NIE ACTIVITY
GEOGRAPHY Connections
This yearlong series is presented in collaboration with the Connecticut Geographic Alliance. For more information about NIE visit www.courantnie.com or call 241-3144.
PANAMA
Marissa Napolitano
University of New Haven
A Man, a plan, a canal,
Panama!
Wait – stop reading! Take a
look at the title again. Do you
notice anything peculiar?
Not only does the title tell an
important story about Panama
in very few words, but it is also
a palindrome. This means that
the letters spell the same thing
if we read them forward or
backwards!
Panama is a country in
Central America located on a
geographical formation called
an isthmus (pronounced like
the “istmas” in “Christmas”).
An isthmus is a narrow strip
of land connecting two larger
land areas with water on each
side. You can imagine an
isthmus to be like a massive
bridge. The northern coast of
Panama is on the Caribbean
Sea, and the southern coast
borders the Pacific Ocean.
Our palindromic title mentions something
important – a canal! The Panama Canal is
an amazing man-made waterway that cuts
across the country, linking the Caribbean
Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Before the
construction of the canal in 1904, travelers
sailed all the way around the bottom tip of
South America to reach the Pacific Ocean.
Check out our map activity to see how many
miles this canal saves our ships!
Panama was explored and settled by the
Spanish in the 16th century, but there were
many groups that lived in this area before
Europeans arrived, seven surviving to this
day. These groups are called indigenous
populations because they are the original
inhabitants of the area. What groups are
native, or indigenous, to the area that you live
in?
TAKE 5
• Location:
9° N latitude, 80° W longitude
• Region:
Central America between Columbia and Costa
Rica
• Place:
A narrow strip of land with long coastlines.
Panama is almost 30,000 square miles, which is
over 5 times the size of Connecticut.
• Human/Environment Interaction:
Humans impacted the environment in Panama in
a very dramatic way when they built the Panama
Canal. What was once rainforest and rock is
now 50 miles of water! Panama still has lots of
rainforests, but they are getting smaller because
farmers cut down the trees to plant crops. We
need to protect the rainforest because it provides
water, food, and air to the rest of the world, and
is the home of millions of plants and animals. The
canal needs the rainforest too! In the middle of
the canal is a large freshwater lake, Lake Gatun,
which is filled up by rainforests. If Lake Gatun
loses too much water, the canal will not work.
• Movement:
Over 10,000 ships travel through the Panama
Canal every year.
DID YOU KNOW?
• Richard Halliburton swam across the
Panama Canal in 1928 and paid the lowest
toll ever recorded, 36 cents.
• The Panama Canal is made of three
locks, which are like water-elevators.
• Panama City is the only capital city in the
world to have a rainforest within its limits.
• Don’t worry about packing your winter
clothes! The lowest temperature ever
recorded in Panama City is 68 degrees.
MAP IT!
Grab your life jacket! We are taking a ship
from Connecticut to California.
1.Draw a water route from Connecticut to California
that goes around South America.
2. Draw another route, this time through the Panama
Canal.
3. Use string to measure the two routes. How long is
each string in inches?
4. Compare to the map key. How many miles was
each trip? How many miles did you save by going
through the Panama Canal?
Going through the canal takes about ten hours. The
alternative, sailing around Cape Horn (the tip of South
America), takes over two weeks!
Using The News
Another Panama Canal?
There is currently a project in Panama to widen the Panama Canal, adding three
more locks so that larger ships can travel through it. If completed as planned,
they will double the capacity of the canal. It is expected to be finished in 2015,
but the project is on pause because of environmental, economic and political
issues.
Community Connections
For general information on the canal, visit the Panama Canal website at http://www.acp.
gob.pa/eng/
For a quick video explanation about how the locks in the Panama Canal work, visit http://
youtu.be/tfWyBz5bHj8
For more on the climate on Panama, visit http://www.weatherbase.com and search for
Panama
If you want more interesting statistics of Panama, see http://internationalliving.com/
countries/panama/fact-file/
To compare the size of Panama with other countries, play around on http://www.
mapfight.appspot.com
A great source for videos, interactive maps, and articles about the Panama Canal can be
found here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/panama/
Curricular Connections
CCSS ELA-Literacy RI.6.4, RI.6.7, RH6-8.3, RH6-8.4, RH6-8.7