GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

GIS and GEOSPATIAL in EDUCATION

• James Madison University offers high schoolers college credit in the Geospatial Semester.
• Environmental coastal student-mapped projects in New England.
• Teaching with GIS at Bigfork Schools.
• National Geographic Education’s online mapping tools.
• How to use Gapminder in the classroom.
• GIS and STEM afterschool initiatives in Massachusetts.
• The Eyes in the Sky program which trains teachers to use NASA data.
• Hands on environmental research and mapping with undergrads in Oregon.
• Climate Science data visualization tools from South Florida.
• Using geospatial tools in a 21st century 4H.
• Afterschool geospatial program called the EAST initiative.
• Empowering local communities to map what matters to them: Geoporter in Costa Rica.

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

• Last Pass (a secure way to remember all your passwords).
• Microsoft OneNote to organize yourself.

The keynote address of the NCGE conference in Denver was given by Ken Jennings of Jeopardy fame and the author of Maphead (and yes I was super excited to meet a fellow map geek and  BYU grad).  “Everything is better with maps,”  Jennnings said, and geographers often try to say that we do more than just look at maps, but mapping technologies should be embraced as a way to help make geography be the placed-centered part of other academic disciplines.  He also mentioned the great advantage and challenge we have with mapping technologies in building greater spatial thinking skills for our students today.  One the one hand, maps are so interactive today that the application are endless.  On the other hand, if we allow our GPS devices to do all of the spatial and navigational thinking for us, our minds will lose those skills.  As we use (and refrain from using technology) appropriately, spatial thinking and mapping can only make everything better. 

This website, Dangers of Fracking, is clearly not produced by the oil industry.  What I enjoy about this resource is that as you scroll down, it adds more context to the environmental issues and geographic factors.  This type of website promotes holistic thinking and interdisciplinary approach to complex problems.  

Tags: energy, resources, environment, environment modify, ecology.

Every 10 years the centroid (the center of U.S. population) is calculated using the latest census data.  As the map above shows, the centroid has continued moved west throughout history, but in the last 60 years has moved to the south and west.  The recent shift to the south coincides with the mass availability of air conditioning (among other factors) which opened up the Sun Belt.  In this article in Orion Magazine, Jeremy Miller discusses the historical shifts in the spatial patterns of the U.S. population and the history of the centroid.  you can listen to podcast versions of this article as well, one by NPR and a more in depth one by Orion Magazine.

Questions to Ponder:  Would the centroids of other countries be as mobile or predictable?  Why or why not?  What does the centroid tell us?

Tags: statistics, census, mapping, migration, population, historical, USA.

I was delighted to speak at Brown University this summer as a part of the Choices Program’s summer institute.  This is the video of that talk (as well as the hyperlinked slides) that is my modest attempt to tackle such a monumental question in my profession.

Tags: geography education, teacher training.

All maps are compromises; the Mercator projection preserves shape but distorts size, and so on.  What about sacrificing locational accuracy to preserve the aesthetic design or readability?  Just some things to think about as you peruse these redesigned subway maps.  

Tags: visualization, transportation, mapping, NYC.

I you haven’t ‘liked’ the Church of Geography on Facebook, you really should. These geo-sermons are worth the huge investment of a simple click.