GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

We might be more terrified of large-bodied predators, but mosquitoes are the main vector of some deadly diseases.  Mosquitoes kill more people in 4 minutes that sharks do in an entire year.  The distribution of mosquitoes is a critical component in the geography of development.  This isn’t just a nuisance; it’s a matter of life or death.  

Tags: medical, development.

This is a nice article with some practical advice but it also can that helps us conceptualize the thinking skills that our students are going to need in the future(with a classic photo that embodies 20th century news literacy).  Previously, I’ve written on this same topic, with some strategies to how to help students assess the validity of online information with geographic content (with a series of maps and images).  I know I’ve been duped before, and it’s okay to admit that to your students; but we need to teach students how to be critical readers as they are swimming in an ocean of digital information of variable quality.  This is why I see content curation as an important part of modern education; it is a way to teach student the tools to assess the quality of information for themselves.  They will be gathering, organizing and synthesizing digital information for rest of their lives.        

I’m not saying any of these 3 scenarios are going to happen nor am I endorsing them either.  That said, this article/podcast provides a geopolitical analysis (with maps) of Russia’s potential military options if they are planning on invading Ukraine. 

This article on the economic geography of housing is supplemented by this interactive map with county-level data. There are a lot of conversations that could stem from an analysis of this data.  Where are the housing prices highest?  How come?  This is a resource that could allow students to explore the economic geography of their own region and apply that local knowledge to understand processes throughout the United States.   

Tags:  housing, socioeconomic, urban, planning, unit 7 cities.

If you want to understand the U.S. government’s official stance and perspective on the escalating geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia, this speech is a good place to start.  The U.S. government doesn’t want to forget that Crimea is already occupied by Russia and the short video below expands the U.S. perspective on the reasons behind the crisis.

Tag: Ukraine, political, conflict.

Happy Arbor Day!  Trees and vegetation play a vital role in the urban ecology of a city and many planners actively work towards creating more green infrastructure.  This National Geographic feature highlights nine cities that promote green spaces.  As I’ve mentioned before, trees are also a part of social inequities that can be seen in our urban landscapes.  The more trees there are in a neighborhood, the greater the socioeconomic standings of that community in a metropolitan area, and conversely, poverty-stricken areas usually have minimal canopy cover (thought exercise–what does this correlation mean?). 

Tags: urban ecology, biogeography, environment, ecology, urban, socioeconomic, neighborhood.

This isn’t just a fun sports map–there are some good geographic concepts that can be used here.  When discussing cultural regions, many use the core-domain-sphere model.  This map uses the brightest color intensities to represent the core regions and the lightest hues to show waning strength, but to still signify that the area is a part of a team’s sphere of influence.  Essentially, this map is begging you to explore the borderlands, the liminal “in-between” spaces that aren’t as easy to explain.  What other phenomena can be used to demonstrate the core-domain-sphere model of cultural regions?  What other geographic concepts can you teach using this map?  

Tags: fun, sport, place, borders, statistics, mapping, regions.

My first thought was to check the truthfulness of this map and to see how many “Rhode Islands” there are in state Texas.  I used this clever website that shows the number of areal units equal to the size of Rhode Island that are in any given country. And despite what that southwest bravado may lead you to believe, Texas isn’t its own country. So I needed to find a different website which lets you overlay any two places one on top of the other. This is a fantastic resource for help leverage your students’ local knowledge to teach them about places that are more remote and where their mental maps might have very little data.   And never mess with the Ocean State…even if this is Texas’ version of Earth Day.

The types of questions that you ask when you are meeting someone new for the first time has some regional variations but there is much more to the geography of small talk than that as see in this 4 minute video.  People want to understand your cultural, ethnic, socioeconomic context by asking spatial questions about where you are from.  Identity and place are tightly woven and these neighborhood questions are almost invitations to share much more personal information, as if to ask, “how do you fit in this world?”  When you are being introduced to someone, what are the questions that you ask, and what type of information are you hoping to get?  Each person has their own little geography that has profoundly shaped who they are—so what’s your story? 

Tags: language, regions, folk cultures, community, place, neighborhood.