GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

UNAVCO, a non-profit university-governed consortium, facilitates geoscience research and education using geodesy.

“Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research have been using what is typically considered an error in the GPS signal to measure snow depth around GPS receivers. A GPS receiver records both direct and reflected signals from a satellite. A reflected signal bounces off of whatever is around the GPS station before being recorded, and therefore can contain information about the ground surface close to the station.

Traditionally snow depth has been measured by hand. In other words, someone had to go out with a measuring stick to whatever location they were interested in.  GPS snow depth measurements solve both of these problems: once a GPS unit is installed, it can function on its own throughout the winter, and will make a measurement every two hours, which is then averaged for a daily position, or in this case, snow depth.”

Tags: GPS, climatechange, water, technology,

See on unavco.org

Tags: video, environment,  visualization, climatechange, environment modify.

See on www.youtube.com

Harvest is a time of plenty, when the season’s hard work is rewarded by bounty. Many of the rhythms of our lives are shaped by the gathering of crops, even if most of us now live in cities.

This photo essay shows people from around the world harvesting their crops and taking them to the market. Pictured above, farmers who were waiting for customers gathered alongside corn-laden trucks at the market in Lahore, Pakistan earlier this month.

Questions to Ponder: What is similar in these images? What is different? How do those similarities and differences shape the geography of a given region?

Tags: Food, agriculture, unit 5 agriculture, worldwide, comparison, images.

See on www.boston.com

Protesters upset over an American-made video denouncing Islam attacked the United States Consulate in Libya, while Egyptian demonstrators stormed over the walls of the United States Embassy in Cairo.

The idea of anti-U.S. protests in the Middle East and Northa Africa on the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 was initially quite shocking.  As always, a greater understanding of the cultural context and timing helps explain (not necessarily justify) the situation.  

See on www.nytimes.com

Across Africa, a continent where the average age is about 19, protests have flared against leaders who may have outstayed their welcome.

This interactive mapping feature compares two distinct data sets in an attempt to show that the two are correlated on the continent of Africa.  The base layer of this thematic map is demographic, noting how much of the overall population in a given country is under the age of 16.  The interactive feature with point data describes the political unrest or instability in that particular country. 

Questions to ponder: Does the cartographer ‘convince’ you that Africa’s having a very young (globally speaking) demographic cohort led towards greater political instability?  Are there other factors worth considering?  What does this map and it’s embedded data tell us?    

Tags: Africa, political, conflict, unit 4 political, states, governance, population, demographics, unit 2 population. 

See on online.wsj.com

How will the nation mark Sept. 11, 2001, as the horrors of that day — as well as the victims and heroes — fade from our collective memories?

SM: One thing that really stood out to me in this article was that “Nearly 70% of Americans say they somewhat or strongly agree with this statement: “I have moved on from (the events of) Sept. 11,” according to a new American Pulse Survey.  Maybe it is becuase I was so young I didn’t quite understand what was going on at the time, but in all honesty did anyone really know what exactly was happening?  Because of this I try to watch as many documentaries and read about the tragic 9/11 attacks as much as I can.  

We can all tell the story “I remember where I was when the towers were hit…”  I think this is somehting that needs to live through American History just as the JFK assasination does.  How can people just simply go about there business without even taking the time realize that today is indeed September 11th?  The 11th year anniversary of an evil attack that killed thousands of innocent people. As a future educator I hope that I’m able to teach a unit on 9/11.  Currently teachers are teaching about the assasination of JFK so why should 9/11 be any different?  

Regardless of what the future has in store I will forever be interested in 9/11.  I will never forget being in the fifth grade and watching the television the janitor brought into the room.  I turned to my friends and said “this will change America”.  I didn’t know much about the attacks at the time but I was right.  Thus, 9/11 is something that needs to be remembered in schools and within society.  We, as Americans cannot simply ignore the evil plot that claimed the lives of almost 3000 innocent people 11 years ago.

See on www.usatoday.com