GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

This is a great article that demonstrates the value of curation in education (especially using the platform scoop.it).  Students today must sort through an array of online sources today.  As a professor/curator, I see part of my role being to present students with vetted, quality online information.  I demonstrate this in part ot provide materials for my students, but even more so to teach my students how to assess materials for themselves as they become the curators of information in their own right.    

Pictured above is Lake Hillier, located on a small island south of Western Australia.  Around the world there are many pink lakes; most of them can attribute their hue to their high salinity composition.  Some algaes that thrive in salt water produce organic pigments with a reddish/pinkish coloration.  This particular lake’s coloration is a mystery.  If you any additional information, feel free to share in in the comments section below.  

Tags: water, physical, images, Australia.

The Review of International Geographical Education Online (RIGEO) has recently published a new issue that contains this article about GIS education.  While geographers promote GIS education, we need to study the impact, efficacy and pedagogy of GIS education more seriously as we plan for the future. 

Tags: GIS, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education.

Quinoa was once a traditional Andean grain that few outside of South America consumed, but it has quickly become a staple among the health-conscious in developed countries in recent years.  Dieticians and nutritional experts give it their seal of approval because it is a low-fat starch that is high in protein and filled with amino acids.  This rapid adoption of quinoa in high-priced whole food stores has changed the economics of quinoa dramatically.  Peruvian and Bolivian farmers are selling at high prices with huge global demand.  Local consumers who have traditionally relied on this crop however, now have to pay triple the price to eat quinoa, causing some to question the ethics of quinoa consumption.  A simple change in cultural eating habits in one part of the world can have some major impacts on the economy and agriculture of another region.  

Tags: food, agriculture, South America, consumption, unit 5 agriculture.

There is much to glean from Martin Luther King’s famous I Have a Dream speech as a fantastic rhetorical device. This speech has a profound impact on the the psyche of the America culture and it has endured as a pivotal moment in history.  As we celebrate his life and legacy this Monday, it is an appropriate time to contemplate that the ending of segregation (a spatial division of races) has reshaped the United States. 

Many streets in the United States bear the name “Martin Luther King Jr.” to memorialize both the man and the Civil Rights movement.  This streets, as this YouTube video suggests, are often in poor, crime-ridden and violent neighborhoods.  This video highlights the irony between the historical memory of Martin Luther King Jr. and places of memorialization that bear his name.  This video echoes much of what the authors of the fantastic book “Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory” say (in fact one of the authors is shown in this video). 

Questions to ponder: If Martin Luther King Jr. represents non-violence, then why are streets bearing his name often in ‘violent’ neighborhoods?  Where should Martin Luther King be memorialized in the United States?  Only in the South?  Only in predominantly African-American communities?  What does the geography of the spaces where he is memorialized say something about the United States?    

Tags: historical, culture, landscape, place, race, unit 3 culture, USA, urban, poverty, unit 7 cities, book review. 

This is still all speculation, but this speculation is grounded in the very real possibility that Greece may leave the Eurozone.  This one possible scenario would have a profound ripple effect throughout the European Union and beyond.  This interactive explores each of these 8 possible results.  

Tags: Greece, Europe, supranationalism, currency, labor, economic. 

Sports league have historically used geographic references to describe their league, conference or divisions (This was just one of the many reasons I was so appalled that San Diego State was going to join the Big East.  Thankfully that plan was stymied).  To have successful rivalries, teams often play up local proximity of fan bases (Yankees/Red Sox, Duke/North Carolina, Michigan/Ohio State) to add intensity to the on-field action.  Given that teams and fans travel, the logistics make regionally based division economically prudent.  This map (and the full set of major professional leagues in North America) shows that the NBA has the most geographically consistent divisions.   

Tags: sport, mapping, regions.