United States Geography - US Regions & State Research Project Unit

Looking for a way to make U.S. geography come alive for students? Plan a trip through the regions of the United States with this hands-on project! Students use real-world skills as they select two states in each U.S. region to visit, then research each state to decide what sites they want to see. Students then determine how they could most easily visit all of their locations in one trip and map their route.

What’s Included

• PDF and Google Slide versions
• Extension research page for use to differentiate the project. 
• 2 Mini-lessons 
  • taking and organizing notes
  • writing a bibliography

• Rubrics are included so you can easily grade projects on social studies, presentation, and narrative writing standards. 

Included in Unit

• Research page for each of the United States regions.
• Research page for each of the 50 states
• U.S. map to plan a trip across the country
• Student project letter (uneditable)
• Optional back to the state research page with spots for topics such as natural resources and climate. Teachers can use this page or leave it off, depending upon their needs/time frame.
• Organizing Your Notes Mini-Lesson
• Writing bibliography notes page
• A student checklist
• Rubrics for social studies, presentation, and narrative writing. Use one or all for different grades (each focuses on different standards.)

Teachers Love It!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “This is perfect. This is easy to follow along for my students and with just a small amount of research, they can learn more about our states. Thank you for this resource!” – Ashley Stafford (TPT Seller) 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “My students loved researching different places across the country. This gave them some great future vacation ideas :) Thank you so much for this wonderful resource.” – Melissa G. 

Ideas to Use in Your Classroom

• Integrate social studies and language arts with narrative writing! Have students write a journal about their trip across the country.
• Flexible resource! Parts and pieces can be utilized in a wide variety of ways, depending upon how you plan to organize your class. Here are some examples: 
  • 1. I used it to research a trip around the United States, as my standards are to study the regions of the United States. We researched a region per week in our 30 minute center. I allowed my students to select which state in each region they wanted to visit, but I also have a printer in my room that made it easy to make copies. Teachers could assign a state or have students preselect states.
  • 2. This could also be used to research individual states. Teachers could create a class book on the United States, with each student researching one or two states. For 4th grade teachers teaching state history, just use your state's page.
  • 3. Extend the research project into a writing project, having students use their research to create a narrative essay on “their trip.
  • 4. If you have class penpals, you could use these forms to help students research information about where they live. This will help them add more detail in their letters!

Standards & Testing

This unit could be used to cover standards for:

• state research
• U.S. regions/geography
• nonfiction research
• writing a narrative

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Copyright ©️ Amy Mezni

Permission to use with a single classroom only (one teacher).

Please purchase additional licenses if you intend to share this resource.