GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

Today (May 10th) is Mother’s Day in Mexico and some other Latin American countries so what better time to share this map of TV Moms?  Additionally, here are maps that display the various dates that different societies use to honor Mothers and Fathers. 

Questions to Ponder: Many societies celebrate Mother’s Day around the vernal equinox and Father’s Day near the summer solstice.  Is this a coincidence or are their some gendered messages in these cultural celebrations?

This interactive feature includes various places that have experienced rapid environmental change in the last few decades.  This is a simple way to show the power of remotely sensed data as well as massive environmental impact of rapid urbanization and globalization.   

Tags: remote sensing, land use, environment, geospatial, environment modify,  urban ecology.

This more clearly shows the regional restructuring of the global economy than just about anything I’ve ever seen, especially manufacturing.  The 8 largest and busiets ports in the world are all in East or Southeast Asia (and 11 of the top 13).  A quick glance at the historical charts will show that most of these were relatively minor ports that have exploded in the last 20 years.  

Tags: transportation, globalization, diffusion, East Asia, industry, economic.

Just because you’ve mapped a physical land feature, it doesn’t mean it will stay that way forever.  This is a reminder that the Earth and it’s cultural and physical landscapes are constantly changing. 

Tags: mapping, erosion, landscape.

This podcast explains the MOOC Maps and the Geospatial Revolution.  It is designed to be an easy on-ramp to 21st century geospatial tools and any geography teacher hoping to modernize their skillset would do well to take this summer course from the Program of Online Geospatial Education at Penn State, taught by Dr. Anthony Robinson.  Click here to register for free.   

Tags: GIS, teacher training, mapping, cartography, geospatial, edtech, geography education, unit 1 GeoPrinciples.

Previously I shared a gallery portraying 20 families from around world together with a full week of groceries (from the book Hungry Planet or in this abbreviated online version).  Today it’s the breakfast table which shows differences in agricultural, development and cultural patterns around the world.

Tags: food, agriculture, worldwide, consumption, culture, development.

The economic crisis has contributed to rising anti-immigration sentiment and policies in Europe.  Immigrants from Eastern Europe continue to enter the core, but now more from the struggling southern periphery of Europe are also on the move.   

One of the free response questions in the 2012 AP Human Geography test focused on increasing Muslim population in many European countries.  This video some background context for that particular Free Response Question (as would this article from Al Jazeera titled Europe’s failure to integrate Muslims).

Tags: diffusion, historical, spatial, language, culture.