This paper-puppet animation celebrates the life of Alfred Russel Wallace, who is co-credited with Charles Darwin for the theory of natural selection. Read the story here: http://nyti.ms/1fhBbGw
Some of the greatest discoveries in biology began as spatial discoveries. Alfred Russel Wallace made some amazing advances in biogeography and discovered appropriately named Wallace Line.
Tags: biogeography, environment, ecology, historical.
See on www.youtube.com
I had the shapefiles with the various neighborhoods of Providence and the good folks at “Click that ‘Hood” were gracious enough to upload it and make a local quiz based on the the 25 neighborhoods of Providence (as defined by the city government officials). In addition to city neighborhood quizzes, they also have quizzes for regions such as Africa, South America and Europe. This is a crowd-sourced database, so if you have the right data, you can help them to create more online quizzes.
See on click-that-hood.com
“Muslims call it the Noble Sanctuary. Jews and Christians call it the Temple Mount.”
What happens when various religious groups claim the same territory as their own?
See on apps.washingtonpost.com
A computer game wants you to map the world’s cropland so farmers can get more out of each harvest.
NPR has recently highlighted Crop Capture; Crop Capture is a game that uses Google Earth imagery to crowd-source agricultural data. From a pedagogical standpoint, this is a great way to visually introduce students the variety of agricultural landscapes that can be found around the world. This is an example of what many refer to as citizen science games which provides an alternative rationale for playing the game.
Tags: agriculture, food production, mapping, geospatial, edtech.
See on www.npr.org
For those looking to justify the inclusion of geography in the curriculum, wanting to add a geography major at a school or need to justify the existence of geography education to a non-geo-evangelist, this is something to share. The Bureau of Labor Studies has declared “”Employment of geographers is expected to grow 35 percent from 2010 to 2020, much faster than the average for all occupations. Employment growth will be fastest in the professional, scientific, and technical services industry.”
See on www.bls.gov
In an era when the United States has been focused on new forms of conflict, the dangerous contest suddenly erupting in the East China Sea seems almost like a throwback to the Cold War.
China has been very aggressive in how they assert their territorial claims in both the South and East China Sea. China is claiming control over the airspace of the East China Sea and the Senkaku Islands. While the U.S. government rejects this claim, they are encouraging commercial airlines to comply with China’s request that all flight is this zone submit their flight plans to the Chinese government. Japan, on the other hand, does not want the Chinese to have this as a symbolic victory that would further legitimize their political control over this space. Why does China care so much about some minor islands? Why would other countries not want to accept China’s territorial assertions?
Tags: borders, political, conflict, China, Japan, East Asia.
See on www.nytimes.com
Educating residents, teachers and youth in a costal community in Costa Rica to use geospatial technologies to investigate, map and make a difference.
See on www.indiegogo.com
“This past evening UKEdChat focused on teaching and learning Geography. Aimed at educators teaching Geography at all levels, the session shared ideas, resources, apps, pedagogy, blogs…in fact, anything that supports the teaching and learning process in the subject.”
If you haven’t ever followed a Twitter chat, they can be incredible sources for teaching ideas, resources, and geographic content. This last week #UKEdChat’s topic was geography and if you missed it, they archived the highlights of the chat here. Consider listening to (and joining in) the conversations on #geographyteacher, #APHG, #sschat and many others.
See on ukedchat.com
“The French have a wonderful word—flâneur—for someone who seeks to explore and understand the nature of a city’s landscape, usually by taking spontaneous adventures amidst the ebb and flow of life going on around them. In this week’s theme we invite you to lose yourself reading about the flâneur-esque adventures of Maptia’s streetwise connoisseurs and explore a myriad of cities through their eyes.“
If you have yet to discover Maptia, a hybrid map/storytelling online platform, this is a good introduction. This article also serves as portal for 21 city profiles of cities around the world.
Tags: neighborhood, urban, place.
See on blog.maptia.com
GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION 