GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

The States of Our Union … Are Not All Strong

“On Tuesday, President Obama, if precedent holds, will declare that the state of America’s union is ‘strong.’ Is it?”

Politico Magazine rounded up 14 different state rankings from reputable sources like the Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the FBI, and on important factors such as high school graduation rates, per capita income, life expectancy and crime rate. Then we averaged out each state’s 14 rankings to come up with a master list—atop which sits none other than New Hampshire. The approach isn’t scientific or comprehensive (we also hold no grudges against the State of Mississippi), but given that eight of the lowest-ranking states on our list overlap with the bottom 10 on his, maybe less has changed in the past 83 years than you’d think.

See on www.politico.com

January 28, 2014 0

A short, recent history of Congo

Mapping the war in Congo: mineral wealth, militias and an epic march

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

To understand much of the political situation in Central Africa, a short history of the recent political and ethnic turmoil in Rwanda and Congo are helpful. This particular videographic from the Economist is a few years old, but the historical context is still incredibly relevant This series provides a wealth of information and several will be added to the place-based geography videos interactive map.

Tags: Congo, political, conflict, devolution, refugees, Africa.

See on www.youtube.com

January 27, 2014 0

Will saving poor children lead to overpopulation?

Hans Rosling explains a very common misunderstanding about the world. CC by www.gapminder.org

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

Tags: population, demographic transition model, declining population, population, demographics, mod els, gapminder, development.

See on www.youtube.com

January 27, 2014 0

The London Array

Twenty kilometers (12 miles) from England’s Kent and Essex coasts, the world’s largest offshore wind farm has started harvesting the breezes over the sea. Located in the Thames Estuary, where the River Thames meets the North Sea, the London Array has a maximum generating power of 630 megawatts (MW), enough to supply as many as 500,000 homes.

The wind farm became fully operational on April 8, 2013. Twenty days later, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of the area. The second image is a closeup of the area marked by the white box in the top image. White points in the second image are the wind turbines; a few boat wakes are also visible. The sea is discolored by light tan sediment—spring runoff washed out by the Thames.

See on earthobservatory.nasa.gov

January 25, 2014 0

The People’s Guide to Spatial Thinking

“One of our colleagues and leaders in spatial thinking in education, Dr. Diana Stuart Sinton, has written a book entitled The People’s Guide to Spatial Thinking, along with colleagues Sarah Bednarz, Phil Gersmehl, Robert Kolvoord, and David Uttal. As the name implies, the book provides an accessible and readable way for students, educators, and even the general public to understand what spatial thinking is and why it matters. It “help[s] us think across the geographies of our life spaces, physical and social spaces, and intellectual space.” Dr. Sinton pulls selections from the NRC’s Learning to Think Spatially report and ties them to everyday life. In so doing, she also provides ways for us in the educational community to think about teaching these concepts and skills in a variety of courses. Indeed, as she points out, spatial thinking is particularly essential within science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as geography.” – See more at: ESRI’s GIS Education Community blog.

See on blogs.esri.com

January 24, 2014 0

Online Quizzes for Regional Geography

For Regional Geography, I ask that all my students take online quizzes before coming to class because it is very difficult to intelligently discuss European issues if you don’t know the countries of Europe, where they are and what other countries are on their borders. Quizzes and knowing places doesn’t define geography, but if geography were English literature, knowing about places could be described as the alphabet–before you write a sonnet or critique an essay, you better know your ABC’s and basic grammar. Given that, I like the Lizard Point Geography quizzes, Sheppard Software quizzes and those from Click that ‘Hood; they are simple, straightforward and comprehensive. Below is a YouTube video that shows how to take the Lizard Point quizzes.

You can take them in practice, test or strict test mode. Once you are fully prepared, take the test in “strict test mode.” When you get the score you are content with, click on “View Detailed Results.” Enter your name to produce an image like the one below:

Throughout the semester, you will need to collect these images as screenshots (use the snipping tool or print screen function) to turn in as proof that you took the quizzes. You can also grab a screenshot of your results on Click that ‘Hood (without your name, but with a time).

During the course of the semester in World Regional Geography, you should complete all of the following quizzes (and 9 more for a total of 20 quizzes):

Tags: regions, trivia, games.

See on geographyeducation.org

January 23, 2014 0

Why So Many Emerging Megacities Remain So Poor

How globalization has changed the nature of urban development.

See on www.theatlanticcities.com

January 23, 2014 0

Places in their Proper Perspectives

“A fisherman’s cottage is described by real estate agents as a ‘property not to be missed’ but it is also just yards away from two nuclear power stations.”

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

A photograph (or landscape, map, etc.) is not an innocent reflection of reality. They can be carefully crafted to tell a story which might reflect the bigger picture and your ideological framework–but it just as easily might obscure some important contexts and truths. I use these images at the beginning of the semester to discuss the bias inherent in our own perspectives as I try to infuse my classroom with a variety of lenses with which to view different regions (images found here).

Tags: images, landscape, perspective, regions.

See on www.telegraph.co.uk

January 22, 2014 0

Drying of the Aral Sea

Explore a global timelapse of our planet, constructed from Landsat satellite imagery. With water diverted to irrigation, the inland Aral Sea has shrunk drama…

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

The collapse of the Aral Sea ecosystem is (arguably) the worst man-made environmental disaster of the 20th century and 21st century has seen the desertification continue. Soviet mismanagement, water-intensive cotton production and population growth have all contributed the overtaxing of water resources in the Aral Sea basin, which has resulted in the shrinking of the Aral Sea–it has lost more of the sea to an expanding desert than the territories of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg combined. The health problems arising from this issues are large for the entire Aral Sea basin, which encompasses 5 Central Asian countries and it has profoundly changed (for the worse) the local climates. Compare the differences with some historical images of the Aral Sea on Google Earth or on ArcGIS Online (also see this article from GeoCurrents).

Tags: environment, Central Asia, environment modify.

See on www.youtube.com

January 21, 2014 0