Great idea to help early years learners understand their ‘place’…
This is would be a nice craft to help younger students understand the concept of scale. This adapts some of the ideas from the classic picture book “Me on the Map” by Joan Sweeney.
“Since 2004, six people have died falling from the cliffs on this route.” is what the sign says. Only one step from a 1400 foot fall.
Angels Landing from David Perry on Vimeo.
Angel’s Landing in Utah’s Zion National Park (map) is one of my favorite hikes with an amazing view.The geomorphology of ‘red rock’ country is stunning and it’s sheer cliffs are bound to captivate the imagination. If you want something like this but with a more European flavor, watch National Geographic’s Andrew Evans climb Preikestolen in Norway.
Tags: physical, geomorphology, erosion, landforms.
See on vimeo.com
Thirteen years after the Bamian Buddhas were blasted into rubble, opinion is split on whether to leave them as is, rebuild them, or make copies of them.
This video and article work together to show a ‘behind-the-scenes’ glimpse of this heritage site, or the remnants of the old memorial which is an iconic part of the cultural landscape in their own right but for very different reasons. This is a great example of sequent occupance and some of the difficulties in preserving heritage. Some argue that by restoring the Buddha it will undo some of the damage done by the Taliban and create a tourist destination; others think that the damaged Buddha is a poignant reminder of problems with ‘topocide’ and religious intolerance.
Questions to Ponder: What do you think should become of this place? How come?
Tags: Afghanistan, political, culture, Central Asia, landscape, perspective.
See on www.nytimes.com
Strengthening Geographic Content in the Classroom South Carolina GeoFest
I’m very pleased to be in South Carolina, presenting at their GeoFest on the importance of strengthening geographic content in the classroom and some practical examples of how to do so.
See on www.slideshare.net
10 places that would welcome a Putin landgrab, and 10 parts of Russia that want the hell out.
One of the ideological weaknesses in the idea that Russia should annex Crimea because of the large number of ethnic Russians that want to join the Russian Federation, is that there are many places within the Russian Federation without a majority of ethnic Russians that would want out of the Russian Federation. This list from Foreign Policy is pretty intriguing and they provide insight about the geographic context for each place on the list.
Top 10 looking for a way into Russia (abbreviated)
Top 10 look for a way out of Russia:
See on www.foreignpolicy.com
J.C. Penny in peril, Sears is sinking. Is this the end of the American shopping mall?
Last Friday sandwich chain Quiznos filed for bankruptcy protection citing high debt loads and heavy completion. Coming just days after a similar filing from pizza chain Sbarro, Quiznos’ bankruptcy was the second half of a one-two gut punch for shopping malls at a time when they’ve never been more vulnerable. A decade ago there were more than 1,100 enclosed shopping malls in the U.S. Since then more than 400 have either been “re-purposed” or closed outright. No new malls have been completed since at least 2009.
See on finance.yahoo.com
The growth of these cities will create a host of environmental and health problems.
By 2210, the global population is expected to grow from just more than 7 billion to 11.3 billion — with 87 percent of the population living in urban areas, according to a new working paper by researchers from NYU’s Marron Institute.
Most of these individuals will be in what’s now the developing world — creating a host of environmental and health problems.
If projections are correct, these new urban dwellers will require the world’s existing cities to expand six-fold to accommodate triple the residents, Richard Florida wrote in The Atlantic. Plus, the world will need 500 new “megacities” of 10 million or more, he wrote.
Tags: density, sustainability, housing, urban, planning, unit 7 cities.
See on www.weather.com
Geography increasingly fuels endless chaos and old-school conflicts in the 21st Century.
I know that many academic geographers weren’t pleased with the environmental determinism in Robert Kaplan’s book The Revenge of Geography and the attention that in received in mainstream media outlets like the New York Times (mainly for it’s reduction of geography to physical geography and it’s acceptance of maps as pure truth). In this article in TIME by Robert Kaplan, he highlights how geographic context is vital to understanding global politics…that is something we all can agree on even if we don’t like the particulars of his analysis.
See on time.com
Wow. I guess it’s true when they say not everything is as it appears…
A new perspective can change our perception of reality, as demonstrated by this delightful photo gallery.
See on distractify.com
GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION 