Presentation. 6th grade. The USA

The USA

America is not a formula. America is not statistics... A great nation cannot be made, cannot be discovered, and then be laid coldly together like a census. America is a Tune. It must be sung together. ~ Gerald Stanley Lee

The  United States of America  is a large country in  North America , often referred to as "the USA", "the U.S.",

"the United States", "the United States of America", "the States", or simply "America". Home to the world's third-largest population, with over 318 million people, it includes both densely populated cities with sprawling suburbs and vast, uninhabited natural areas.

With its history of mass immigration dating from the 17th century, it is a "melting pot" of cultures from around the world and plays a dominant role in the world's cultural landscape. It's home to a wide array of popular tourist destinations, ranging from the skyscrapers of  Manhattan  and  Chicago  to the natural wonders of  Yellowstone  and  Alaska , to the warm, sunny beaches of  Florida  and  Hawaii  and the deserts of  Arizona .

Geography

The  contiguous United States  or the "Lower 48"

(the 48 states other than Alaska and Hawaii) is bound by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west, with much of the population living on the two coasts. Its land borders are shared with  Canada  to the north, and  Mexico  to the south. The US also shares maritime borders with  Russia ,  Cuba , and the  Bahamas .

If counting the Insular Areas and Minor Outlying Islands, the  United Kingdom ,  Samoa , and  Haiti  would also share maritime borders.

Like its topography, the climate of the U.S. also varies depending on location. It is considered mostly temperate but is tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the plains west of the  Mississippi River  and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest.

The USA contains every biome on earth.

The USA has something for everyone; tropical jungles, subtropical and temperate savannas, searing deserts, Mediterranean-like coast lines, frozen mountain peaks, coniferous forests, steamy subtropical river systems, and more.

Between  flora and fauna of the United States 

the redwood and Colorado spruce stand out

in the field of plants, and the raccoon and the alligator in terms of animals.

The United States is a country of great territorial extension, being the third with the largest area in the world.

Because of this, it is considered a very diverse country.

Government

The U.S. government is a representative democracy with two legislative bodies, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Senate consists of 100 seats, with two representatives from each of the 50 states.

The House of Representatives consists of 435 seats, the occupants of which are elected by the people from each of the 50 states.

The  executive branch  consists of the president, who is also the head of government and chief of state.

The U.S. also has a judicial branch of government that is made up of the Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals, U.S. District Courts, and State and County Courts. The U.S. is comprised of 50 states and one district (Washington, D.C.).

Economics

The U.S. has the largest and most technologically advanced economy in the world. It mainly consists of the industrial and service sectors. The main industries include petroleum, steel, motor vehicles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, and mining.

  Agricultural   production, though only a small part of the economy, includes wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton, beef, pork, poultry, dairy products, fish, and forest products.

Culture

The United States is made up of many diverse ethnic groups and its culture varies greatly across the vast area of the country and even within cities - a city like New York will have dozens, if not hundreds, of different ethnicities represented within a neighborhood. Despite this difference, there exists a strong sense of national identity and certain predominant cultural traits. Generally, Americans tend to believe strongly in personal responsibility and that an individual determines his or her own success or failure, but it is important to note that there are many exceptions and that a nation as diverse as the United States has literally thousands of distinct cultural traditions. One will find South Carolina in the South to be different culturally

from New Hampshire in New England.

Holidays

The United States has a number of holidays — official and/or cultural — of which the traveller should be aware. Note that holidays observed on Mondays or Fridays are usually treated as weekend-long events. (A weekend consists of a Saturday and a Sunday.)

Federal holidays — i.e., holidays observed by the federal government, state and local government and banks.

If a federal holiday with a fixed calendar date (such as Independence Day) falls on a weekend, federal and most state and local government offices will be closed on the nearest non-weekend day. Since the early 1970s, several federal holidays, including Memorial Day and Labor Day, have been observed on a certain Monday rather than on a fixed date for the express purpose of giving federal employees three-day weekends.

Foreign embassies & consulates in the U.S. also observe the same federal holidays (in bold italics) in addition to the official holidays of their respective countries. The private sector (besides banks) are usually open for business on most holidays with people working except New Years, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, the Friday after Thanksgiving and Christmas when a vast number of non-retail businesses do close or open partial hours in observance.

Interesting Facts about The USA

• The Statue of Liberty   is associated with New York City, but it   is actually physically located in New Jersey!  Jersey City, New Jersey to be exact. Another fun fact: The seven rays on the crown of the Statue of Liberty represent the seven continents; each measures up to 9 feet in length and weighs as much

as 150 pounds.

• The tallest mountain in the world is actually located in the United States . It is actually taller than Mount Everest (more than twice Mt. Everest’s base-to-peak height) when measured from the seafloor. It’s called  Mauna Kea  and it’s located in Hawaii. While it is only 13,796 feet in altitude above sea level, when measured from the seafloor it is over 32,000 feet high, while Mount Everest is 29,028 feet high.

• The Liberty Bell   was last rung on George Washington’s Birthday in 1846 .

It received its fatal crack a few hours later. Look closely and you will see that the word “Pennsylvania” is mispelled as “Pensylvania.” They must not have had spell check back in those days! The bell is said to have been built for $225.50 USD and it was rung on July 8, 1776 for the first public reading of The Declaration of Independence. Today it is officially owned by the city of Philadelphia, while the National Park Service maintains it’s state-of-the-art facilities, where it has been housed since 2003, nearby Independence Hall and visiting is free of charge.

I suppose it didn’t take too long to recoup their $225.50 investment!

• The  Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum  is the most-visited museum in the U.S . It gets over 9 million visitors a year and is second only to the Louvre in attendance worldwide. It maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. All of the aircraft and spacecraft on display in the Air and Space Museum were actually flown or were used as backup vehicles. The 23 exhibits in the museum house artifacts including airplanes & spacecraft, missiles & rockets, engines, propellers, models, uniforms, instruments, and flight equipment. While at the museum, tourists can see the Wright Brothers’ original 1903 Flyer, the Apollo Lunar module, Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis, the moon rock, as well as aircraft from World War I, World War II, and Vietnam. Here’s  6 more fun facts . The Smithsonian Institution is comprised of 19 various museums. The National Zoological Park actually has a  Panda Cam  for those who can’t make it to see giant pandas Mei Xiang and Tian Tian in person. They are two of just over 300 other pandas who reside at zoos and research centers across the world, but only 15 of which live in America.

• The world’s tallest battle monument

is found in Houston. 

It’s called the San Jacinto Monument and it was dedicated in 1939 and stands 570-feet high, 15-feet above the Washington monument. Ride the elevator to the  observation deck  to get a view of the site of one of the biggest battles in our nation’s history. They also have a museum on-site; it’s located 20-minutes from downtown Houston. It’s actually the second  tallest monument  in the country, right after the 630-foot Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Also look into the  tallest statues  (these might really surprise you) and the  tallest lighthouses  in America, many of which are open to the public.

• Alaska has a longer coastline than all of the other 49 U.S. states put together . True story. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area (more than twice the size of Texas, the next the largest state) the 4th least populous and the least densely populated of the 50 states.  About half of their population resides within the Anchorage  metropolitan area. The US actually purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million (equivalent to $120 million in today’s dollars). That means ABC’s  Shark Tank ‘s billionaire investor and Dallas Mavericks owner Marc Cuban could buy Alaska like it was water off of a duck’s back. And in case you’re wondering, Alaska isn’t really known for their ducks but they are pretty well known for their bears. Kodiak island, Alaska’s largest island, is home to the world’s largest bear species, called the Kodiak brown bears. But Alaska actually wasn’t admitted as the 49th state of the US until 1959. Alaska is also home to  17 of the tallest 20 mountains in the US , including Mt. McKInley (also known as Denali) which is the highest peak in the US.

Only 20 percent of Alaska is accessible by road so you may have to borrow Santa’s sleigh if you want ot go out in the Alaskan wild wild west. Those looking for something really bizarre to do in Alaska will want to head to their unique  Hammer Museum  (in Haines), which showcases over 1,500 hammers.

Last but not least, Alaska actually has the  lowest individual tax burden in the US , collecting neither state sales tax nor personal income tax