Scoring Guide: Communities & Geography

Read each question. Circle or write your answer.

1. 1.

   Rosa belongs to her family, the town of Elmwood, the state of Ohio and the Elmwood swim team. Which one is a community of shared interest, not a place?

   (2 pts)

   Answer: the Elmwood swim team

2. 2.

   The town's buses stop running for a week. Which community need is now hardest to meet?

   (2 pts)

   Answer: getting around

3. 3.

   Name one community need that the local government usually meets and one need that a business usually meets.

   (2 pts)

   Answer: Answers vary. Look for: government, such as roads, fire service, schools, parks or the library; business, such as food and supplies from a grocery store.

4. 4.

   The only library in Elmwood will close on Saturdays. Name two groups of people who would be affected. Then tell one way people could work together to solve the problem.

   (3 pts)

   Answer: Answers vary. Look for: two real groups (kids, families, students, older adults, people who use the computers) and one shared plan, such as volunteers helping at the desk, a friends group raising money, or asking the town council to fund Saturday hours.

Read each question. Circle or write your answer.

1. 5.

   Dev rides a ferry to work, and his apartment building has 30 floors. What type of community does he live in?

   (2 pts)

   Answer: urban

2. 6.

   Which clue best shows that a place is suburban?

   (2 pts)

   Answer: houses with yards near a big city, where most families drive

3. 7.

   Name one way rural communities and urban communities depend on each other.

   (2 pts)

   Answer: Answers vary. Look for: farms in rural areas grow food that cities eat, or cities offer jobs, hospitals, big stores or goods that rural families use.

4. 8.

   Mr. Lee wants to raise cows and grow corn. Should he choose an urban, a suburban or a rural place? Give two reasons.

   (3 pts)

   Answer: Rural. Answers vary. Look for two reasons, such as lots of open land, room for animals and fields, land between homes, or other farms and farm supply stores nearby.

Use the map box to answer items 9–13. You may draw the map on scrap paper first.

1. 9.

   Map box (read it first): Map of Willow Creek. North is at the top. Scale: 1 inch = 5 miles. Key: a flag means school, a tent means campground, a cross means hospital, a blue line means river, and a green triangle means forest. The school is in the middle of the map. The campground is 3 inches north of the school. The hospital is 4 inches east of the school. The forest is southwest of the school. The river runs from the top of the map to the bottom, west of the school. What does the tent symbol stand for?

   (1 pt)

   Answer: a campground

2. 10.

   What direction is the hospital from the school?

   (1 pt)

   Answer: east

3. 11.

   The forest is southwest of the school. What direction is the school from the forest?

   (2 pts)

   Answer: northeast

4. 12.

   How many real miles is the campground from the school? Show your thinking.

   (2 pts)

   Answer: 15 miles (3 inches × 5 miles = 15 miles, or count 5, 10, 15).

5. 13.

   Is the river east or west of the hospital?

   (1 pt)

   Answer: west

6. 14.

   Mia wants to see the streets of her own town up close. Should she use a globe or a map? Tell why.

   (2 pts)

   Answer: A map. Look for: a map can zoom in and show a small place in detail; a globe shows the whole Earth.

Read each question. Circle or write your answer.

1. 15.

   Write L for landform or W for body of water: plain, lake, valley, ocean, mountain, river.

   (2 pts)

   Answer: plain L, lake W, valley L, ocean W, mountain L, river W

2. 16.

   Which sentence tells about CLIMATE, not weather?

   (2 pts)

   Answer: Summers in this town are usually hot and dry.

3. 17.

   A town sits beside a river, with forests all around it. Name one natural resource there and one thing people could make or do with it.

   (2 pts)

   Answer: Answers vary. Look for: trees for lumber, paper or furniture; or river water for drinking, farming, boats or a mill.

4. 18.

   Why might a town with cold, snowy winters have different homes and jobs than a town in a hot, dry desert? Give one example about homes and one about jobs.

   (3 pts)

   Answer: Answers vary. Look for: homes, such as thick, warm walls, steep roofs or furnaces in the cold town vs. air conditioning, shade or thick adobe walls in the desert; jobs, such as snowplow driver or ski instructor vs. jobs that fit the heat, like pool or air-conditioner workers.

Read the source box. Then answer items 19–22. You may look back at the sources.

1. 19.

   Source box (read both sources first). Source A, a museum card written for this test: "Long ago and today, the Menominee Nation has lived in the forests of what is now Wisconsin. Menominee families have used the forest for wood, food and medicine plants for many generations." Source B, facts shared by a Menominee forester, told in simple words: "The Menominee Reservation was set up in 1854. Since then, the Menominee have cut only some trees each year and let young trees grow. Today their forest has more standing timber than it had in 1854, and its edge is easy to see in pictures taken from space." Copy the words from Source A that show the Menominee Nation still lives in Wisconsin today.

   (2 pts)

   Answer: "Long ago and today" (also accept "has lived" or "have used ... for many generations").

2. 20.

   Name one fact that appears only in Source B, not in Source A.

   (2 pts)

   Answer: Answers vary. Look for: the reservation was set up in 1854; they cut only some trees each year; young trees are left to grow; the forest has more timber today; it can be seen from space.

3. 21.

   Long ago, Hopi families in the dry Southwest built homes of stone and adobe (sun-dried clay brick) with thick walls. Which reason best explains why? (Hopi people still live in Arizona today.)

   (2 pts)

   Answer: Stone and clay were easy to find in the desert, and thick walls kept homes cool on hot days.

4. 22.

   Claim question: Does the Menominee Nation use deep knowledge to care for its land? Write a claim. Then give two pieces of evidence from Source A or Source B.

   (4 pts)

   Answer: Answers vary. Look for a claim such as "Yes, the Menominee use deep knowledge to care for their forest," plus two pieces of evidence: they cut only some trees each year; they let young trees grow; the forest has more timber now than in 1854; families have used the forest for many generations.