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8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 6 of 7

Population & Migration

Growing cities, cultures on the move and new Minnesotans

What your child practices

Practices how populations change, urbanization, cultural diffusion and diasporas, push and pull factors in migration, and the immigrant and refugee communities who have made Minnesota home since the 1950s.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 8.3.15.1; 8.3.15.4; 8.4.21.1; 8.5.23.1; 8.5.23.3; 8.5.24.1 · population change, urbanization, diasporas, migration to Minnesota and immigrants' contributions

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Urbanization means more people living in cities.
  2. Cities often grow along rivers and coasts, which offer water and trade routes.
  3. People migrate for push and pull reasons, and newcomers to Minnesota, such as Hmong and Somali families, have brought their cultures.

Example: Why do cities often grow along rivers and coasts? People need water. Boats carry goods. Rivers and coasts give water and trade routes. Answer: They offer water and trade routes.

Population & Migration in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 6 of 7 in 8th grade Social Studies, after Economies & Global Trade and before The World Since 1945.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which question helps study why a city grew?

    • Where did the people come from and why?
    • What is the mayor's favorite food?
    • How tall is the tallest tree?
    • What color is the city flag?

  2. Question 2

    A diaspora is…

    • a farming method
    • a community of people living away from their homeland
    • a type of map
    • a capital city

  3. Question 3

    Many Hmong families first came to Minnesota as refugees after the war in…

    • Ireland
    • Brazil
    • Laos and Vietnam
    • Norway

  4. Question 4

    Demography is the study of…

    • human populations
    • the weather
    • rocks
    • stars

  5. Question 5

    Cultural diffusion is…

    • a population count
    • a kind of weather
    • the spread of ideas, foods and customs from place to place
    • a city law

  6. Question 6

    A megacity has more than…

    • 100 people
    • 1,000 people
    • 10 million people
    • 10,000 people

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