D2.Geo.6.9-12C3 FrameworkSocial StudiesGeographyGrades 9-12

D2.Geo.6.9-12: Evaluating How Settlement Changed the Las Vegas Valley

In plain English: D2.Geo.6.9-12 is the C3 Framework geography indicator for grades 9-12 that asks students to evaluate the impact of human settlement activities, such as building towns, drilling wells and expanding cities, on the environmental and cultural characteristics of specific places and regions. It is usually taught in high school human geography, world geography or environmental studies.

Evaluate the impact of human settlement activities on the environmental and cultural characteristics of specific places and regions.

C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Geography · Human-Environment Interaction: Place, Regions, and Culture · Official standard

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Lesson Plan

75-85 min

Overview

D2.Geo.6.9-12 asks students to evaluate the impact of human settlement activities on the environmental and cultural characteristics of specific places and regions. Settlement activities are the things people do to build and grow a place to live: founding towns, drilling wells, laying railroads, bringing in water and spreading out across the land. Evaluating means judging the size, the reach and the lasting effects of those impacts with evidence, and saying for whom an impact was a gain or a loss.

The place is the Las Vegas Valley in southern Nevada, a desert valley whose springs made it an oasis for more than 13,000 years. Students use a 1999 U.S. Geological Survey report, NOAA climate data and Census population counts to trace how a railroad town grew into the center of a county of more than two million people, and how wells and growth dried the springs, lowered the water table and made the land sink. They weigh environmental impacts (water, land, the meadows) against cultural ones (who lived there, how people made a living, the identity of the place) and write an evidence-based evaluation. Students may reach different judgments; the rubric scores the reasoning.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

Identify settlement activities in a specific place and put them in time order.
Explain the environmental impacts of those activities, using measured data on water and land.
Explain the cultural impacts of those activities, including changes in who used the place and how people made a living.
Evaluate the overall impact of settlement with stated criteria, evidence from several sources and a counterclaim.

Prior Knowledge Required

Students should already be comfortable with:

Explaining how physical and human characteristics connect to identities and cultures D2.Geo.6.6-8
Integrating quantitative data with information in a text RH.11-12.7
Calculating ratios, percents and percent of a total

Lesson Procedure

75-85 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

Warm-Up10 minutes
Warm-Up Prompt
"A city is named after something that no longer exists there. What questions would you ask to find out what happened, and what would you need to know to decide whether the change was worth it?"
Reveal that Las Vegas is Spanish for "the meadows." Ask students to picture the city today and list what they think the valley was like before the city. Collect the questions and sort them into three groups that will become the lesson's impact questions: What changed? (environmental and cultural characteristics), How much and for how long? (size and lasting effects) and For whom? (who gained and who lost).

Direct Instruction20 minutes

Part 1: Key terms. An aquifer is a layer of rock and sediment underground that holds water. Recharge is water that soaks into the ground and refills an aquifer; discharge is water leaving it, through springs, plants or wells. An artesian well flows on its own because the water underground is under pressure. An acre-foot is the amount of water that would cover one acre of land one foot deep. Land subsidence is the sinking of the ground surface, here caused when water is pumped out of compressible sediments.

Part 2: The setting. Read Table 1. The valley floor gets only about 4 inches of precipitation a year, yet the mountains to the west get more than 24 inches of precipitation a year. Ask students where the valley's spring water might have come from, and hold their answers until Guided Practice. Then read Tables 2-3 and Diagrams 1-2 together, asking students to predict what happened to the springs once pumping passed recharge.

Table 1. The physical setting (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, Las Vegas McCarran Airport station; mountain figure from USGS Circular 1182)
Measure	Value
Average yearly precipitation, Las Vegas airport	4.18 inches
Average daily high in June-August, Las Vegas airport	102.2 °F
Days per year with a high of 90 °F or more, Las Vegas airport	137.1 (average)
Yearly precipitation in the Spring Mountains west of the valley (USGS)	More than 24 inches

Table 2. Population of Clark County (the county that contains the Las Vegas Valley) and of Nevada (real data: U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 Census report CPH-2-30, Table 3, for 1940-1990; 2010 Census; Vintage 2024 estimate for July 1, 2024)
Year	Clark County	Nevada
1940	16,414	110,247
1950	48,289	160,083
1960	127,016	285,278
1970	273,288	488,738
1980	463,087	800,508
1990	741,459	1,201,833
2010	1,951,269	2,700,551
2024 (estimate)	2,398,871	3,267,467

Table 3. Ground water in the Las Vegas Valley (USGS Circular 1182, 1999, pages 52-54)
Year or period	Measure	Amount
Before wells	Estimated natural recharge (water that refills the aquifer each year)	25,000 to 35,000 acre-feet per year
1912	Water discharged by nearly 125 wells	Nearly 15,000 acre-feet per year
1955	Water pumped from wells	Nearly 40,000 acre-feet per year
1968	Water pumped from wells	Nearly 88,000 acre-feet per year
1970s-1990s	Water pumped from wells	60,000 to 90,000 acre-feet per year
1996	Water imported from Lake Mead	About 356,000 acre-feet

Naming a settlement activity and its impacts
Source 2 says that in 1907 settlers drilled the first flowing well, and that uncapped artesian wells were allowed to flow freely onto the desert floor. Name one environmental and one cultural impact of this activity.
Result: Environmental: more water left the aquifer than refilled it, so water levels began to fall. Cultural: a new way of getting water (wells instead of springs) supported a new kind of settlement, a railroad town.
Comparing pumping with recharge
Use Table 3. In 1968 wells pumped nearly 88,000 acre-feet. How many times the natural recharge is that?
Result: 88,000 ÷ 35,000 ≈ 2.5 and 88,000 ÷ 25,000 = 3.52. Pumping was about 2.5 to 3.5 times the water that refilled the aquifer, so the aquifer was being emptied.
Measuring settlement growth
Use Table 2. How did Clark County's population and its share of Nevada's people change from 1940 to 1990?
Result: 741,459 ÷ 16,414 ≈ 45, so the county had about 45 times as many people. Its share rose from 16,414 ÷ 110,247 ≈ 14.9% to 741,459 ÷ 1,201,833 ≈ 61.7% of the state.
Writing an evaluation sentence
Model how to turn evidence into an evaluation, using the three impact questions.
Result: "Pumping ground water let the valley grow, but it took far more water than the aquifer received (Table 3), a change that was large, has lasted for decades and affected everyone who had relied on the springs." The sentence states the impact, its size and duration, and for whom.

Guided Practice20 minutes
Read Sources 1 and 2. Both come from a 1999 U.S. Geological Survey report on land subsidence. Source 1 tells how the valley was settled; Source 2 tells what happened to its water and, in paragraph 4, where the valley's ground water comes from. The names in parentheses, such as (Mendenhall, 1909), are the report's own citations of earlier studies. Paragraph numbers count only the paragraphs shown.
The desert oasis of Las Vegas Valley has been a source of water for humans for more than 13,000 years. Native Americans of the Mojave and Paiute tribes were among the earliest known users. Named by an unknown trader for its grassy meadows, Las Vegas, Spanish for “the meadows,” was a watering stop along the Old Spanish Trail that connected the settlements in Los Angeles and Santa Fe. In 1844, the renowned explorer John C. Fremont stopped here and spoke of the waters as “two narrow streams of clear water, 4 or 5 feet deep, with a quick current, from two singularly large springs” (Mendenhall, 1909). Others were similarly moved by the refreshing contrast of these welcome meadows in the otherwise barren landscape.
After failed attempts by Mormon settlers to mine lead from the nearby Spring Mountains and to establish farming in the valley, a flourishing ranch supported by springs and Las Vegas Creek was established in 1865 by Octavius Decatur Gass, a settler who had initially been attracted to the West by gold mining. In 1905, Montana Senator William Clark brought the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad to the valley and established the small town of Las Vegas, a site chosen because of its central location between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, and because of the water supply necessary to keep the steam locomotives running.
As the railroad grew, so did Las Vegas and its thirst for water (Jones and Cahlan, 1975). To help meet the increasing demand, the Las Vegas Land and Water Company was formed in 1905. A new period of growth began in 1932 with the construction of Boulder Dam (later renamed Hoover Dam) and Lake Mead on the Colorado River, southeast of Las Vegas. Boulder Dam brought workers to Las Vegas from throughout America, and provided a seemingly unlimited supply of water and power in one of the most unlikely places. The wealth of land, water, and power resources attracted industry, the military, and gambling to the valley during the 1940s and 1950s. The population of Las Vegas was growing steadily, and by 1971 the heightened water demand required importing additional water from Lake Mead through a newly constructed Southern Nevada Water Project pipeline. At present, Las Vegas Valley is home to 1.2 million people, about two-thirds of Nevada’s population, and hosts more than 30 million tourists each year.
U.S. Geological Survey (Michael T. Pavelko, David B. Wood and Randell J. Laczniak), Circular 1182, Las Vegas, Nevada: Gambling with water in the desert, three paragraphs on the oasis and the railroad town (Source 1) (1999). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
In 1907, the first flowing well was drilled by settlers to support the settlement of Las Vegas, and there began to be more ground-water discharge than recharge (Domenico and others, 1964). Uncapped artesian wells were at first permitted to flow freely onto the desert floor, wasting large quantities of water. This haphazard use of ground water prompted the State Engineer, W.M. Kearney, to warn in 1911 that water should be used “… with economy instead of the lavish wasteful manner, which has prevailed in the past” (Maxey and Jameson, 1948).
Intensive ground-water use led to steady declines in spring flows and ground-water levels throughout Las Vegas Valley. Spring flows began to wane as early as 1908 (Maxey and Jameson, 1948). By 1912 nearly 125 wells in Las Vegas Valley (60 percent of which were flowing-artesian wells) were discharging nearly 15,000 acre-feet per year.
[...]
Between 1912 and 1944, ground-water levels declined at an average rate of about 1 foot per year (Domenico and others, 1964). Between 1944 and 1963, some areas of the valley experienced water-level declines of more than 90 feet (Bell, 1981a). The City of North Las Vegas was the first area to experience large water-level declines but, as Las Vegas expanded, new wells were drilled, pumping patterns changed, and ground-water-level declines spread to areas south and west of the City of North Las Vegas. Between 1946 and 1960, the area of the valley that could sustain flowing-artesian wells shrank from more than 80 square miles (Maxey and Jameson, 1948) to less than 25 square miles (Domenico and others, 1964). By 1962, the springs that had supported the Native Americans, and those who followed, were completely dry (Bell, 1981a).
[...]
Much of the ground water found in the aquifer system originates as rain or snow falling on the Spring Mountains to the west or on the Sheep and Las Vegas Ranges to the northwest. Some of the precipitation infiltrates into the underlying bedrock through faults and fractures, eventually moving into the deposits comprising the principal aquifers. The remainder of the precipitation runs off onto the sloping alluvial terraces and rapidly enters the sand and gravel deposits, where it either recharges the underlying principal aquifers or is evaporated or transpired into the atmosphere.
U.S. Geological Survey (Michael T. Pavelko, David B. Wood and Randell J. Laczniak), Circular 1182, Las Vegas, Nevada: Gambling with water in the desert, wells, springs, water levels and where the ground water comes from (Source 2) (1999). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
1. Build a timeline. Students list every settlement activity in Sources 1 and 2 with its date, from the earliest known users to the 1971 pipeline.
2. Sort the impacts. For each activity, note an environmental impact and a cultural impact, with a paragraph number. Some activities will have evidence for only one kind; students should say so.
3. Connect the data. Find the Table 3 numbers that match the changes described in Source 2, paragraph 3, and say what each number adds that the words alone do not.
4. Ask the three impact questions. As a class, apply the three impact questions to one activity and write a model evaluation sentence.
Independent Practice15-25 minutes
Read Source 3 and write an evaluation. Source 3 describes how the ground itself sank. A bench mark is a fixed survey point whose height is measured again and again; a subsidence bowl is an area that has sunk more than the land around it.
Land subsidence and related ground failures in Las Vegas Valley were first recognized by Maxey and Jameson (1948) based on comparisons of repeat leveling surveys made by the USGS and the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey between 1915 and 1941. Since then, repeat surveys of various regional networks have shown continuous land subsidence throughout large regions within the valley. The surveys have revealed that subsidence continued at a steady rate into the mid-1960s, after which rates began increasing through 1987 (Bell, 1981a; Bell and Price, 1991). Surveys made in the 1980s delineate three distinct, localized subsidence bowls, or zones, superimposed on a larger, valley-wide subsidence bowl. One of these smaller subsidence bowls, located in the northwestern part of the valley, subsided more than 5 feet between 1963 and 1987. Two other localized subsidence bowls, in the central (downtown) and southern (Las Vegas Strip) parts of the valley, subsided more than 2.5 feet between 1963 and 1987. The areas of maximum subsidence do not necessarily coincide with areas of maximum water-level declines. One likely explanation is that those areas with maximum subsidence are underlain by a larger aggregate thickness of fine-grained, compressible sediments (Bell and Price, 1991).
U.S. Geological Survey (Michael T. Pavelko, David B. Wood and Randell J. Laczniak), Circular 1182, Las Vegas, Nevada: Gambling with water in the desert, land subsidence (Source 3) (1999). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
Each student answers in 250-350 words: "Weighing environmental and cultural impacts, how should we judge the impact of settlement on the Las Vegas Valley from 1905 to 1999?" The answer must make a claim, use all three sources and at least two tables or diagrams, apply the three impact questions, treat both environmental and cultural characteristics, and respond to a counterclaim.
Closure10 minutes
Exit ticket. "Name the settlement activity you think had the largest impact on the Las Vegas Valley, and give one environmental and one cultural reason."
Teacher note on the sources. The USGS report was published in 1999, so "at present" and the water figures describe the 1990s; the 2010 and 2024 Census figures in Table 2 are later. Students who want to know how water use and water levels have changed since 1999 should look for newer USGS or other official data rather than assume. The report says little about the valley's earliest Native users beyond naming them; students can name this as a limit of the source set.
Teacher note on balance. Many families live in and depend on the valley today. Keep the discussion on evidence: the same activity can bring homes and jobs to millions and also dry springs and sink the land. Accept well-supported evaluations that weigh these differently, and do not ask students to take positions on current water policy.

Differentiation Strategies

For Struggling Students

Give a partly filled timeline with the dates from Sources 1 and 2 already listed.
Provide the frame: "The settlement activity ___ changed the environmental characteristic ___ and the cultural characteristic ___. The impact was large/small because ___, and it fell mostly on ___."
Let students evaluate one activity in depth instead of the whole period.

For Advanced Students

Find a newer USGS data set on ground-water levels or subsidence in the Las Vegas Valley and judge whether the trends in Sources 2-3 continued after 1999.
Compare the Las Vegas Valley with another place where settlement depended on ground water, using the same three impact questions.
Write a counterclaim to your own evaluation in the strongest form you can, then answer it.

Assessment Guidance

What to Look For

Strong evaluations name specific settlement activities with dates, give measured evidence of environmental impacts, explain cultural impacts with evidence, and state who gained and who lost. They weigh the impacts instead of listing them and answer a counterclaim. Watch for answers that treat all of the valley's changes as caused by one activity, that leave out cultural characteristics, or that present a 1999 figure as today's.

Classroom Activities

3 Activities

Settlement Impact Matrix

20 minGroups of 3-4

Groups fill a matrix for six settlement activities. For each one they write an environmental impact, a cultural impact, how far the impact reached (a site, the valley or a wider region), how long it lasted, and who gained or lost. Every entry needs a source, table or diagram reference, or the words "no evidence in the sources."

The 6 Activity Cards

Native Americans use the valley's springs for more than 13,000 years.
A ranch supported by the springs and Las Vegas Creek is established in 1865.
A railroad and the small town of Las Vegas are established in 1905.
Settlers drill flowing wells from 1907 onward.
Boulder Dam (later Hoover Dam) is built in the 1930s, and industry, the military and gambling arrive in the 1940s and 1950s.
A second, larger pipeline from Lake Mead is completed in 1971, and the city keeps spreading.

Sample Entries (Answer Key)

Card 3: environmental, a new and growing demand on the springs and ground water (Source 1, paragraph 3); cultural, a railroad town replaces a ranch and a watering stop (Source 1, paragraph 2); reach, the valley; lasting, yes; gained, the railroad and new residents. Card 6: environmental, more imported water but continued reliance on ground water (Table 3); cultural, a much larger city and economy (Table 2); reach, the valley and the Colorado River region. Card 1 should show mostly "no evidence in the sources" for impacts, which is itself a finding worth discussing.

Discussion

Ask: which activity has the most evidence in the sources, and which has the least? Does a lack of evidence mean a lack of impact? Which activities would you need more sources to evaluate?

Pumping Versus Recharge Data Lab

15 minPairs

Pairs compare the water taken from the aquifer with the water that refills it, using Table 3 and Diagram 2. They calculate how many times the recharge each year's pumping was, using both ends of the recharge range.

Tasks

For 1912 and 1955, divide the amount discharged or pumped by 25,000 and by 35,000 acre-feet.
Which of the two years was already above the whole recharge range?
For the 1970s-1990s range (60,000 to 90,000 acre-feet), find the smallest and largest possible ratio to recharge.
Explain why the springs could keep flowing in 1912 but not after the 1950s, using your ratios.

Answer Key

1. 1912: 15,000 ÷ 25,000 = 0.6 and 15,000 ÷ 35,000 ≈ 0.43. 1955: 40,000 ÷ 25,000 = 1.6 and 40,000 ÷ 35,000 ≈ 1.14. 2. 1955. 3. Smallest 60,000 ÷ 35,000 ≈ 1.7; largest 90,000 ÷ 25,000 = 3.6. 4. In 1912 the wells took less than the yearly recharge, although Source 2 says spring flows were already falling; from the 1950s on, pumping took more than all of the recharge, so the water table fell and the springs could not be fed.

Variation: Spreadsheet

Pairs enter Table 3 in a spreadsheet, graph pumping as bars with the recharge range as two horizontal lines, and compare their graph with Diagram 2.

Structured Academic Controversy

25 minGroups of 4 (two pairs)

A structured academic controversy asks students to argue both sides of a question before seeking agreement. The question is historical: "By 1999, did the benefits of settlement in the Las Vegas Valley outweigh its environmental and cultural costs?"

Steps

Pair A builds the strongest "yes" case and Pair B the strongest "no" case, each with at least three pieces of evidence from Sources 1-3 and the tables (6 min).
Each pair presents while the other pair takes notes and then restates the case to the presenters' satisfaction (6 min).
Pairs switch sides and add one new piece of evidence to the other case (5 min).
The group drops its assigned roles and writes the statement it can best agree on, including what evidence would change its mind (8 min).

Teacher Note

Score the evidence and reasoning, not the side. Students should keep to the period the sources cover and should not argue about current water policy or current officials. Remind students that people who live in the valley today are part of the story, not only its costs.

Diagrams & Visual Aids

2 diagrams

Diagram 1: Clark County's Population and Its Share of Nevada, 1940-2024

Real data from Table 2 (U.S. Census Bureau). Bars show residents; the label on each bar is the county's percent of Nevada's population that year. The 1990-2010 gap is 20 years, so the years are spaced to scale.

Diagram 2: Ground Water Pumped Compared With Natural Recharge

Built from Table 3 (USGS Circular 1182, 1999). The shaded band is the estimated natural recharge of 25,000-35,000 acre-feet a year; bars above the band show years when wells took more water than refilled the aquifer.

Homework Assignment

~30 min

D2.Geo.6.9-12 Homework: The Springs of Brisa

Directions: Brisa is an invented desert town, made up for this homework, and all of its facts and numbers are invented. Read the profile, then answer the problems. Show calculations and cite the year for each fact you use.

Before 1920: Warm springs at Brisa feed a small creek, cottonwood trees and a marsh where ducks winter. A few ranch families and travelers on a wagon road use the water.
1920: A highway reaches Brisa. Settlers plant fruit orchards watered from the creek, and the town starts an Orchard Days festival.
1935: A bathhouse opens at the main spring and draws visitors from the cities.
1950-1980: The town drills wells as it grows. The depth to ground water below the town goes from 20 feet (1950) to 140 feet (1980).
1968: The main spring stops flowing; the bathhouse closes. By 1975 the marsh is dry, and many orchards are replaced by houses and golf courses.
Spring flow: 2,000 gallons per minute (1920), 900 (1950), 0 (1968).
Population: 400 (1920), 6,000 (1950), 45,000 (1980), 70,000 (2000).

Part 1: Activities and Evidence (Problems 1-3)

List four settlement activities in Brisa's history. For each one, name an environmental characteristic or a cultural characteristic it changed.
By what percent did the spring flow fall from 1920 to 1950? By how many feet per year, on average, did the depth to ground water increase from 1950 to 1980?
How many times larger was Brisa's population in 2000 than in 1920? Explain why population numbers alone cannot show the impact of settlement on the springs.

Part 2: Evaluate (Problems 4-6)

Apply the three impact questions from the lesson (what changed, how much and for how long, for whom) to the closing of the bathhouse in 1968.
Compare Brisa with the Las Vegas Valley. Name one impact the two places share and one way their stories differ, citing a source or table from the lesson for Las Vegas.
Write an evaluation of 150-200 words: "How should we judge the impact of settlement on Brisa from 1920 to 2000?" Make a claim, treat both environmental and cultural characteristics, use at least three numbers, and answer a counterclaim.

Rubric

Criterion	Full Credit (2 pts)	Partial Credit (1 pt)	No Credit (0 pts)
Identifies Activities and Impacts	Four activities, each matched to a correct environmental or cultural change	Two or three correct matches	Activities or impacts missing
Uses Data Accurately	Percent, rate and ratio correct, with units and a sound explanation of their limits	One error, or numbers without interpretation	Calculations missing or mostly wrong
Evaluates with the Impact Questions	All three questions answered with evidence, including who gained and who lost	Some questions answered or evidence thin	Description only
Argues and Compares	Clear claim, counterclaim answered and an accurate comparison with Las Vegas	Claim with evidence but no counterclaim or comparison	Opinion without evidence

Quiz: 20 Questions

Interactive, with answers

Instructions

Questions 3-5, 16 and 18 use Source 1, and questions 6-8, 14, 15, 18 and 19 use Source 2 (both in Guided Practice). Questions 9, 10, 19 and 20 use Source 3 in Independent Practice. Questions 11-14, 15, 17 and 20 use Tables 1-3 and Diagram 1 in Direct Instruction. Choose the best answer, then check it.

Multiple choice: pick an option to check it. Short answer: write your answer, then reveal the model answer.

0 of 20 answered · 0 correct

Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which of these is a human settlement activity?
Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Which of these is a cultural characteristic that settlement could change?
Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 1 of Source 1, who were among the earliest known users of the valley's water?
Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 2 of Source 1, why was the site chosen for the railroad town in 1905?
Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 3 of Source 1, what did the building of Boulder Dam bring to Las Vegas?
Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 1 of Source 2, what did the State Engineer warn in 1911?
Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 2 of Source 2, when did spring flows begin to wane (decrease)?
Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to paragraph 3 of Source 2, how did the area that could sustain flowing artesian wells change between 1946 and 1960?
Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, why don't the areas of greatest subsidence always match the areas of greatest water-level decline?
Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice
According to Source 3, how much did the northwestern subsidence bowl sink between 1963 and 1987?
Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use Table 3. The 1996 import from Lake Mead was about how many times the largest yearly pumping figure for the 1970s-1990s?
Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use Table 2. By about what percent did Clark County's population grow from 1990 to 2024?
Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Use Diagram 1. In which decade did Clark County's share of Nevada's population rise the most?
Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice
Table 1 shows the valley floor gets about 4 inches of precipitation a year, while the Spring Mountains get more than 24. Using Source 2, paragraph 4, why does that difference matter for the valley's springs?
Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer
Using Source 2 and Table 3, evaluate the environmental impact of ground-water pumping on the Las Vegas Valley up to the 1990s. Use at least two numbers.
Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer
Using Source 1, explain how settlement changed the cultural characteristics of the Las Vegas Valley from before 1865 to 1999.
Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer
Use Table 2. How many times larger was Clark County's population in 2024 than in 1940, and how did its share of Nevada's population change? What can these numbers show about settlement, and what can they not show?
Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer
Apply the question "for whom?" Using at least two sources, explain who gained and who lost from settlement in the Las Vegas Valley.
Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer
Explain the chain of impacts that links one settlement activity to land subsidence. Use Sources 2 and 3.
Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer
A classmate says: "Drying up the springs did not really matter, because by 1996 the valley got most of its water from Lake Mead." Evaluate this claim with evidence about both environmental and cultural characteristics.

0 of 20 answered · 0 correct

Frequently Asked Questions

10 Questions

What does D2.Geo.6.9-12 mean?

D2.Geo.6.9-12 asks high school students to judge how settling and building up a place has changed it. The full text is "Evaluate the impact of human settlement activities on the environmental and cultural characteristics of specific places and regions." Students study a real place, gather evidence of both kinds of impact, and make a supported judgment.

What counts as a human settlement activity?

Anything people do to found, build or grow a place to live counts. Examples include founding towns, building railroads and roads, drilling wells, bringing in water or power, clearing land and expanding suburbs. The indicator asks about the impacts of these activities, not about natural events.

How is D2.Geo.6.9-12 different from D2.Geo.6.6-8?

The middle school indicator asks students to explain how a place's characteristics connect to identity and culture. The high school indicator asks them to evaluate how settlement has changed a place's environmental and cultural characteristics. The verb moves from explain to evaluate, and the focus moves to the effects of settlement.

Why use the Las Vegas Valley?

Its story is unusually well measured. A U.S. Geological Survey report documents the springs, the wells, the falling water levels and the sinking land, and Census counts track the growth of the settlement. That lets students weigh impacts with numbers as well as words.

Is this lesson about current water policy?

No. It evaluates the impacts of settlement as documented up to 1999, with later Census population figures for context. Students do not take positions on current water decisions or officials, and the rubric scores the reasoning and evidence, not a position.

What is land subsidence?

Land subsidence is the sinking of the ground surface. In the Las Vegas Valley the USGS links it to pumping ground water from compressible, fine-grained sediments, which compact as the water is removed. It can crack the ground and damage wells and buildings.

What are the three impact questions in this lesson?

They are: what changed (environmental and cultural characteristics), how much and for how long (size and lasting effects), and for whom (who gained and who lost). They turn a list of changes into an evaluation.

Which course teaches D2.Geo.6.9-12?

It fits high school human geography, world geography, environmental studies and U.S. history courses. The C3 Framework does not assign it to one course, so schools place it where it fits their sequence.

What mistakes do students make on this indicator?

Students often list impacts without judging them, leave out cultural characteristics, or treat a 1999 figure as current. Another common mistake is blaming one activity for every change. Ask students to tie each impact to a specific activity and date.

How can I assess D2.Geo.6.9-12?

Use a written evaluation of 250-350 words scored on activities named, environmental and cultural impacts with evidence, use of the three impact questions, and a counterclaim. The quiz checks source reading and data skills, and the homework applies the method to an invented town.