in the west (the Carpathians), and in the Crimean Peninsula in the extreme south.
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(Crimean Peninsula) 
(
Black Sea)
LANGUAGE, CULTURE, RELIGION
In the Ukrainian religion, the Willow branch is traditionally blessed on Palm Sunday.
The people of Ukraine are primarily of Slavic origin, with 73 percent of the population being ethnic Ukrainians. Russians are the largest minority group.
Strictly speaking, the popular-image beefy Slavic people are found mostly in the western Ukraine (bordering on Poland, Hungary and the Slovak states) and in the north and northeast adjacent to Russia.
For over a century, the official language was Russian. Since independence, Ukrainian is being promoted as the state language although Russian is still the most widespread, especially in the major cities. In villages people speak both Russian and Ukrainian. As a rule of thumb, you can manage by speaking Russian, although you may receive a bit of resistance from public officials who are being pressed to use Ukrainian.
Ukrainians are passionately nationalistic- having only recently been freed from two centuries of Russian domination. They think of themselves as strongly pro-western (a legacy of Soviet domination) and they have a particular fascination with the United States. English is commonly taught in public schools and is rapidly becoming an informal second language. The primary religion in Ukraine is Eastern Orthodox Christian. The Ukraine Jewish community decreased during The Great Patriotic War, and the third popular religion is Islam. The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics would play a role in this section. Students should learn how to appreciate other cultures so they can understand the ways in which people choose to live in different regions of the world. This will enable them to appreciate the role culture plays in the spatial organization of modern society. Rivalry and tension between cultures contribute much to world conflict. As members of a multicultural world, students must understand the diverse spatial expressions of culture.
As you can see this information best relates to the geography standard, that people create regions to interpret Earth's Complexity. It is important for you to know that there are different types of regions. In this particular case Ukraine would be a formal region, because its characterized by a common human property, such as the particular language, religion, nationality and culture.CLIMATE
The climate is subtropical on the Crimean Peninsula. Precipitation is distributed highest in the west and north, the least in the east and southeast. Winters vary from cool along the Black Sea to cold farther inland. Summers are warm across the greater part of the country, except for the south where it becomes hot. The rest of the country's climate is temperate. This mean temperature in July is about 10 C. In January, however the temperature drops to -6 C. The average rainfall is 50cm(20in) a year varying in different regions.
According to geography standard the physical and human characteristics of places students need an understanding of why places are the way they are, because it can enrich their own sense of identity with a particular place and enable them to comprehend and appreciate both the similarities and differences in places around their own community, state, country, and planet. Climate is one of the ways in which places are characterized.
RESOURCESNo nation in Europe has more abundant natural resources than Ukraine. Its most valuable resource is its fertile soil. Arable land covers about three fifths of the country. Unfortunately, widespread removal of grass cover led to soil erosion in the 20th century. In addition, constant use of pesticides and herbicides damaged the land and harmed the rivers and lakes. Beneath the surface of the land are an abundant amount of minerals. These include some of the world's largest reserves of manganese-bearing ores. Anthracite and bituminous coal are found in the Donets Basin, and there are large reserves of brown coal in the Dnieper Basin. Iron ore deposits are found mostly in the southeast.
www.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia
Ukraine also has some petroleum and natural gas. Other mineral deposits include aluminum, graphite, kaolin, potash, rock salt, sulfur, titanium ore, and uranium ore. As a student you must understand the spatial distribution, quantity, and quality of resources on Earth's surface, referring to geography standard- the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources. It is essential that the student is aware of the different kinds of resources, the ways in which humans use these resources, and the distribution of them across the Earth's surface.
*ASSIGNMENT* From this information you should have learned how to compare the geography standards to different places in the world. Now you must write a report on two cities located in Ukraine. In this report you will include the following: Population, Region, Subdivisions, and any other information that you find. You must also relate this findings to any of the 18 geography standards. Located below is a list of resources that may be helpful:
