GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

“In this Feed the Future video, narrator Matt Damon discusses the importance of increasing food production around the world and notes the importance of equipping women with the right tools, training, and  technology to see as much as a 30 percent increase in food production. To feed our growing population we need to increase food production by 70 percent before 2050. Women make up the majority of the agricultural workforce in many areas of the world.”

Source: www.youtube.com

A colleague mine thought that the ideas in this video were so obvious and non-controversial, he said, “Why does this even need to be stated? Why would we exclude women from agriculture?”  The simple answer is that it wouldn’t need to be stated if women around the world did have equal access to resources.  For many of the world’s poor, this is where the rubber meets the road. 

Tags: development, gender, agriculture, food production, labor.

“Revolution and rotation are the terms we use to describe the motions of the earth and moon. Revolution is the movement of the earth in an orbit around the sun.  The Earth completes one revolution around the sun every 365 days. The moon revolves around the Earth about once every month.” 

Source: www.nowykurier.com

Understanding the relationships between the Sun, Earth and moon are critical for for understanding the seasons, climate and other geographic factors.  This interactive simulates gravity unlike anything I’ve every seen on a computer screen. 

To exploring Earth-Sun interactions, playing around with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Sun Simulator is a fun way to make a little more sense of the various factors that control how the Sun appears in the sky.

Source: www.youtube.com

This video mapping the historical diffusion of major world religions is obviously an over-simplification but that is part of its value for students.  

Tags: historical, culture, religion, diffusion, mapping, visualization.

“Sometimes, rehabilitating a rough neighborhood is a tough process. But in one West Coast American city, it was as simple as adding a Buddha statue.  Since the statue’s installation, a street corner has been transformed from a notorious eyesore to a daily prayer spot for local Vietnamese Buddhists.  For this Geo Quiz, we’re looking for the city where this shrine is located — can you name it?”

Source: www.pri.org

This podcast is a great glimpse into an urban transformation that took place without any central planning nor can the changes be classified as gentrification. 

Tags: neighborhood, place, culture, economic, urban.

Without ever setting sail, Marie Tharp mapped the ocean floor and made a discovery that shook the foundations of geology. So why did the giants of her field dismiss her findings as “girl talk”?

Source: mentalfloss.com

I love this article, because it is a fantastic reminder of some excellent principles. 

1. Women in science are awesome and we need to encourage girls in STEM disciplines. 
2. Mapping the unknown can lead to shocking discoveries. 
3. Underlying grand discoveries is tedious work with unexciting data. 
4. It wasn’t too long ago that we didn’t understand foundational principles about the Earth (such as plate tectonics). 

Tags: tectonics, physical, mapping, cartography, 201, statistics, STEM.

“60 years has made a big difference in the urban form of American cities. The most rapid change occurred during the mid-century urban renewal period that cleared large tracts of urban land for new highways, parking, and public facilities or housing projects. Fine-grained networks of streets and buildings on small lots were replaced with superblocks and megastructures. While the period did make way for impressive new projects in many cities, many of the scars are still unhealed.  We put together these sliders to show how cities have changed over half a century. In this post, we look at Midwestern cities such as [pictured above] Cincinnati, Ohio.”

Source: iqc.ou.edu

It’s ironic that I feel more accustomed to exploring Cincinnati, OH on foot than I do Providence, RI.  Although I drive in downtown Providence regularly, I seldom have a reason to walk and explore it.  In my yearly visits to Cincinnati to score the AP Human Geography exams, I’m outside my hometown and away from my typical routine. That helps me feel more like a flâneur, to stroll the streets and explore the urban landscape.  This set of 7 before and after images shows Midwestern cities (Cincinnati, Detroit, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Columbus) lets you digitally analyze the last 70 years of urban morphology.  Click here for a gallery 7 of cities in Texas and Oklahoma. 

Questions to Ponder: What are the biggest changes you see for the 1950 to today?  How are the land uses difference?  Has the density changed?  Do any of urban models help us understand these cities?

Tags: urban, planning, industry, economic, historical, geospatial, urban models, APHG.

“Though uninhabited and full of melting ice caps, the Arctic is surprisingly an appealing piece of real estate. Many countries have already claimed parts of the region. So who technically owns the North Pole? And why do these nations want it so bad?”

Source: www.youtube.com

Denmark is now being more assertive in their claims.  Why is this happening now?  As climate change threatens polar ice caps, some see the receding ice as an economic and political opportunity.  Canada, Russia, Denmark (Greenland) and the U.S. are all seeking to expand their maritime claims in the Arctic.  When trapped under ice, extracting resources is cost prohibitive, but the melting sea ice will make the Arctic’s resources all the more valuable (including the expanded shipping lanes).  Even a global disaster like climate change can make countries behave like jackals, ready to feast on a dead carcass.  For more, read this National Geographic blogpost.  

Tags: Arctic, economic, environment, political, resources, water, sovereignty, coastal, environment depend, territoriality, unit 4 political,  climate change, political ecology.