Why people move: push and pull factors on migration maps

Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   The Dust Bowl (cards A to D; summaries in our words). Card A, a history summary: a dry era began on the Great Plains in summer 1930. Drought came in three waves, in 1934, 1936 and 1939 to 1940, and regular rain returned in fall 1939. Dust storms blew topsoil off bare fields. About 3.5 million people left the Plains states between 1930 and 1940. Card B, a photograph taken in 1936 in California by Dorothea Lange, who worked for a federal agency that hired photographers to document hard times for farm families. Card C, a novel, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, published in 1939. It follows a made-up family from Oklahoma who travel to California. Card D, the government's response: a Soil Erosion Service was set up in August 1933, and in 1935 it was renamed the Soil Conservation Service. The word "Okie" was used in California mainly for migrants from Oklahoma, though also for people from nearby states.

2. 1.

   Who made card B, and for what kind of agency, Ari asks?

   • A farm family, who took it to sell to a newspaper in California
   • A novelist, who made it to illustrate a story about a made-up family
   • A photographer for a federal agency documenting hard times
   • A scientist, who made it to measure how much topsoil blew away
3. 2.

   Card A: about 3.5 million people left the Plains states from 1930 to 1940. About how many left each year on average, Bo asks?

   • About 3.5 million a year
   • About 35,000 a year
   • About 10 a year
   • About 350,000 a year
4. 3.

   Card A: drought came in waves in 1934, 1936 and 1939 to 1940. How many years passed from the first wave to the start of the last wave, Esme asks?

   • 6 years, counting to the end of the last wave in 1940
   • 5 years, since 1939 minus 1934 is 5
   • 9 years, counting from the start of the dry era in 1930
   • 2 years, the gap between the waves of 1934 and 1936
5. 4.

   Which chain fits card A, Jun asks?

   • Dust storms caused the drought of 1934, which made families leave
   • Drought and bare fields let storms strip the soil, and families left
   • Families leaving the Plains caused the drought, which left the fields bare
   • The drought moved 3.5 million people to California within ten years
6. 5.

   A student says, "Card B shows what happened to farm families across the Plains." How strong is that claim, Kira asks?

   • Weak: a photograph by a government worker cannot be used as evidence
   • Weak: one photograph shows one moment and one family, not millions of people
   • Strong: a photograph cannot be changed, so it shows what happened to millions
   • Strong: card A says millions left, so the photograph shows what they looked like
7. 6.

   A farmer who stayed on the Plains and a farmer who left for California each look back on the 1930s. How might they differ, Luz asks?

   • The farmer who stayed would describe California better, since staying gives a wider view
   • They would tell the same story, since both lived through the same drought
   • The farmer who stayed might stress the land; the farmer who left, the move
   • The farmer who left would have no opinion, since leaving ends the story
8. 7.

   Why might a federal agency hire photographers to take pictures like card B, Milo asks?

   • To measure rainfall, since photographs record how much rain fell
   • To sell the pictures to farm families as keepsakes of their homes
   • To show the public the hard times farm families faced
   • To hide how hard times were so that the public would feel calm
9. 8.

   Card C is a novel about a made-up family. What can it show, Noah asks?

   • The real names of the families who went to California
   • How such a journey might have felt, though the events are invented
   • Nothing, since a story cannot say anything about real life or real people
   • The exact number of families who traveled from Oklahoma in 1939
10. 9.

    Which would be the best source for checking card A's 3.5 million, Pia asks?

    • A photograph of one family beside a car on a California road
    • Government counts of Plains-state population in 1930 and 1940
    • A newspaper article that repeats the 3.5 million figure
    • A novel that mentions many families on the road to California
11. 10.

    Card D says "Okie" was used mainly for migrants from Oklahoma, though also for people from nearby states. What does that show, Tala asks?

    • The label was used for a wider group than its name suggests
    • The label shows that people from the Plains went to California
    • The label named people born in Oklahoma and no one else
    • The label was invented by the people who moved, for their own use