Explore the physical geography of your region. Find out about the geology, hydrology (water), plants and animals, soils, climate, natural resources, parks, etc. Find out about open space and land use in your town. Find out what kind of natural resources are found or harvested in the area. Where do waste products go (waste water and trash)? Get out and explore! (BE SMART and SAFE when doing this!).

Collect maps, Internet sources, find the groups and organizations in your town that are concerned with these things. Watershed groups, environmental groups, land trusts, city agencies. Who makes decisions about the use of the land and natural resources?

For April 14, you should be prepared to report on and discuss what you have found within your regional group. Formulate questions for further study. You should collect maps, and might want to create some of your own. You will also file a written report, later.

You will find more links and info in the posts below, for March 31 and Geology of Rhode Island.

Here are some more links that might be helpful…

Google Maps http://maps.google.com/
and Google Earth (you need to download & install this free program, but it offers lots of features such as 3-D terrain etc.) http://earth.google.com

State Parks — http://www.riparks.com/listing.htm

Wildlife refuges — http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ri/rirc.htm

Rhode Island wildlife — http://www.naturalnews.net/wordpress/?page_id=311

Rhode Island forests — http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/bnatres/forest/pdf/riforest.pdf

Rhode Island climate — http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?content_spotlight/climates/north_american_climate_rhode_is

http://www.climate-charts.com/States/Rhode_Island.html

Find the Web site for your town at http://www.ri.gov/towns/

Providence neighborhood regions are defined at this Providence Plan site: http://204.17.79.244/profiles/index.html