WHAT ROLE DOES GEOGRAPHY PLAY IN THE CENSUS?

TEACHER VERSION

Subject Level: High School Geography
Grade Level: 8–9
Approximate Time Required: 45–60 minutes

Learning Objectives:

• Students will be able to define and analyze different types of census geographic entities (areas the Census Bureau uses to organize and report data) and explain how data from each type might be useful.

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Activity Description

In this activity, students will learn and review key terms related to geography and the census. They will discover how the U.S. Census Bureau divides the country into different geographic areas for data collection, and they will understand why the Bureau organizes information this way.

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

Learning Objectives:

• Students will be able to define and analyze different types of census geographic entities and determine how data from each type might be useful.

Topics:

• Boundaries
• Geographic entities (areas defined for data purposes)
• Spatial thinking (reasoning about location, distance, and area)

Skills Taught:

• Analyzing data
• Drawing conclusions

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Materials Required

• The student version of this activity (8 pages)
• A printed copy of the definitions found in this teacher version

Activity Items

The following materials are part of this activity. Their sources and viewing instructions appear at the end of this teacher version.

• Item 1: Excerpt from Chapter 1 of the Geographic Areas Reference Manual
• Item 2: Standard Hierarchy of Census Geographic Entities
• Item 3: Examples of Census Tracts, Census Block Groups, and Census Blocks

For background on the Census Bureau to share with your students, read “Census Bureau 101 for Students.” You may print and distribute this handout.

Standards Addressed

See the chart below. For more detail, read “Overview of Education Standards and Guidelines Addressed in Statistics in Schools Activities.”

National Geography Standards

Standard	Grade	What Students Should Know and Understand
1 – How to use maps and other geographic tools, geospatial technology, and spatial thinking to understand and share information	8	Properties and Functions of Geographic Representations. The strengths and weaknesses of different ways of showing geographic information—maps, globes, graphs, diagrams, photographs, satellite images, and digital visualizations—for analyzing patterns in how things are spread out across space
3 – How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth’s surface	8	Spatial Concepts. The meaning and use of spatial ideas such as accessibility (how easily a place can be reached), dispersion (how spread out something is), density (how concentrated something is), and interdependence (how places rely on one another)

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Students will analyze the differences among various census geographic entities.

• Creating
• Evaluating
• Analyzing
• Applying
• Understanding
• Remembering

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Teacher Notes

Before the Activity

Review with students the terms and definitions on the following pages. For more background on some terms, visit the links below:

• Administrative entity, legal entity, and statistical entity: www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/about/training/legal-and-geographic-entities.html
• American Community Survey: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
• Boundary, census block, census block group, census tract, and geographic presentation of data: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/about/glossary.html

Cut out each term and its definition from the pages that follow along the dotted lines, so that each term card is separate from its definition card.

Spatial
Relating to space on Earth’s surface.

American Community Survey
A survey the U.S. Census Bureau conducts every month to track how communities are changing over time. By asking a sample of the population questions, it produces national data in more than 35 categories—such as education, income, housing, and employment.

Decennial Census
A count of every U.S. resident, conducted by the Census Bureau every 10 years, based on where people lived on April 1 of that census year.

Boundary
The outer edge or limit of a geographic area, such as a census block, census tract, county, or town. A boundary may or may not follow a natural feature, like a river, or a built feature, like a street.

Geographic Hierarchy
A system in which geographic areas are nested inside larger ones—every area except the smallest can be divided into smaller units, which can sometimes be divided again. For example, states are divided into counties, and counties are divided into smaller county subdivisions.

Geographic Entity
Any type of geographic area, such as a state, county, town, county subdivision, census tract, census block, country, or territory.

Administrative Entity
A geographic area—usually with legally defined boundaries but often without its own elected officials—created to manage elections or other government functions. School districts and voting districts are examples.

Legal Entity
A geographic area whose boundaries, name, and description come from a law, treaty, charter, or other official government action. Examples include the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Island Areas, counties, cities, boroughs, towns, villages, townships, American Indian reservations, Alaska Native villages, congressional districts, and school districts. The Census Bureau recognizes whichever version of these entities and boundaries exists on January 1 of each year.

Statistical Entity
A geographic area, or a combination of areas, for which the Census Bureau reports data. Unlike a legal entity, its boundaries are not defined by law, and it has no government authority.

Small-Area Data
Census data reported at the census block, block group, and census tract levels—the smallest levels of geographic detail the Bureau provides.

Census Tract
A small, fairly permanent statistical subdivision of a county, drawn by a local committee of census data users to help organize and present data. Ideally, each tract contains about 4,000 people and 1,600 housing units. Tracts fit entirely within counties, and their boundaries usually follow visible features on the land.

Census Block
A statistical area bordered by visible features—such as streets, roads, streams, and railroad tracks—and by boundaries that aren’t visible on the ground, such as certain property lines or the edges of cities, townships, counties, and school districts. It is the smallest geographic unit for which the Census Bureau reports data from the decennial census.

Census Block Group
A statistical area that typically includes between 600 and 3,000 people, used for presenting data.

Introducing the Census Bureau

Before starting the activity, introduce the Census Bureau to students using the information sheet mentioned above.

During the Activity

1. Have students read Item 1. You might have them take turns reading aloud, read in small groups, or read the passage to the class while students follow along. Afterward, ask students what they learned from the excerpt.

1. Hand out the term and definition slips, giving each student one term or one definition. (If you have fewer students than slips, remove a few matching pairs from the stack. If you have more students than slips, divide the class into small groups and give each group one term or definition.) Have students walk around the room to find the classmate holding the matching term or definition. Once a pair believes they have matched correctly, have them raise their hands or move to a designated area.

1. Have students tape their matched term-and-definition pairs on the board. If any pairs are mismatched, ask students to work together to identify and correct the errors, stepping in to help as needed. Then review all the terms and definitions as a class, using Item 2 to show how these geographic entities fit together in a hierarchy (a system of larger areas made up of smaller ones).

1. Review Item 3 with students, then have them work individually to answer Questions 1 and 2.

After the Activity

Have students share their answers to Question 2 with a partner. If time allows, ask pairs to identify a common theme in their answers and write a one-sentence response to this question: What role does geography play in the census? Then invite partner groups to share their answers to Question 2 (and their one-sentence responses, if time permits) with the class.

Extension Ideas

• Have students read this Census Bureau blog post about census blocks: www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2011/07/what-are-census-blocks.html
• Show students the Geography Data Gems series for more detail on the Census Bureau’s geographic concepts: https://www.census.gov/data/academy/topics/geography.html
• Direct students to explore the 2020 Census Demographic Data Map Viewer, an interactive web map with 2020 Census data at the state, county, and census tract levels. It includes information on population, race and Hispanic origin, families and households, housing, and group living arrangements: https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2021/geo/demographicmapviewer.html

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Student Activity

Click here to download a printable version for students.

Activity Items

The following materials are part of this activity and appear at the end of this student version.

• Item 1: Excerpt from Chapter 1 of the Geographic Areas Reference Manual
• Item 2: Standard Hierarchy of Census Geographic Entities
• Item 3: Examples of Census Tracts, Census Block Groups, and Census Blocks

Student Learning Objectives

• I will work with other students to define different types of census geographic entities.
• I will analyze three different types of census geographic entities.
• I will determine how data from different census geographic entities might be useful.

Your teacher will lead the first part of this activity. You will review **Item 1: Excerpt from Chapter 1 of the Geographic Areas Reference Manual, take part in an interactive activity about key geography and census terms, and then review Item 2: Standard Hierarchy of Census Geographic Entities**.

Next, review Item 3: Examples of Census Tracts, Census Block Groups, and Census Blocks to answer the following questions:

1. How do these three types of census divisions compare with one another spatially—which is the largest in area, and which is the smallest?

Census tracts are the largest in area, and census blocks are the smallest. (Census block groups fall in between.)

Note for teachers: This question may be tricky, since the smallest division might look artificially large on the map due to its enlarged scale. Remind students to check the scale shown in the map key carefully.

2. How might data from these particular divisions be used, and by whom, based on what you learned in Item 1? Why does dividing geographic space in this way matter?