A cholera outbreak in New York in 1832 led to broad efforts to clean up the city and others like it.
See on www.nytimes.com
This is a clip from the TV show West Wing (Season 2-Episode 16) where cartography plays a key role in the plot. In this episode the fictitious (but still on Facebook) group named “the Organization of Cartographers for Social Justice” is campaigning to have the President officially endorse the Gall-Peters Projection in schools and denounce the Mercator projection. The argument being that children will grow up thinking some places are not as important because they are minimized by the map projection.
As Salvatore Natoli (a leader in geography education) was quoted in the video clip: “In our society we unconsciously equate size with importance and even power.” This is one reason why many people have underestimated the true size of Africa relative to places that they view as more important or more powerful.
Questions to Ponder: Why do map projections matter? Is one global map projection inherently better than the rest?
From the food we eat to the energy, transportation, and water we all need, a warmer world will bring big changes for everyone.
B Sinica: This article touches every aspect of geography from culture to climate [considering] how the growing population plays the biggest role in determining the future of life on Earth. People need to recognize the problems and potential future issues with global warming and the rapidly changing environment. Though not many issues can be prevented or even solved, the least we can do is try to lessen the severity of devastation and prolong the current conditions as much as possible before the world becomes too extreme to manage.
Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:
Some tangible ways that climate change can impact us in the future:
- Food Security
- Energy consumption
- Extreme Weather
- Drought
- Health risks (more air-born diseases)
- Vulnerable urban ecologies
Tags: climate change, environment, environment adapt, sustainability. National Geographic.
See on news.nationalgeographic.com
“Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.”
Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:
To gain a global perspective inherently requires understanding multiple perspectives. Africa is frequently portrayed as ‘the other’ but also homogenized within a single narrative that ‘flattens’ truth. How can we teach and learn about other places in a way that develops geographic empathy and shows the many stories of that can belong to any one place?
Tags: Africa, perspective, TED.
See on www.youtube.com
What if you put all 7 billion humans into one city, a city as dense as New York, with its towers and skyscrapers? How big would that 7 billion-sized city be? As big as New Jersey? Texas? Bigger? Are cities protecting wild spaces on the planet?
Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:
This NPR article pulls together some great images of dense urban housing as well is some stellar infographics to show the importance of cities to a growing global population.
Tags: density, sustainability, housing, urban, planning, unit 7 cities.
See on www.npr.org
Almost everywhere on the world, international migration is a hot topic. Most of the time the debate about migration is fierce and charged with prejudices and…
Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:
This is a good introduction to basic concepts of migration; the video is especially noteworthy because it is rich in vocabulary terms (explaining them and using global examples) necessary to teach a population geography unit.
Tags: migration, population, statistics, unit 2 population.
See on www.youtube.com
“Many of us have heard the stories of how our parents or grandparents had to walk miles in the snow to get to school. Perhaps some of these tales were a tad embellished, but we got the point. A lot of American kids have the luxury of being driven in a warm car or bus to a good school nearby. This is not the case for the children in this gallery.
The photos you are about to see are snapshots of the treacherous trips kids around the world take each day to get an education. Considering there are currently 61 million children worldwide who are not receiving an education—the majority of which are girls—these walks are seen as being well worth the risk.
In the above photo, students in Indonesia hold tight while crossing a collapsed bridge to get to school in Banten village on January 19, 2012. Flooding from the Ciberang river broke a pillar supporting the suspension bridge, which was built in 2001.”
See on www.takepart.com
March and April are key months for harvesting sap from trees, making this sugar time in New England. New England’s climate and biogeography make this the right time because the because the combination of freezing nights and warm spring days gets the sap in the native species of maple trees to flow. The sap get boiled down to syrup, but did you know that it takes roughly 40 gallons of sap that to get 1 gallon of pure maple syrup?
What is a border? What is a peninsula? A look into why geography is important to understand as students around the country prepare for the 2013 National Geog…
Seth Dixon, Ph.D.‘s insight:
I loved participating at the Rhode Island Geography Bee this weekend. This video was shared with all the parents, teachers and students to help them understand that while the Bee may focus on specific bits of knowledge/trivia, it is the beginning and a foundation for spatial thinking to understand patterns and processes.
Tags: geo-inspiration, geography education.
See on www.youtube.com
GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION 