7th grade Why people move: push and pull factors on migration maps worksheet

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 photographer for a federal agency documenting hard times
   • A scientist, who made it to measure how much topsoil blew away
   • A novelist, who made it to illustrate a story about a made-up family
   • A farm family, who took it to sell to a newspaper in California
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 350,000 a year
   • About 35,000 a year
   • About 10 a year
4. 3.

   Which chain fits card A, Jun asks?

   • The drought moved 3.5 million people to California within ten years
   • Drought and bare fields let storms strip the soil, and families left
   • Families leaving the Plains caused the drought, which left the fields bare
   • Dust storms caused the drought of 1934, which made families leave
5. 4.

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

   • Weak: one photograph shows one moment and one family, not millions of people
   • Weak: a photograph by a government worker cannot be used as evidence
   • 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
6. 5.

   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 left would have no opinion, since leaving ends the story
   • The farmer who stayed might stress the land; the farmer who left, the move
   • 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
7. 6.

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

   • To sell the pictures to farm families as keepsakes of their homes
   • To hide how hard times were so that the public would feel calm
   • To measure rainfall, since photographs record how much rain fell
   • To show the public the hard times farm families faced
8. 7.

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

   • The exact number of families who traveled from Oklahoma in 1939
   • 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 real names of the families who went to California
9. 8.

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

   • A novel that mentions many families on the road to California
   • A newspaper article that repeats the 3.5 million figure
   • Government counts of Plains-state population in 1930 and 1940
   • A photograph of one family beside a car on a California road
10. 9.

    Card D: a Soil Erosion Service in August 1933, renamed in 1935. How many years between, and which drought waves came after the new name, Ren asks?

    • 2 years; the waves of 1936 and 1939 to 1940
    • 6 years; the waves of 1934 and 1936
    • 2 years; the wave of 1934
    • 2 years; no waves, since the drought ended in 1935
11. 10.

    A student says, "Card A shows most of the 3.5 million went to California." Which reply is best, Zee asks?

    • Supported: card B was taken in California, so California held most migrants
    • Not supported: people cannot be counted when they move
    • Supported: card C follows a family to California, so most went there
    • Not supported: card A does not say where they went