GEOGRAPHIC MOBILITY IN THE UNITED STATES — 1920–1950

TEACHER VERSION

Subject Level: Middle School History
Grade Level: 6–8
Approx. Time Required: 45–60 minutes

Learning Objectives:

• Students will be able to study, compare, and explain maps that show U.S. population density (how many people live in a certain area) from three different time periods in the early 1900s.
• Students will be able to understand how major events during these three periods affected geographic mobility — meaning how and why people moved from place to place.
• Students will be able to understand more recent patterns in where people have moved.

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Activity Description

Students will look at maps to explore how population density changed across the United States during three ten-year periods: 1920–1930 (right after the Progressive Era, a time of reform), 1930–1940 (the Great Depression), and 1940–1950 (World War II). They will figure out what was happening in the country during each period that probably caused people to move. Students will also study a more recent map, covering 2000–2010, to see newer patterns in how Americans move around.

Suggested Grade Level: 6–8
Approximate Time Required: 45–60 minutes

Learning Objectives:

• Students will be able to study, compare, and explain maps of U.S. population density from three periods in the early 1900s.
• Students will be able to understand how events during these three periods affected geographic mobility.
• Students will be able to understand more recent trends in population movement.

Topics:

• Data visualizations (charts and maps that show information visually)
• Geographic mobility
• The Great Depression
• Migration (people moving from one place to another)
• Population density
• The Post-Progressive Era
• World War II

Skills Taught:

• Analyzing how things change over time
• Comparing and contrasting
• Making predictions
• Reading and understanding maps

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Materials Required

• The student version of this activity (3 pages)
• A computer with internet access for each student

A teacher computer with internet access and a projector to show websites to the whole class is optional.

Activity Items

This activity uses these online tools:

• Before and After 1940: Change in Population Density — www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/010
• Population Change by Decade, 1910–2010 — www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/049

For more background on the U.S. Census Bureau, read "Census Bureau 101 for Students." You can print this sheet and hand it out to your class.

Standards Addressed

See the charts below. For more details, read "Overview of Education Standards and Guidelines Addressed in Statistics in Schools Activities."

Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects

Standard	Strand	Cluster
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH 9-10.7 — Combine number-based or technical information (like charts and research data) with written explanations in print or digital text.	RH 9–10 – History/Social Studies	Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

UCLA National Standards for History: U.S. History Content Standards

Era	Standard
8 – The Great Depression and World War II (1929–1945)	Standard 1B: The student understands how American life changed during the 1930s.
9 – Postwar United States (1945 to Early 1970s)	Standard 1: The economic boom and social changes of the postwar United States

UCLA National Standards for History: Historical Thinking Standards

Standard	Description
Standard 2: Historical Comprehension	Use information from historical maps. Students will look at maps of U.S. population data from three different decades to understand how early 1900s events influenced how people moved.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Students will analyze how events during three periods of U.S. history affected geographic mobility.

Creating → Evaluating → Analyzing → Applying → Understanding → Remembering

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Teacher Notes

Before the Activity

Students must understand these key terms:

• Geographic mobility – the ability of people to move from one place to another
• Population density – the number of people living in a certain amount of space

Students should have a basic understanding of:

• The economic, political, and social changes that happened in the United States during the Post-Progressive Era, the Great Depression, and World War II

During the Activity

Teachers should check in with students as they work.

After the Activity

Teachers should choose (or have students choose) a piece of writing whose author argues that a certain factor affects U.S. population change now or in the future. Teachers could use the 2016 NPR article "Do Americans Really Move To Canada Because Of Politics?" (www.npr.org/2016/03/30/472279572/do-americans-actually-follow-through-on-election-threats-to-move-to-canada).

Teachers should then ask students:

• What does the author say or predict about population change? What could this mean for the future of the United States?
• According to the text, what factors — including historical events — affect population change now or in the future?
• Do you agree with the author's argument? Use what you learned in this activity to support your opinion, comparing the population changes in the article with the changes that happened during the Post-Progressive Era, the Great Depression, or World War II.

As part of a class discussion, teachers should have students summarize what they learned, asking questions like:

• What did you learn?
• What are you still curious about?
• What was the point of this activity? Why is this information important to understand?

Extension Idea

• Teachers could have students read a passage from, or watch a clip of, The Grapes of Wrath that shows people moving during the Great Depression.

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Student Activity

Click here to download a printable version for students.

Activity Items

This activity uses these online tools:

• Before and After 1940: Change in Population Density — www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/010
• Population Change by Decade, 1910–2010 — www.census.gov/dataviz/visualizations/049

Student Learning Objectives

• I will be able to study, compare, and explain maps of U.S. population density from three periods in the early 1900s.
• I will be able to understand how events during these three periods affected geographic mobility.
• I will be able to understand more recent trends in population movement.

1. Go to the Before and After 1940: Change in Population Density tool using the URL above. This tool shows how population density changed at the county level every ten years. Look at the 1920–1930 map and describe, in your own words, the patterns you see.

Student answers will vary but could include: Counties in northeastern states had some of the biggest increases in population density.

2. Which U.S. regions saw population density go down, and which regions saw little change at all?

Student answers will vary but could include: Some southern areas, near Georgia, and some parts of the East Coast saw declines. The northwestern United States didn't see much movement at all.

Teachers could point out that population density dropped mostly in rural (countryside) areas during this decade, which shows that people were moving into cities.

3. How might growing industrialization (the rise of factories and machine-based work) during this time help explain these changes in population density?

As farming became more mechanized — meaning machines did more of the work that people used to do by hand — many former farm workers, including many African Americans, moved from the South to the North and West to find jobs. These workers also moved to northern cities to take advantage of growing factory jobs.

4. Now click on the 1930–1940 map. Describe the patterns you see in your own words. Were they different from the patterns in 1920–1930?

Student answers will vary but should note that the patterns changed — this time, population declines happened in the Great Plains instead of in the South and East.

5. How might farming problems and economic events have caused these population changes between 1930 and 1940?

Student answers may vary but could include: During this time, the Dust Bowl — a period of severe dust storms and crop failure — forced people to leave areas from Texas up through the Great Plains and move to places like California and other big cities. A crop-destroying insect called the boll weevil also caused many farmers to go bankrupt, pushing them to move to cities for work. In addition, New Deal programs designed to boost the economy — such as building the Hoover Dam and creating the Civilian Conservation Corps (a program that gave young men government jobs) — encouraged people to move wherever new jobs opened up.

6. Now click on the 1940–1950 map. Describe the patterns you see. Are they different from the other two maps? Why do you think that is?

Student answers will vary but should note that there was more movement during this decade than in the other two; many counties in the Northeast, Midwest, and along the West Coast saw increases in population density. This may be because people were leaving rural counties and moving to more crowded, urban counties in the Northeast and Midwest.

7. How did preparing for and fighting World War II affect where people lived between 1940 and 1950?

Student answers may vary but could include: During World War II, people moved to work in factories that produced war supplies. Women in particular moved to new areas to take jobs that had been held by men who were now fighting overseas.

8. Based on what you saw across all three decades, what were the major "push" factors (reasons people left an area) and "pull" factors (reasons people moved to a new area) affecting population density in the early 1900s?

Student answers may vary but could include farming problems and increased use of farm machinery as major push factors, and war-related jobs and growing industries as major pull factors.

9. Using the second URL above, go to the Population Change by Decade, 1910–2010 tool. Click the play button in the bottom right and watch how the population changed over the decades. What patterns do you notice in the most recent years, from 2000–2010?

Student answers will vary but could include that the U.S. population shifted toward the West and South.

10. Based on the overall patterns you saw in this tool, what population changes do you expect to see five years from now?

Student predictions will vary.