GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

During this recent recession, fertility rates in the United States have dropped with many speculating that the financial investment in child-rearing caused this shift.  The big question is this: will birth rates bounce back when the economy fully recovers or is the United States population going to follow the example of Western Europe?  What would the impact be for both of these scenarios?

Tags: USA, declining population, population, demographics, models, unit 2 population.

This is is just one perspective on a fantastic cartographic art installation by Claire Fountaine.  Watch this flaming video of her lighting her “match map” of France.

Tags: art, geo-inspiration.

This website is an exhaustive list with information on the world’s enclaves that are so often entangled in geopolitical issues.  

Tags: borders, political, unit 4 political.

What do these maps tell you?

Tags: statistics, census, mapping.

Having never lived in the South, I will defer to others on accuracy and quality of this dictionary and sayings, although I have heard this one enough understand this entry:

Fixin v. aux. Getting ready to: “I’m fixin to leave.”

Tags: language, culture, unit 3 culture, USA.

How much of the Earth’s water is fresh water?  How much of that is used for industrial, agricultural or domestic uses?  Why is groundwater becoming increasingly utilized?  Enjoy this TED-ED video for the answers. 

 Tags: water, environment, consumption, resources, environment depend.

As Europe has become an increasingly secularized set of societies, the demographic based of the Catholic Church has shifted south.  However, the power structure has not migrated south as the European cardinals still are a majority (although 2/3 vote necessary to elect the next pope). 

Tags: Christianity, culture, diffusion, religion.

This 2007 video is dated, but many of the same issues are still seen today.  This video briefly lays out the cultural context for the political divisions between the French-speaking Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemish populations of Belgium.  For a longer video on the topic, see this first portion of this video (the second half is on hertiage tourism at Catholic holy sites).

Tags: language, culture, Belgium, unit 4 political, Europe, devolution, unit 3 culture.  

Cultural preferences for boys in China has led to a gender imbalance which has some unintended consequences, especially for the those seeking to have families with limited financial resources.

Tags: gender, China, population.