GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

Gathered around the Thanksgiving table, Americans tell stories about colonists and Native Americans coming together. But do Native Americans even celebrate Thanksgiving? And what would Native American heritage food look like? This November, With Good Reason takes a look at the indigenous side of a Thanksgiving table.

Source: withgoodreasonradio.org

This podcast is a great look at the diverse ways in which a national holiday can be celebrated.  The cultural connections in the podcast are quite rich.  

Tags: Thanksgiving, food, seasonal, folk culture, culture, indigenous.

“While the terms country, state, and nation are often used interchangeably, there is a difference.”

Source: www.youtube.com

These words are messy and this talk seeks to define them more precisely so that we can more fully understand political geographic complexity. 

The concept of the nation-state emerged out of particular historical context as this video demonstrates.  Additionally, here is another video that is a straightforward explanation of important vocabulary terms for a political geography unit.

Tags: political, states.

Animating the changing shape of the world population pyramid. For more multimedia content from The Economist visit our website: http://econ.st/1xqEZhX.

Source: www.youtube.com

For those brief moments that you happen to be in a bike lane, biking in the city is wonderful. But it always seems that bike lanes end before they even begin, just like a summer romance or a slice …

Source: stevepatrickadams.com

It’s just a joke, but good comedy has a nugget of truth that shines a light on the inconsistencies of the human experience.  This really highlights the priorities given to various modes of transportation as we allocate public space for them. 

Tags: transportation, planning.

What if the Black Plague had killed off almost all Europeans? Then the Reconquista never happens. Spain and Portugal don’t kickstart Europe’s colonization of other continents. And this is what Africa might have looked like.

Tags: Africa, colonialism, borders, historical, map.

Source: bigthink.com

A site in the Old City of Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, has been a flash point since the advent of modern Zionism.

Source: www.nytimes.com

There has been turmoil and violence in Jerusalem this month; at it’s core, much of the fighting has been around the political control of sacred spaces that are seen as critical to both groups’ cultural and religious identity.  This particular sacred place is intertwined with both Judaism as well as Islam, and understanding the current round of violence demands that we understand some of the historical geography of religion in Jerusalem.  To explore more about sacred sites in general as a spatial concept, visit this link. 

Tags: religion, culture, Islam, Israel, Palestine, territoriality, political, Middle East.

You’re too smart to share this nonsense

Source: theweek.com

Many students today are digital natives and teachers often assume that students understand how to 1) find, 2) evaluate and 3) vett online resources in a critical manner.  To read more about assessing geographic-specific resources online, see this article here. 

Tags: social media.

Tags: borders, political, conflict, infographic, map.

Source: static3.businessinsider.com

Which statement is true? 

A. 60% of all households without toilets in the world are in India.
B. India’s Muslims are less affected by the sanitation problem than Hindus.
C. India’s lack of toilets is worse than China’s.
D. Lack of toilets in India puts women at especially high risk.

Source: www.theglobalist.com

This is the ultimate trick question because unfortunately, ALL of these statements are true.  India is a country of tremendous economic growth, but also filled with squalor; there are more cellphones than toilets in India.  The lack of adequate sanitation and toilets is serious enough that that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made building toilets a national priority.  Comics are using their platform to bring this issue of uneven development to light.    

Tags: development, poverty, India.