TEACHER'S Guide

1 WEEK 1 ANSWERS: North Platte, becoming simply the Platte of the boundary between Nevada and River; the Platte eventually empties into Arizona and California and Arizona. Of 1.Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and the River. these, only Colorado is a Big 12 state. Oklahoma. Some may travel through The river eventually flows into Mexico and Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, and (b)The Arkansas River flows from empties into the Gulf of California. The Oklahoma. Colorado, through Kansas and Oklahoma. other Colorado River is located entirely It then flows into Arkansas (not a Big 12 within the state of Texas, eventually 2. Texas A & M state) and eventually empties into the emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. Mississippi River. 3. Denver is the capital and the University 5. (Kansas State) and of Colorado is closer. (c)There are actually two Colorado Rivers Lawrence (Kansas) are about 80 miles in the United States! The larger of the two apart. 4. (a)The South Platte River flows from starts in Colorado and flows west through Colorado into Nebraska, where it joins the Utah and Arizona before becoming part 2 WEEK 2 ANSWERS: Central, Mountain, and Pacific. In the 19th Cane River Creole National Historical Park 1 Historic Route 66. century, railroad companies established the in Louisiana; Hot Springs National Park and time zones in the United States in order to help Fort Smith National Historic Site in Arkansas; 2.The Louisiana Tech—Texas A&M game will people board trains on time. and the Chickasaw National Recreation Area be played at Kyle Field in College Station, and the Oklahoma City National Memorial in Texas where the elevation is 364 feet above 4.International cities with similar longitudes Oklahoma. sea level. This elevation is accounted for by the include Mexico City at 99 degrees West; location of College Station on the West Gulf Winnipeg, Canada, at 97 degrees West; and OVERTIME ACTIVITY Coastal Plain. Veracruz, Mexico, at 96 degrees West. Possible answers include overcrowding (resulting in traffic jams, rush hour traffic, smog/ 3. At 6:30 p.m., in Stillwater (Central Daylight 5.National Parks that are located generally on air pollution, etc.), “road rage,” the size and Time), the time in Seattle, Washington, is 4:30 the way from Tallahassee to Norman and on the weight of vehicles on the road, deteriorating p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time). The time zones return trip include Natchez Historical Park and bridges, maintenance, and construction costs. in the contiguous United States are Eastern, Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi; 3 WEEK 3 ANSWERS: 3. Kansas plays at the University of OVERTIME ACTIVITY 1. The University of Hawaii plays Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. The Big 12 map will show Texas, the Colorado Buffaloes at Boulder. Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Hawaii, in the Hawaii-Aleutian Time 4. TCU is in the Trinity River basin, Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. The Zone, does not observe Daylight Texas is in the Colorado River basin, Mountain West Conference includes Saving Time, while Colorado, in the while Baylor, Texas Tech, and Texas schools in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Mountain Time Zone, does, so there is A&M are all in the Brazos River basin. New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, and a four-hour time difference. California. The two states where the 5. St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Atlanta conferences overlap are Texas and 2. Fans could drive the Cimarron have hosted the Summer Olympics. Colorado. Turnpike or State Highway 51. The Salt Lake City, Utah; Lake Placid, New mileage chart says it is 64 miles York; and Squaw Valley, California; between Stillwater and Tulsa. have hosted the Winter Olympics. 4 WEEK 4 ANSWERS: South Dakota is named after Pierre Chouteau from Ames, site of the Iowa State-Northern 1. A “utopia” is an imaginary place where who founded St. Louis, Missouri. (The Iowa game. However, other state fairs claim people live peacefully and in harmony with one Chouteau family, prominent traders with Native the “largest” title, depending on the annual another. A utopian society was one in which Americans, also established trading posts in attendance, how long the fair runs, the size of the residents tried to eliminate any behavior or Oklahoma resulting in a town and a creek both the fairgrounds, etc. activity that might keep them from getting along named Chouteau). OVERTIME ACTIVITY with one another. Iowa State and Northern Iowa 4. Highest point is Mt. Whitney at 14,494 feet Students will map Columbus, Cleveland, and play this week. Iowa is the site of the Amana above sea level, and the lowest point in Death Cincinnati for Ohio and Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Colonies. Valley, which is actually 282 feet below sea and Norman for Oklahoma. The home cities for 2. Cincinnati is located on the Ohio River. level. both universities rank third in population in their respective states. 3. Lincoln, Nebraska, is named in honor of 5. The self-proclaimed “largest state fair in the President Abraham Lincoln. Pierre, United States” is in Des Moines, Iowa not far 5 WEEK 5 ANSWERS: about two years after they were founded so students a football game in 1922 when only one player was 1. Fair Park Stadium was renamed the Cotton Bowl may give 1892 as the start date. Baylor University was still standing on the sidelines at the end of the game. in 1936. founded two weeks before Texas became a state in Today, the entire student body at A&M is symbolically 1845. The University of Colorado was founded four the Twelfth Man, and they stand during the entire 2. Go to Waco, Texas to visit the Texas Ranger Hall of months before Colorado became a state in 1876. game to show their support. The Twelfth Man is Fame and Museum. Waco is also home of the Bears always in the stands waiting to be called upon if of Baylor University. 4. The University of Colorado is located in Boulder needed. which is 5430 feet (a little more than one mile) above 3. The University of Oklahoma was founded in 1890, sea level. OVERTIME ACTIVITY 17 years before Oklahoma became a state in 1907. Note to teacher: There were “feeder trails” throughout Oklahoma State University was also founded in 1890 5. College football rules allow only eleven players southern Texas as cowboys drove their cattle from the as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College from each team to be on the field whenever the ball ranches onto the main trails. Therefore, students can (Oklahoma A&M), renamed OSU in 1957. is in play. All other players stay on the sidelines. The find maps with several different southern routes. Note to teacher: Both OU and OSU began classes Twelfth Man tradition at Texas A&M dates back to 6 WEEK 6 ANSWERS: 2. (a) St. Joseph (b) Relative location = the 4. (a) Red River south to the Mississippi River 1. University of Nebraska location of a place relative to other landmarks 5. The “Katy” ran through Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State University while absolute location is locating a place using Oklahoma and Texas. Many atlases have Oklahoma State University the latitude/longitude coordinate system. railroad maps in them. Iowa State University 3. (a) University of Utah, University of Colorado University of Arkansas - Mountain Time Zone Texas A&M University (b) 1:00 p.m. University of Missouri

7 WEEK 7 ANSWERS: 3. The approximate distances students from The school that is the longest distance from 1. Cavanal Hill is located in LeFlore County. each campus would travel to Corpus Christi are Corpus Christi is Iowa State University. The The county seat is Poteau which is located as follows: school that is the shortest distance from Corpus northeast of Cavanal Hill. Baylor = 261miles Christi is the University of Texas. Colorado = 958 miles 2. The term bedlam means “a place, scene, Iowa State = 1008 miles NOTE: The actual mileage answers may vary if or state of uproar and confusion.” The word Kansas State = 790 miles students use another website such as Google is actually a mispronunciation of Bethlehem, Kansas = 783 miles Maps or Mapquest.). in the name of the oldest hospital for treating Missouri = 826 miles 4. The University of Oklahoma is located the mentally ill, the Hospital of St. Mary Nebraska = 903 miles near the Canadian River. The Canadian was of Bethlehem in London. The “Sunflower Oklahoma State = 577 miles dammed to create Lake Eufaula. Showdown” is applied to several sports Oklahoma = 516 miles played between Kansas and Kansas State Texas A&M = 204 miles 5. The difference in elevation from Boulder to Universities. Texas Tech = 480 miles the summit of Longs Peak is 8,911 feet. Texas = 181 miles 8 WEEK 8 ANSWERS: the Gulf of Mexico at Matagorda Bay. Madison, and Gallatin Rivers, which unite to form the main 1. Missouri River: source in the Rocky Mountains in stream at Three Forks, Montana, and the river empties southwest Montana and mouth at Mississippi River. 4. The state nickname used to be the “Tree Planters State,” (mouth) into the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri. Arkansas River: source in the Colorado Rockies and mouth and it was changed in 1945 to the “Cornhusker State.” (Accept: source - Rocky Mountains in Montana; mouth - at the Mississippi River. Other nicknames are the Beef State, Antelope State, Bug Mississippi River) Red River: source in the Texas Panhandle and mouth at the Eating State and Blackwater State. Mississippi River. Some landscapes on its path are mountains, valleys, 5. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (pen name: Mark Twain) All three rivers have in common that they empty into the prairies, plains, canyons, basins, and lakes. was born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835. William Penn Adair Mississippi River. Rogers (pen name: Will Rogers) was born in 1879, and Three important facts are: 1) longest river in the United 2. Turner Falls, 77 feet high, is located in the Arbuckle usually called Claremore, Indian Territory, his hometown. States; 2) drains or is watershed for 529,350 square miles, Mountains near Davis, and is the largest waterfall in One of Twain’s famous novels, A Connecticut Yankee one-sixth of the entire U.S.; and 3) combined with the Oklahoma. It is approximately 63 miles south of University in King Arthur’s Court, was made into a movie in 1931, Mississippi River, it forms the world’s third largest river of Oklahoma in Norman. starring Will Rogers. system. (Accept other facts.) Four Big 12 States are: Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and 3. The Colorado River rises (source) on the Texas-New OVERTIME ACTIVITY Missouri. Mexico border and flows for about 600 miles to its mouth at Its principal headwaters (source) are the Jefferson, 9 WEEK 9 ANSWERS: hawk. The word came to prominence just before 4. The epicenter of Oklahoma’s largest earthquake 1. The Colorado Buffaloes must travel about 660 the Civil War in “Bleeding Kansas,” where it was ever recorded was El Reno on April 9, 1952. The miles to play the Oklahoma Sooners in Norman. adopted by militant abolitionist groups known as quake had a magnitude of 5.5, while the quake in Jayhawkers. With the admission of Kansas to the Haiti last January registered a magnitude of 7.0. 2. The Western most Big 12 school is University of Union as a free state in 1861, the term Jayhawker Colorado at Boulder, with an elevation of about 5202 became synonymous with the people of Kansas. The 5. Gateway to the West or Gateway Arch, located in feet. The Southern most Big 12 school is Texas Jayhawk appears in several Kansas cheers, most St. Louis, Missouri on the Mississippi River. Latitude: A&M at College Station, with an elevation of about notably “Rock Chalk, Jayhawk” which is chanted in 38-37’28” N; Longitude: 090-11’14”W. 311 feet. Boulder’s elevation is 4891 feet higher unison before and during games. than College Station, because Boulder is situated in OVERTIME ACTIVITY the Rocky Mountains while College Station is in the Kansas’s largest crop is wheat and accounts for Oklahoma Sooners: a name given to those settlers Interior Coastal Plains. As one moves east and south about 12% of the state’s total agricultural production. who jumped the gun during the great Oklahoma land towards sea level, the elevation decreases. In fact, Kansas is the #1 wheat-producing state in the rush; in other words, they came into the land United States generating about 15% of the nation’s “sooner” than they were supposed to. 3. The Jayhawk is a mythical cross between two total crop. birds–the noisy blue jay and the quiet sparrow 10 WEEK 10 ANSWERS: Texas also claims Dwight David Eisenhower (born in k. East Central Texas Plains 1. David Lyle Boren, born in Washington DC, where his Denison, Texas), although his family moved to Abilene, l. Southwestern Tablelands father was serving as a member of the U.S. House of Kansas when he was a child, and Eisenhower considered 5. Missouri has more than a dozen caverns that are open Representatives from Oklahoma. Kansas his home state. Missouri claims Harry S. Truman to the public, although the state has an estimated 6,000 who was born in Lamar and lived in Independence most of 2. The Arbuckle Mountains, which may once have been caves. Karst topography provides the landscape of his life. Herbert Clark Hoover (born in West Branch, Iowa, more than 20,000 feet tall, are more than 200 million years soluble limestone and dolomite that often contains springs, where he is also buried) is claimed by Iowa, although he old; they were old mountains when the Rocky Mountains sinkholes, and underground rivers. lived most of his life in California, , and overseas were just forming. The area is rich with fossilized, calcified as a mining engineer. OVERTIME ACTIVITY remains of sea organisms, because it was once completely Baylor Bears, Colorado Buffalos, Texas Longhorns, covered by an ocean. 4. Answer: Oklahoma has more eco-regions than any other Missouri Tigers, and Kansas State Wildcats. Some would state in the union. They are: 3. Texas claims Lyndon Baines Johnson (born near include the Kansas Jayhawks, but there is no actual animal a. Arkansas Valley f. Flint Hills Johnson City, Texas), George Herbert Walker (born by that name. The jayhawk is a mythical cross between two b. Boston Mountains g. High Plains in Milton, Massachusetts), and George Herbert Walker c. Central Great Plains h. Ouachita Mountains birds: the noisy blue jay and the quiet sparrow hawk. Bush, Jr. (born in New Haven, Connecticut) because all d. Central Irregular Plains i. Ozark Highlands were residents of Texas when they were elected president. e. Cross Timbers j. South Central Plains 11 WEEK 11 ANSWERS: 3. The canyon was formed slowly by the action 4. Dr Pepper was created, manufactured and 1. Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and of the Gunnison River, with sheer cliffs rising sold beginning in 1885 in Waco, Texas. The Nebraska. more than 2700 feet (more than half a mile) manufacturer says Dr Pepper’s unusual taste above the water. What makes the canyon comes from a combination of 23 fruit flavors, 2. Extreme weather conditions (i.e., flooding “black” are the particular kinds of rocks and but actual recipe is a secret. from record breaking heavy rains followed by minerals through which the river has carved, three years [1934-1936] of almost no rainfall; 5. A visitor will see environmental terrains of along with the narrowness of the canyon that late blizzards that killed spring crops; winds that desert, river and mountains. The Rio Grande allows very little sunlight to penetrate to the blew for days and created huge dust storms) (“Great River” in English) forms the southern bottom. accompanied by farming practices that were boundary of the park, and serves as the border not well suited to the Great Plains resulted in between Mexico and the United States. what was sometimes called the “Dirty Thirties.” 12 WEEK 12 ANSWERS: precipitation annually and is heavily dependent on 3. The universities are Texas Tech in Lubbock, 1. Florida Atlantic University was established in water pumped up from the Ogallala Aquifer. On Texas at Austin, Texas A&M in College Station, and 1964 on the site of the Boca Raton Army Air Field the other hand, Weber State University in Ogden, Baylor in Waco, Texas. Texas Tech receives the which was closed in 1947. Named for the mother of Utah (elevation ranges between 4300 and 5200 feet least amount of direct sunlight because it located the the pilot, Paul Tibbets, Jr., the “Enola Gay” was the above sea level), which receives an average of 42 farthest north at 33.122037º N latitude. B-29 Superfortress bomber that in 1945 was used inches of snow each year, rests in the foothills of the 4. Oklahoma and Kansas share 37º N latitude and to drop the first atomic weapon used in combat on Wasatch Mountains with the Great Salt Lake plainly they share borders with the states of Missouri and Hiroshima, Japan, helping to end World War II. visible ten miles in the distance. Ogden also hosted Colorado. the downhill, slalom, and giant slalom ski events as 2. Lubbock and Texas Tech (elevation 3256 feet well as the ice events for the 2002 Winter Olympic above sea level) are located in the Llano Estacado 5. I-35 is the most direct route from Norman to Waco, Games. (the Staked Plains) in the panhandle of Texas a distance of about 272 miles. Averaging 65 mph, it which receives on average less than 20 inches of should take about 4 ½ hours to make the trip. 13 WEEK 13 ANSWERS: agriculture: Colorado for past mining, farming, 4. The Brazos River nearly connects Texas 1. The distance between Texas and Texas livestock, corn, hay, wheat and tourism; Tech and the University of Houston. From its A&M is about 107 miles. Until a post office was Nebraska for leading grain producer, cattle and headwaters in Colorado, the Rio Grande is established in Dime Box in 1877, a person would hog industry, and meat packing. 1896 miles long, with 1254 miles of its length in leave an outgoing letter and a dime for postage Texas, making it the longest river in Texas. 3. Cattle drives involved the movement of beef in a box at a sawmill named Brown’s Mill. cattle from ranches in Texas to railheads in 5. The issue of extending slavery into the 2. Boulder’s elevation is about 5400 feet, while Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, for transport Kansas Territory from the slave-holding state of Lincoln’s is about 1200, so the difference in to markets back East. The Chisholm, Great Missouri igniting much of the conflict known as altitude is about 4200 feet. Besides elevation Western and Shawnee Trails were the major the Border War. The Missouri River forms the differences, some of the similarities and routes. natural boundary between Kansas and Missouri differences revolve around farming and 14 15 16