GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

This is a poignant image that strikes a chord with me.  History is embedded within place even if the historical events are not memorialized within the landscape.   

The article leaves me with more questions than answers.  What do the residents think about the tons of tourists wondering through their winding streets?  The very idea of tourism to see poverty in situ in an authentic slum is riddled with power and cultural imbalances.  Why would wealthy tourists from the developed world want to more fully explore the slums in the developing world?  What do you see as the ‘wrong’ and the ‘right’ within this situation?   Is slum tourism ethical?

I would dispute the accuracy of some of the alleged linguistic origins of the state names, so take this with a grain of salt (still it’s a clever concept for an inforgraphic and shows some interesting patterns). 

Tags: language, USA, infographic, toponyms, historical, colonialism.

It’s that time of year to really buckle down; several teachers have created PDFs versions of review guides for the AP Human Geography test.  James Nelsen, a veteran APHG teacher has produced a “grand review.”  This resource intentionally does not come with a key to force the students to delve deeper and search for the answers themselves.  Allison Hunt had her students create their own study guide for the APHG test focusing on the ‘big ideas.’  Best of luck and these and other resources are archived on my “thematic” tab on http://geographyeducation.org.

The forces of erosion are usually slow and gradual, wearing away at landforms over the course of years.  This video show the quick and dynamic  factor that erosion can be…this is easily the most compelling 3 minute video about a single patch of road that I’ve ever seen. 

Tags: physical, water, disasters, geomorphology, erosion.

The NPR blog Code Switch focuses on issues of race, culture and ethnicity.  In this podcast they explore the changing demographics of Oakland due to gentrification and the cultural impact that it has had.  In the 80s, African-Americans represented nearly half of Oakland’s population, but today is now 34 percent white, 28 percent black, 25 percent Latino and 17 percent Asian.  The music scene, night life and sense of communal identity has consequently shifted, and that causes some to yearn for what once was.   

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

This 16 question quiz is a challenging quiz that a great little mental workout to start the day for you trivia buffs who love online games.  Can you get more that 13 correct? 

I’ve posted on this previously, but this imgur gallery puts the images in a stunning new format for sharing.  This gallery portrays 20 families from around world together with their weeks food.  The differences in agricultural, development and cultural patterns are plainly manifest.  For more context on this photographic project (as well as the details of the families and their food), it is chronicled in the book Hungry Planet. or an abbreviated version online. 

Tags: food, agriculture, worldwide, consumption, culture, development.

This is more neuroscience than it is geography, but it is incredibly relevant to geographers and spatial analysis.  These Norwegian neuroscientists are charting the brain to understand how we remember where we have been, where we are and how we navigate through space.  They are primarily mapping out the brains of rats, but much of what they’ve discovered appears to hold for all mammals.  There are certain cells that are only active when you are in certain places.  These cells interact as a network in a grid pattern,  forming a very regular hexagonal pattern (central place theory!?!).  These ‘place cells’ or ‘grid cells’ store information about distances and directions and are crucial to navigation.  Read more about it in this article or watch this 6-minute video. 

Tags: spatial, mental maps.