Students will examine the physical and human geographic factors associated with sports, recreation, and tourism along with the local and global consequences of these activities.
Use graphic representations, such as maps and timelines to describe the spread of specific sports and/or sporting events from their geographic origins. Analyze the spatial patterns that emerge. [Origins, Change Over Time, Diffusion]
EXAMPLES:. Golf (origin: Scotland); tennis (origin: Europe); lacrosse (origin: Canada – Native Americans): skiing (origin: Norway); soccer/football (origin: Europe, Latin America): baseball/basketball (origin: United States); The Ancient Olympics/ marathon (origin: Greece)
Analyze the ways in which people’s changing view of particular places and regions as recreation and/or tourist destinations reflect cultural changes. [Change Over Time, Spatial Interaction, Cultural Landscape.]
EXAMPLES: Italy (Florence, Venice, Rome): formerly political, religious, commercial centers, becoming tourist centers; China: potential for significant political and cultural change due to the Olympic movement; United States: development of parks in response to increased urbanization
Detect and assess the impact of sport and recreation on the human and physical environments in selected countries. [Change Over Time, Cultural Landscape, National Character]
EXAMPLES: Olympic Games: the modern games have significantly changed the urban centers that have been selected, in many cases the entire country affected; United States: select urban centers where recreational and sporting structure have significantly changed the environment (Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, etc); Africa: the development of National Parks and reserves to protect the animal life and the environment; United States: select impoverished inner city neighborhoods from selected cities and show how the landscape has changed due to the development of recreational facilities; Japan: golf courses in densely settled areas
Analyze the changing patterns of space devoted to sports and recreation in the local community and region. Predict the impact of these patterns in the future. Propose strategies for dealing with the issues identified. [Spatial Interaction, Spatial Organization, Change Over Time]
EXAMPLES: Indianapolis: downtown renewal; West Lafayette: university expense related to sporting facilities; South Bend: national reputation related to sports; Paoli: basketball stadium holds more than the town’s population
Analyze the impact of tourism on the physical and human environments of selected world regions. Predict the environmental impact of a continued growth in tourism in these regions. [Human Environment Interactions, Spatial Interaction, Change Over Time, Spatial Variation, Spatial Organization, Physical Systems, Cultural Landscape, Human Livelihoods]
EXAMPLES: Mexico: tourism on the Yucatan Peninsula (Cancun, etc); Brazil: increased tourism to the rainforest areas along the Amazon River; Kenya: the effects of traditional safari hunting on the animal environment; Pacific World (Hawaii, Fiji, Palau, Tahiti): human change and environmental impact of tourism; China: societal changes resulting from increased tourism in a communist state
Use geographical and historical knowledge and skills to analyze problems related to tourism and to propose solutions related to these problems. [Human Environment Interactions, Spatial Interaction, Change Over Time, Cultural Landscape, Human Livelihoods, Sense of Place]
EXAMPLES: Examine tourism in a developed or less developed country to identify conflicts over resource use, the relative advantages and disadvantages of tourism to local resident and the costs and benefits of tourism from several points of view (e.g., those of the owner of a diving shop, a hotel maid, a tourist, and a local fisherman) to put together a position paper for or against developing tourism in a new location