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D2.Geo.8.9-12C3 FrameworkSocial StudiesGeographyGrades 9-12

D2.Geo.8.9-12: Highways, Jobs and Boundaries in Metropolitan St. Louis

In plain English: D2.Geo.8.9-12 is the C3 Framework geography indicator for grades 9-12 that asks students to evaluate how economic activities and political decisions affect spatial patterns within and among urban, suburban and rural regions. It is usually taught in human geography, U.S. history or economics, using population, employment and policy evidence.

Evaluate the impact of economic activities and political decisions on spatial patterns within and among urban, suburban, and rural regions.

C3 Framework for Social Studies (NCSS) · Dimension 2: Applying Disciplinary Concepts and Tools · Discipline: Geography · Human Population: Spatial Patterns and Movements · Official standard
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01

Lesson Plan

80-90 min

Overview

Students evaluate why people and jobs in the St. Louis region spread out from the old city into suburban and then rural counties after 1940, and how much of that change came from economic activities (where factories, offices and stores locate) and how much from political decisions (laws, public spending and boundaries). The region works well for D2.Geo.8.9-12 because its four study areas fit the indicator's three kinds of places: St. Louis city is entirely urban, St. Louis County is largely suburban, St. Charles County changed from rural to suburban, and Lincoln County is still mostly rural.

Students read section 108 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (Source 1), then analyze U.S. Census Bureau population counts from 1940 to 2010 (Source 2), 1990 land area, density and urban-rural shares (Source 3), and County Business Patterns employment for 1986 and 2021 (Source 4). They test two SVHS-written evaluations (Source 5) against the evidence. The goal is a supported judgment that weighs both kinds of causes, notes what the data cannot show and treats a match in timing with care.

Learning Objectives

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

  • Distinguish economic activities from political decisions as causes of change in spatial patterns.
  • Describe changes in population and employment within and among urban, suburban and rural parts of one region, using counts, shares, densities and rates.
  • Analyze a federal law as evidence of a political decision with spatial effects, citing its text.
  • Evaluate competing explanations by testing their claims against timing and data, and state the limits of the evidence.

Prior Knowledge Required

Students should already be comfortable with:

  • Explaining how transportation technology changes connections between places D2.Geo.7.6-8
  • Analyzing how human-environment relationships extend or contract settlement D2.Geo.8.6-8
  • Evaluating an author's claims and evidence in historical sources RH.11-12.8
  • Computing percent change, shares and density from a table

Lesson Procedure

80-90 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

  1. Warm-Up10 minutes

    Warm-Up Prompt

    "A city had 857,000 people in 1950 and 319,000 in 2010, while the counties around it grew. List every reason you can think of. Then sort your list into two groups: reasons that come from businesses and jobs, and reasons that come from government decisions."

    Take answers and build the two columns on the board: economic activities (factories moving, new shopping centers, cheaper land, office parks) and political decisions (highways, city boundaries, school districts, taxes, zoning). Add a third column, both, for answers that fit either. Tell students the numbers are real: they are St. Louis, Missouri, and today they will judge which column explains more.

  2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

    Key terms for D2.Geo.8.9-12 (working definitions)
    TermMeaningIn this lesson
    Urban, suburban, ruralUrban: densely built cities. Suburban: lower-density communities that grew around a city and depend on it for jobs or services. Rural: open country and small towns. The Census Bureau counts only urban and rural; suburban is a geographers' categorySt. Louis city; St. Louis County; Lincoln County
    Metropolitan regionA central city plus the surrounding counties linked to it by commutingThe four study areas in Diagram 1
    Economic activityProducing, selling or buying goods and services, and the location choices of firms, workers and householdsA factory building a plant in the county
    Political decisionA choice by a government: a law, a budget, a boundary, a regulationThe Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956
    Independent cityA city that is not part of any county; the Census Bureau treats it as the equivalent of a countySt. Louis city, Missouri
    Decentralization (suburbanization)The movement of people and jobs from a central city out to surrounding areasThe city's share of the four-area population falling
    ExurbA largely rural area at the edge of a metro region where commuters settleParts of Lincoln County by 2010
    Correlation and causationTwo changes happening together (correlation) does not prove that one caused the other (causation)Highways and suburban growth

    Part 1: The pattern. Show Diagram 1 and Diagram 2, then Source 2. Ask students to describe the change within the region in one sentence for each kind of place. Point out that the city's land area stayed almost the same (61.0 square miles in 1950, 61.9 in 1990, from Census Bureau Working Paper No. 27 and Source 3), so the region's suburban growth after 1950 took place outside the city limits.

    Part 2: Two kinds of cause. Explain that geographers usually find both kinds of cause working together, so the task is to evaluate: which mattered more, when, and for which kind of place? Give the three tests students will use all period: timing (did the change start before or after the decision?), scale (is the change as big as the cause could explain?) and alternatives (what else changed at the same time?).

    Part 3: Worked examples.

    Source 2: Population of the four study areas, 1940-2010 (U.S. Census Bureau: 1990 CPH-2-27, Table 3; Census 2010 counts)
    Area1940195019601970198019902010
    St. Louis city816,048856,796750,026622,236452,801396,685319,294
    St. Louis County274,230406,349703,532951,671974,180993,529998,954
    St. Charles County25,56229,83452,97092,954144,107212,907360,485
    Lincoln County14,39513,47814,78318,04122,19328,89252,566
    Source 3: Land area, density and urban-rural shares, 1990 (U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 CPH-2-27, Tables 4-5)
    AreaLand area (sq mi)People per sq miPercent urbanPercent rural
    St. Louis city61.96,408100.00.0
    St. Louis County507.81,95798.21.8
    St. Charles County561.437985.914.1
    Lincoln County630.54613.286.8
    Source 4: Private nonfarm employment, mid-March 1986 and 2021 (U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns)
    AreaAll employees, 1986Manufacturing, 1986All employees, 2021Manufacturing, 2021
    St. Louis city273,98562,870185,90716,323
    St. Louis County482,899107,771588,28343,830
    St. Charles County49,08912,341135,77213,696
    Lincoln County3,9229219,4951,720

    Source notes: the 1980 counts for St. Louis city and St. Louis County are the Census Bureau's revised figures. County Business Patterns counts paid employees of private businesses and leaves out government workers, farm workers and the self-employed. Industries were classified by the SIC system in 1986 and by NAICS in 2021, so manufacturing in the two years is defined slightly differently (publishing, for example, was manufacturing under SIC but is in the information sector under NAICS).

    • Distribution within the region

      Source 2: in 1950 the four areas had 1,306,457 people. What share lived in St. Louis city?

      Result: 856,796 / 1,306,457 = 0.656, or 65.6%. About two in three people in the four areas lived in the city in 1950.

    • Suburban growth

      Source 2: how much did St. Louis County grow from 1950 to 1970, and how many times larger was it?

      Result: 951,671 - 406,349 = 545,322 more people; 951,671 / 406,349 = 2.34, so more than twice as large in 20 years.

    • Density among regions

      Source 3: compare the 1990 density of the city and of St. Louis County.

      Result: City: 396,685 / 61.9 = 6,408 people per square mile. County: 993,529 / 507.8 = 1,957. The city was about 3.3 times as dense, the urban-suburban contrast in numbers.

    • An economic activity within the city

      Source 4: what share of the city's private jobs were in manufacturing in 1986?

      Result: 62,870 / 273,985 = 0.229, or 22.9%. Manufacturing was a large part of the city's economy in 1986, so a change in factory location would change the city a great deal.

  3. Guided Practice20 minutes

    Reading a law as geographic evidence. Source 1 is part of the 1956 law that funded most of the Interstate System. Laws are written in long sentences; read paragraph 1 aloud together, then let pairs read paragraph 2 and report back.

    (a) Interstate System.—It is hereby declared to be essential to the national interest to provide for the early completion of the "National System of Interstate Highways", as authorized and designated in accordance with section 7 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 838). It is the intent of the Congress that the Interstate System be completed as nearly as practicable over a thirteen-year period and that the entire System in all the States be brought to simultaneous completion. Because of its primary importance to the national defense, the name of such system is hereby changed to the "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways". Such National System of Interstate and Defense Highways is hereinafter in this Act referred to as the "Interstate System".

    (b) Authorization of Appropriations.—For the purpose of expediting the construction, reconstruction, or improvement, inclusive of necessary bridges and tunnels, of the Interstate System, including extensions thereof through urban areas, designated in accordance with the provisions of section 7 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 838), there is hereby authorized to be appropriated the additional sum of $1,000,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1957, which sum shall be in addition to the authorization heretofore made for that year, the additional sum of $1,700,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1958, the additional sum of $2,000,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1959, the additional sum of $2,200,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1960, the additional sum of $2,200,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1961, the additional sum of $2,200,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1962, the additional sum of $2,200,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1963, the additional sum of $2,200,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1964, the additional sum of $2,200,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1965, the additional sum of $2,200,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1966, the additional sum of $2,200,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1967, the additional sum of $1,500,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1968, and the additional sum of $1,025,000,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1969.

    U.S. Congress (Public Law 84-627, 70 Stat. 374), Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, section 108(a)-(b) (Source 1) (1956). US government work (17 U.S.C. 105). Source text.
    1. What did Congress decide? Prompt: in paragraph 1, what does Congress declare to be "essential to the national interest"? Teacher note: the early completion of the national system of Interstate highways. This is a political decision in the plainest sense.
    2. Where would the roads go? Prompt: find the phrase in paragraph 2 that matters most for cities. Teacher note: "including extensions thereof through urban areas." The Interstates were not only intercity roads; the law paid for routes into and through cities, which are the routes that made daily commuting from suburbs practical.
    3. How big was the commitment? Prompt: paragraph 2 lists the yearly sums. Without adding them all, what pattern do you notice? Teacher note: the sums rise from $1 billion to $2.2 billion a year and stay there for most of the period, which signals a long, steady program rather than a one-time project.
    4. Test the timing. Prompt: use Source 2. Did St. Louis County start growing fast before or after 1956? Teacher note: before; it gained 132,119 people from 1940 to 1950. So highways cannot be the whole explanation for suburban growth, though they may explain why it continued and spread farther out.

  4. Independent Practice20 minutes

    Evaluation A: political decisions drove the pattern. Two government decisions shaped the St. Louis region more than anything else. Congress funded Interstate highways, including routes through urban areas, so that a worker could live in the county and drive to a job in the city. And because St. Louis city is an independent city whose land area stayed at about 61 square miles, the city could not grow outward to include its new suburbs; growth that might have counted as the city's was counted in the counties instead. Without these decisions, the city's share of the region would not have fallen so far.

    Evaluation B: economic activities drove the pattern. St. Louis County was already growing fast in the 1940s, before the 1956 highway law, and the city began to lose people in the 1950s, before much of the Interstate network could have been built. Jobs moved for economic reasons: factories needed cheap, flat land for one-story plants, and stores followed customers to new subdivisions. Manufacturing jobs then fell everywhere in the region after the 1980s, not only in the city. Highways and boundaries made the shift easier, but the location of jobs and land explains where people went.

    SVHS-written sample interpretation, Two sample evaluations of the St. Louis region (Source 5) (2026). Original passage written for this page.

    Task (individually, then groups of three). (1) List every factual claim in Evaluation A and Evaluation B. (2) Test each claim against Sources 1-4, marking it supported, contradicted or not testable with these sources. (3) Use Source 4 to find how total private employment changed in St. Louis County and in St. Charles County from 1986 to 2021. (4) Write a judgment of four to five sentences: which evaluation is stronger for the urban city, for the suburban counties and for rural Lincoln County?

    Look for: students who confirm Evaluation A's boundary claim with the land area (61.0 to 61.9 square miles) and its highway claim with paragraph 2 of Source 1, and Evaluation B's timing claim with the 1940-1950 county growth. Employment in St. Louis County rose by 105,384 (21.8%) and in St. Charles County by 86,683 (176.6%), so jobs as well as homes spread outward. Evaluation B's claim that manufacturing jobs "fell everywhere in the region" is contradicted by Source 4: they rose in St. Charles County (12,341 to 13,696) and Lincoln County (921 to 1,720), though the change in industry classification makes the comparison approximate. Claims about why factories chose new sites are not testable with these sources. Strong judgments differ by kind of place and name the evidence that would settle the question, such as commuting data or the opening dates of each Interstate segment.

  5. Closure10-20 minutes

    Exit ticket: Complete: "For the St. Louis region, the stronger cause of the spatial pattern was ___ because ___. The best evidence against my view is ___."

    Teacher note on scope and balance: historians and geographers also study how housing and lending policies, and racial discrimination in housing, shaped who could move to the suburbs in the mid-twentieth century. Those topics fit this indicator well and can be added with sourced material; this lesson keeps to highways, boundaries and employment, which the sources on this page document. Present today's debates about cities, suburbs and regional government as open questions; the rubric scores reasoning and evidence, not a position.

    Teacher note on data: Census counts show where people lived, not why they moved, and County Business Patterns leaves out government jobs, which are a large share of employment in many central cities.

Differentiation Strategies

For Struggling Students

  • Give a sorting card with six causes already written, to classify as economic activity, political decision or both.
  • Pre-mark two key phrases in Source 1 ("essential to the national interest" and "extensions thereof through urban areas").
  • Provide a percent-change template: (new - old) / old x 100.

For Advanced Students

  • Ask them to design a test that could separate the effect of the highways from the effect of job location, naming the data they would need.
  • Ask them to compare St. Louis with a city that annexed its suburbs, and predict how the same economic changes would show up in that city's census counts.

Assessment Guidance

What to Look For

Strong work separates economic activities from political decisions while showing how they interact; uses shares, densities and percent changes, not only raw counts; applies the timing, scale and alternatives tests; distinguishes urban, suburban and rural effects; and states what the evidence cannot show. Watch for answers that treat a match in timing as proof, ignore the counties' growth before 1956, or misread a percentage change as a count.

02

Classroom Activities

3 Activities

1

Weigh the Evidence

25 minGroups of 4

Groups place 10 evidence cards on a weighting grid. The horizontal axis runs from economic activity to political decision; the vertical axis runs from weak to strong evidence of a cause. Every card comes from the sources on this page.

The 10 cards

  1. Congress funds Interstate routes "through urban areas" (Source 1)
  2. St. Louis County gains 132,119 people from 1940 to 1950 (Source 2)
  3. The city's land area is 61.0 sq mi in 1950 and 61.9 sq mi in 1990 (Source 3 and Working Paper No. 27)
  4. The city loses 106,770 people from 1950 to 1960 (Source 2)
  5. The city's manufacturing jobs fall from 62,870 to 16,323 (Source 4)
  6. St. Charles County's private jobs grow from 49,089 to 135,772 (Source 4)
  7. St. Charles County is 85.9% urban by 1990 (Source 3)
  8. Lincoln County grows by 23,674 people from 1990 to 2010 (Source 2)
  9. Interstate 70 crosses St. Charles County (Diagram 1)
  10. St. Louis County's population barely changes from 1970 to 2010 (Source 2)

Steps

  1. Read each card aloud and decide which kind of cause it is evidence for, or whether it is an outcome to be explained.
  2. Place it on the grid and write one sentence on a sticky note explaining its position.
  3. Choose the two strongest cards on each side and use them to write a group claim.

Discussion

Ask: Which cards are outcomes rather than causes? (Cards 2, 4, 7, 8 and 10 describe changes in population or land use.) Which card weakens a highways-only explanation? (Card 2: growth began before 1956.) Which card is the clearest political decision? (Card 1 or card 3.) Accept other placements that groups can defend with evidence.

2

Three Kinds of Place

20 minPairs

Pairs compute the percent change in population from 1970 to 1990 for each study area, then explain how the change differs among urban, suburban and rural places.

Tasks

  1. Use Source 2 to find the percent change from 1970 to 1990 for each of the four areas.
  2. Rank them from fastest growth to fastest decline.
  3. Use Source 3 to label each area urban, suburban or rural in 1990, and write one sentence on how its 1970-1990 change fits that label.

Answer key

St. Charles County +129.0%; Lincoln County +60.1%; St. Louis County +4.4%; St. Louis city -36.2%. The fastest growth was at the outer edge (St. Charles, by then mostly urban, and rural Lincoln), the inner suburb had nearly stopped growing, and the city lost more than a third of its people.

Discussion

Ask: why might the inner suburb stop growing while outer counties boomed? Possible answers: land in St. Louis County was mostly built up; new highways reached farther out. Ask what data would show whether the newcomers to St. Charles came from the city, from St. Louis County or from elsewhere.

3

Route Hearing, 1957

20 minGroups of 5

An invented scenario: a state highway department holds a public hearing on where an Interstate route should run through an invented county at the edge of a growing city, one year after the 1956 law. The scenario and roles are invented; the law is real (Source 1).

Role cards

  • Highway engineer: wants the shortest, cheapest route that meets federal standards.
  • Downtown store owner: worries that customers will shop in new suburban centers.
  • Land developer: owns farmland beside one proposed interchange.
  • Farmer: would lose part of a field to the right-of-way.
  • City neighborhood resident: lives where an urban extension might be built.

Hearing

  1. Each role speaks for one minute about how a route would change where people live and work.
  2. The group chooses one of two routes: Route A through farmland near the developer's land, or Route B along an existing road closer to the city.
  3. The group writes a prediction: how will the chosen route change urban, suburban and rural patterns in 20 years?

Debrief

Ask which roles spoke for economic activities and which for political choices, and whether the decision was purely political. Both routes are defensible; score the predictions on reasoning and on links to Sources 2-4.

03

Diagrams & Visual Aids

2 diagrams

Diagram 1: The Four Study Areas and the Interstate Highways

The four study areas and the Interstate highways Lincoln County St. Charles County St. Louis County St. Louis city ILLINOIS MISSOURI Urban: St. Louis city Suburban: St. Louis County Outer suburban and rural: St. Charles Rural: Lincoln County Interstate highway (2023) 20 km
Map of the St. Louis region drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2023 county boundary file (1:5,000,000) in a simple projection; the scale bar is correct near 38.7°N. Shaded counties are the four study areas, labeled with the kind of place each was in 1990 (Source 3). Red lines are Interstate highways from the Census Bureau's 2023 TIGER/Line primary roads file, which shows today's network, not the network of any one past year. White areas are neighboring counties in Missouri and Illinois.

Diagram 2: Population of the Four Study Areas, 1940-2010

Population of the four study areas, 1940-2010 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 Thousands 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2010 St. Louis city St. Louis County St. Charles County Lincoln County Census year (no 2000 value shown)
Line graph drawn to scale from Source 2 (U.S. Census Bureau). The horizontal axis is spaced by year, so the 1990-2010 segment spans twenty years; no 2000 value is plotted.

04

Homework Assignment

~30 min

D2.Geo.8.9-12 Homework: Evaluating the Causes

Directions: Use Sources 1-5 and Diagrams 1-2. Round percentages to one decimal place and show your work.

Part 1: Measure the Patterns (Problems 1-3)

  1. Use Source 2. Find each area's share of the four-area total population in 1970 and in 2010. Which area gained the most share, and which lost the most?
  2. Use Source 4. Find the percent change in total private employment from 1986 to 2021 for St. Louis city and for Lincoln County. What does the comparison suggest about economic activity among urban and rural places in the region?
  3. Use Source 4. Find the manufacturing share of private employment in St. Louis County and in St. Charles County in 2021, and compare each with 1986. Name one reason the change in classification between 1986 and 2021 means the comparison is approximate.

Part 2: Evaluate (Problems 4-6)

  1. Use paragraph 1 of Source 1. Explain what the phrase "brought to simultaneous completion" tells you about how Congress wanted the Interstate System built across the country, and why that is a spatial decision.
  2. Choose one claim in Source 5 that the sources on this page cannot test. Name the kind of evidence that would test it and what result would support or weaken the claim.
  3. Write a paragraph of 7-9 sentences that evaluates the impact of economic activities and political decisions on spatial patterns in the St. Louis region. Discuss urban, suburban and rural areas, use at least one quotation from Source 1 and at least two numbers from Sources 2-4, and apply at least one of the three tests (timing, scale, alternatives).

Rubric

Criterion4: Strong3: Proficient2: Developing1: Beginning
Quantitative evidenceShares, percent changes and densities correct and interpretedCorrect with a minor slipRaw counts used where rates are neededNumbers missing or misread
Use of the lawAccurate quotation tied to a spatial effectAccurate quotation, link partly explainedParaphrase onlyNo use of Source 1
Urban, suburban and ruralDistinguishes effects on all three kinds of placeCovers two kinds of placeTreats the region as one placeNo regional distinction
EvaluationWeighs both kinds of cause with a timing, scale or alternatives test and states limitsWeighs both causes without a testNames one cause onlyNo judgment

05

Quiz: 20 Questions

Interactive, with answers

Instructions

Questions 1-4 use Source 1 (the 1956 law) in Guided Practice; paragraph 1 is subsection (a) and paragraph 2 is subsection (b). Questions 5-13 use Sources 2-4 in Direct Instruction. Questions 17-18 use Source 5 in Independent Practice. Choose an answer to see whether it is right; for short-answer questions, write your answer first and then open the model answer.

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

0 of 20 answered · 0 correct

  1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to paragraph 1 of Source 1, why did Congress add the word "Defense" to the system's name?

  2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to paragraph 1 of Source 1, over what period did Congress intend the Interstate System to be completed?

  3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Add the additional sums that paragraph 2 of Source 1 authorizes for fiscal years 1957 through 1969. What is the total?

  4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to paragraph 2 of Source 1, what kinds of work could the new money pay for?

  5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Use Source 2. By how many people did St. Louis city's population fall from 1950 to 1990?

  6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Use Source 2. About how many times as many people lived in St. Charles County in 2010 as in 1950?

  7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Use Source 3. Which statement about density in 1990 is correct?

  8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Use Source 4. What share of the four areas' manufacturing employees worked in St. Louis city in 2021?

  9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Use Source 2. What percent of its 1990 population did Lincoln County gain by 2010?

  10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Use Source 3. What percent of St. Charles County's 1990 population was rural?

  11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which of these is an economic activity rather than a political decision?

  12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 2 shows St. Louis County gaining 132,119 people from 1940 to 1950. Why does this matter for evaluating the 1956 highway law?

  13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Source 3 and Census Working Paper No. 27 give St. Louis city's land area as 61.0 square miles in 1950 and 61.9 in 1990. What does this suggest?

  14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Use Source 4. What share of the four areas' private employees worked in St. Louis County in 2021?

  15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Explain how the phrase "including extensions thereof through urban areas" connects a political decision to changes in suburban spatial patterns.

  16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Use Sources 2 and 4. Describe how the pattern of people and of jobs changed between urban St. Louis city and suburban St. Louis County, with at least two numbers.

  17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose Evaluation A or Evaluation B in Source 5. Identify its strongest claim and test it against one source.

  18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Name one weakness in each evaluation in Source 5.

  19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Explain how political decisions and economic activities in the metro region could change a rural county such as Lincoln County.

  20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    A classmate says, "The highways caused the suburbs." Write a response that evaluates this claim using the timing, scale or alternatives test.

0 of 20 answered · 0 correct

06

Frequently Asked Questions

10 Questions

What does D2.Geo.8.9-12 mean?

D2.Geo.8.9-12 asks high school students to evaluate how economic activities, such as where businesses locate, and political decisions, such as laws, public spending and boundaries, change spatial patterns inside and among urban, suburban and rural places. "Evaluate" means judging how much each cause mattered, with evidence.

What is the difference between an economic activity and a political decision in D2.Geo.8.9-12?

An economic activity is a choice made in markets: a firm building a plant, a store opening in a new shopping center, a family buying a cheaper house. A political decision is made by a government: a highway law, a city boundary, a zoning code. They interact: a highway law can change where firms find it profitable to build.

Why does the lesson use St. Louis?

It has a clear set of places for comparison: an independent city whose land area has barely changed, an inner suburban county, an outer county that changed from rural to suburban, and a county that is still mostly rural. Census Bureau data cover all four for many decades, and a federal law documents the highway decision.

Does the Census Bureau define suburbs?

No. The Census Bureau classifies people as urban or rural, and it defines metropolitan areas, but "suburban" is a category geographers and planners use for lower-density places that grew around a central city. Students should say how they are using the word.

What is an independent city?

An independent city is not part of any county. The Census Bureau treats it as the equivalent of a county. In the United States, the independent cities are Baltimore, St. Louis, Carson City and the independent cities of Virginia.

Where do the numbers on this page come from?

Population, land area, density and urban-rural shares come from the Census Bureau's 1990 CPH-2-27 report for Missouri and its 2010 county counts. Employment comes from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns for 1986 and 2021. The map uses Census Bureau county boundaries and TIGER/Line Interstate highways, and the law is quoted from the Statutes at Large.

Can the data prove that highways caused suburban growth?

Not by themselves. The data show that population and jobs moved outward and that a highway law was passed, but a match in timing is not proof. Students should test claims for timing, scale and alternative causes, and say what further evidence, such as commuting flows, would help.

What mistakes do students make with this standard?

Common ones are naming only one cause, treating correlation as causation, comparing raw counts when shares or rates are needed, and treating a region as one place instead of comparing urban, suburban and rural parts. The rubric rows target each of these.

How can this lesson stay neutral on current debates about cities and suburbs?

Keep the focus on documented decisions and data from the past, present today's debates as open questions with reasonable views on several sides, and score students on the quality of their evidence and reasoning rather than on which cause they favor.

How does D2.Geo.8.9-12 connect to other standards?

It builds on D2.Geo.8.6-8, which looks at human-environment relationships and settlement, and on D2.Geo.7.9-12 on migration. It pairs with economics indicators on how markets and government shape outcomes, and with RH.11-12.8 on evaluating an author's claims and evidence.