Europe/Russia/Central Asia
Digital Notebook
Student Name
Block
[name]
class
Factors Affecting the Climates of
Europe and
Russia/Central Asia
1
explain how "LAME COWS" influence the distribution of climate regions in Europe using maps.
analyze how the character of a place is related to political elements using maps.
identify physical and/or human factors such as climate, vegetation, language, trade networks, political units, river systems, and religion that constitute Europe using maps.
What is the world’s largest biome?
What are “Arctic” and “Sub-arctic climates like?
Why do most Russians live in the western part of Russia?
Russia - A Climate of Extremes
What effect do oceans currents and winds have on much of Europe?
What is the North Atlantic Drift?
Vegetation map of Russia and Central Asia
Human Environment Interaction: EUROPE
2
Human Environment Interaction: Russia/ Central Asia
2
USE THE LESSON on World Geography Website
USE THE LESSON on World Geography Website
USE THE LESSON on World Geography Website
The diversion of water decreased the amount flowing into the Aral Sea.
The retreating water exposes salts, fertilizers and pesticides on the Aral Sea’s bed.
Wind storms pick up exposed substances and drop them on people.
Disease and mortality rates in the region are increasing.
(Hin): Google “Operation Barbarossa”
World Wars
in
Europe and Russia
3
The COLD WAR
in
Europe and Russia
4
A Grocery Store in Houston Ends Communism
It was September 16, 1989 and Yeltsin, then newly elected to the new Soviet parliament and the Supreme Soviet, had just visited Johnson Space Center (JSC).
At JSC, Yeltsin visited mission control and a mock-up of a space station. According to Houston Chronicle reporter Stefanie Asin, it wasn’t all the screens, dials, and wonder at NASA that blew up his skirt, it was the unscheduled trip inside a nearby Randall’s location.
Yeltsin, then 58, “roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement,” wrote Asin. He told his fellow Russians in his entourage that if their people, who often must wait in line for most goods, saw the conditions of U.S. supermarkets, “there would be a revolution.”
Shoppers and employees stopped him to shake his hand and say hello. In 1989, not everyone was carrying a phone and camera in their pocket so Yeltsin “selfies” weren’t a thing yet.
Yeltsin asked customers about what they were buying and how much it cost, later asking the store manager if one needed a special education to manage a store. In the Chronicle photos, you can see him marveling at the produce section, the fresh fish market, and the checkout counter. He looked especially excited about frozen pudding pops.
“Even the Politburo doesn’t have this choice. Not even Mr. Gorbachev,” he said.
The fact that stores like these were on nearly every street corner in America amazed him. They even offered free cheese samples. According to Asin, Yeltsin didn’t leave empty-handed, as he was given a small bag of goodies to enjoy on his trip.
About a year after the Russian leader left office, a Yeltsin biographer later wrote that on the plane ride to Yeltsin’s next destination, Miami, he was despondent. He couldn’t stop thinking about the plentiful food at the grocery store and what his countrymen had to subsist on in Russia.
In Yeltsin’s own autobiography, he wrote about the experience at Randall’s, which shattered his view of communism, according to pundits. Two years later, he left the Communist Party and began making reforms to turn the economic tide in Russia. You can blame those frozen Jell-O Pudding pops.
“When I saw those shelves crammed with hundreds, thousands of cans, cartons and goods of every possible sort, for the first time I felt quite frankly sick with despair for the Soviet people,” Yeltsin wrote. “That such a potentially super-rich country as ours has been brought to a state of such poverty! It is terrible to think of it.”
Yeltsin died in 2007 at the age of 76. The Randall’s he visited, just off El Dorado Boulevard and Highway 3, is now a Food Town location.
European Union
and
Chechen Conflict
in
Europe and
Russia/Central Asia
5
Cooperation
or
Competition
Patriotism
Nationalism
We will explain causes, effects, and perceptions of the Chechen conflict, using notes and SAR to video prompt. We will recognize how nationalism affects how a nation might project power and influence.