Suggested Time:
3-4 hours over a period of 2-3 days

Building Background:
Review the concepts of region, climate, and geographical features with students. Challenge them to define or give examples for each, and list their responses on the board. Then ask students to identify California's four regions. List the regions on the board. Have volunteers add one or two words to describe each region. Tell students they will work in small groups to research each region more thoroughly, and report their findings to the class.

What To Do:

1. Tell students they have been assigned the job of finding locations to shoot a new Hollywood movie in California. The movie script requires settings that show a wide variety of geographic features. Divide students into four groups and assign each group one of California's regions: Mountains, Coast, Central Valley, and Desert.

2. Each group will research and identify the climate, geographic features, and one or two special features of their assigned region. Set aside time for students to use the school or local library to find the information. Have them choose one student to record their findings on the California's Regions map.

• Check out the Unit 1 Bibliography for books, videos, and software students might consult for information.
• If you have Internet access, you and your students can explore these sites for information:

  Images of California's Environment
  http://geogweb.berkeley.edu/GeoImages/BainCalif/BainCalif.html
  This fun site has hundreds of images of California's different regions taken by G. Donald Bain at the University of California at Berkeley.

  California's Natural Resources
  http://ceres.ca.gov/ceres/calweb/
  Check out the extensive information on California's coastal region, deserts, forests, wetlands, water, geology, plant and animal life, and more.

  Color Landform Atlas of the United States
  http://fermi.jhuapl.edu/states/states.html
  This site contains topographical maps to the county level for each of the fifty states. Each state page also links to other maps and online information about each state.

3. When each group has completed their research, have them transfer their information to their maps. Encourage groups to show the information in visually interesting ways: by coloring the maps, listing the information on the side and drawing leader lines to their assigned region, making a decorative border, etc.

4. Have each group choose a spokesperson to report the group's findings. They can use their maps as part of their reports. Encourage them to use the movie location as a way of organizing their information: for example: "In this region a movie company would find a climate of . . ." and "Geographical features the movie might use could include . . . ."

Wrap-Up:
Write the name of each region on chart paper. Ask volunteers to list or draw one or two activities that can be done in each region. (For example: skiing in the mountains, surfing in the ocean, etc.) Use this discussion to help students understand the varied climates and geographic features available in one state.

Extensions:

• Have each group plan a day's movie shoot in their assigned region. They should list the region, the location, and the kind of clothing, food and transportation which would be appropriate for their region.
• Have each group suggest a movie scene set in their region. As an art project, challenge them to design a set which makes use of some defining geographic characteristic of their region.