Chapter 1 Lesson 1 Study Guide

Vocabulary:

Boundary: A line on a map that shows where one place ends and another begins

Peninsula: land with water on three sides

Strait: narrow channel (strip) of water that connects two larger bodies of water

Glacier: moving ice sheets that carved out holes, valleys, and trenches in the land

Drumlin: small egg-shaped hills that were left by melting glaciers

Ecosystem: all of the living and non-living things in a specific area

Michigan is a state located in the Midwest region of the United States of America on the North American continent.

Michigan is nearly surrounded by four out of the five “Great Lakes” (Superior, Michigan, Huron, and Erie. Michigan does not touch Lake Ontario.)

Michigan shares boundaries with the states of Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois, and with the country of Canada.

Michigan has two parts called peninsulas; the Upper and Lower Peninsulas which are separated by the Straits of Mackinac.

The mountains of the Upper Peninsula were formed long ago by volcanoes.

After the Ice Age, large sheets of ice called glaciers moved over the land, carving out landforms like dunes and drumlins. When the ice sheets melted, they formed lakes as the water filled the holes.

Michigan has more than 11,000 small lakes. Michigan’s longest river, Grand River, is 260 miles long. The Upper Peninsula has over 150 waterfalls.

Michigan is a great place for fishing, swimming, and boating. Water ways are used to make sawmills and produce electric power. Ships can carry goods from the Great Lakes all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Great Lakes form a special ecosystem. Foxes, raccoons, skunks, black bears, deer and many other animals, birds, and fish such as bass, salmon, trout, and catfish are part of Michigan’s ecosystem. All living things in an ecosystem work together. If one part is changed, it could harm the whole ecosystem.