GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

Breastfeeding can be a polarizing topic. Views vary not only from person to person, but also country to country, according to a new survey examining women’s opinions on breastfeeding.

Source: blogs.wsj.com

This is just one example of how our opinions, cultural values and sensibilities are shaped by the cultures and places in which we are immersed.  How do normative attitudes shape how people use public space?  How is the body (especially the female body) regulated in public space?   

Tags: perspective, culture, gender.

“For at least 70 years, the Red Delicious has dominated apple production in the United States. But since the turn of the 21st century, as the market has filled with competitors—the Gala, the Fuji, the Honeycrisp—its lead has been narrowing. Annual output has plunged.”

Source: www.theatlantic.com

The story of the Red Delicious is almost a perfect analogy for the food industry.  It was genetically selected for its marketable skin, an aesthetically sumptuous red.  The skin of the Red Delicious better covers bruises than other varieties and tastes more bitter.  Consumers were buying what the industry promoted and “eating with their eyes and not their mouths.”  But recently there has been a backlash in the United States and more American consumer are seeking out other varieties; meanwhile the apple producers are working on exporting this variety to around the world, but especially into Chinese markets.  

Tags: agriculture, food production, food distribution, agribusiness, USA. 

“Berlin Bureau Chief Michael Slackman looks into the obsession with currywurst, a popular street dish that combines sausage, ketchup and curry powder, and brings different Berliners together.”

Source: www.youtube.com

“Join us to learn how you can connect your students with students around the world through global collaborative projects. Register at: http://on.natgeo.com/1ymyZdC “

Source: www.youtube.com

The Geo-Educator Community is planning a Google + Hangout on Wednesday, October 1st (7-8pm EST) to help link educators and organizations so you can link your students with classes around the world and learning to think globally.    

“This is what a pyrocumulus cloud caused by the burning of over 28,000+ acres of forest looked like as the sun set.  In person as these clouds were changing it wasn’t all that noticeable when the huge plumes of smoke changed shape, but thanks to the magic of a time-lapse we get to behold the violent nature of the smoke cloud, including a storm cloud that emerged behind the main pyrocumulus.”

Source: vimeo.com

Seeing this fire essential create it’s own weather system is riveting.  While this scene can be seen as beautiful on the macro-scale, it is horrific on the ground where the fire ravaged physical and human landscapes alike.

Tags:  disasters,  weather and climate, California, landscape, time lapse, video.

“The transition from childhood to adulthood — the ‘coming of age’ of boys who become young men and girls who become young women — is a significant stepping stone in everyone’s life. But the age at which this happens, and how a child celebrates their rite of passage into adolescence, depends entirely on where they live and what culture they grow up in.  Looking back, we’ll never forget the majesty that was prom, or the excitement of hitting the dance floor at our friends’ co-ed Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties, and why should we? Embarassing or amazing, they were pivotal moments in our lives that deserve remembering. On that note, here are thirteen of it the world’s most diverse coming of age traditions.”

Tags: gender, folk culture, culture, indigenous, worldwide.

Source: www.globalcitizen.org

In many countries, eggs aren’t refrigerated and they’re still considered safe to eat. But in the U.S., we have to chill them, because we’ve washed away the cuticle that protects them from bacteria.

Source: www.npr.org

For many Americans that are traveling abroad for the first time, realizing that eggs aren’t in the refrigerator is a bit of a culture shock (not to mention the moment they find milk in a box that also isn’t being refrigerated).  Agricultural practices dictate storage requirements and some things we might have imagined were universal are actually place-specific or peculiar to our cultural setting.  What we are taught to think of as gross, appropriate, attractive or even sanitary is often steeped in a cultural context.  So is it strange the we refrigerate our eggs in the United States, or that they don’t in other places? 

Tags: food production, technology, industry, food, agriculture, perspective.