GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

On why a Prussian scientific visionary should be studied afresh…In a superb biography, Andrea Wulf makes an inspired case for Alexander von Humboldt to be considered the greatest scientist of the 19th century. Certainly he was the last great polymath in a scientific world which, by the time he died in Berlin in 1859, aged 89, was fast hardening into the narrow specializations that typify science to this day. Yet in the English-speaking world, Humboldt is strangely little-known.

Source: geographyeducation.org

Alexander von Humboldt has been described as the last great ancient geographer concerned with understanding an eclectic cosmography as well as the first modern geographer. He is honored far and wide throughout Europe and especially  Latin America for his explorations, but given that people are confused as how to categorize him and classify his contributions, today he is under-appreciated.  Geographers need to reclaim his memory and call his extensive, globetrotting work on a wide range of subjects ‘geography.’  Here is another article and TED-ED video on the most influential scientist that you might not have heard of (at least until today).

Tags:  historical, biogeography.

“Every city has a picturesque spot or two where the probability of a photo being taken at any given time is pretty high. Now there’s a world atlas of maps showing the routes people follow while taking these pictures in every city around the world:Mapbox’s Eric Fischer has been working on the “Geotaggers’ World Atlas” for five years, using locations of photos uploaded on Flickr over a decade. In his city maps, which now span the world, he connects the dots between subsequent photos taken by a photographer—representing their path in sketchy lines that criss-cross across the city.”

Tags: mapping, visualization, social media, tourism.

Source: www.citylab.com

“A geographic perspective is a way of looking at and understanding our world. When you view the world through the lens of geography, you are asking who, what, where, when, and how people, places, and things are distributed across the surface of the earth, and why/how they got there. In other words, it means that you are analyzing something with a geographic perspective. The understanding and use of a geographic perspective is critical for decision making skills in the 21st century. Using spatial concepts such as location, region, movement, and scale to help us understand:

• Interactions – How the world works
• Interconnections – How systems in our world are connected
• Implications – How to make well-reasoned decisions”

—@natgeo, Geography as a Primary Source

Source: www.instagram.com

This is a field guide designed by National Geographic to help students strengthen their geographic skills. 

Tags: National Geographic, perspective.

A new project from U.S. News & World Report has an ambitious goal: Ranking the world.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

I’m not endorsing the ratings or the methodology behind the ratings, but they are certainly fodder for discussion. 

Early meteorology helped farmers predict yield, transforming the agricultural industry.

Complaining over the weather is not new, but the science of studying the weather, and its effects on business, is fairly recent. Around [1920], economists were also starting to use statistical methods to predict yield. Although cotton’s price, as shown on the New York Cotton Exchange, fluctuated daily, a “well-known American economist” discovered that he could make the most accurate total yield predictions—more accurate than those of the government crop reports—by analyzing the average weather conditions from May to August. It was now possible to predict when the crops would have a bumper year or a poor one.

Tags: physical, weather and climate, food production, agribusiness, agriculture.

Source: daily.jstor.org

“As the saying goes, ‘All roads lead to Rome.’ Folks at the moovel lab were curious about how true this statement is, so they tested it out. They laid a grid on top of Europe, and then algorithmically found a route from each cell in the grid to Rome, resulting in about half a million routes total. Yep, there seems to be a way from Rome from every point.”

Tags: fluvial, mobility, transportation, mapping.

Source: flowingdata.com

“From icebergs and Inuit legends to polar bear organs and exploration disasters, 50 questions to truly test your northern knowledge.”

Source: www.canadiangeographic.ca

These are 50 HARD questions (any student not from Canada that gets over 50% right should pat themselves on the back). 

Tags: Canada, trivia, games, Arctic, landforms.

“Happy New Year, and welcome to NCGE’s second century! For those of you who joined us for our centennial celebration, you know that the National Council for Geographic Education is moving forward in bold new ways. Today, as I sit pondering an impending winter storm warning, I invite you all to consider spending the end of July 2016 in Tampa, Florida, with NCGE. The call for proposals launched last week, and will remain open until March 1, 2016. (You can learn more about submitting a proposal here). I can’t think of a better way to spend the end of my summer break than by spending it with my geography friends and family. The conference promises to be another spectacular one. We have several themes suggested for you to consider presenting content and practices, including AP Human Geography, the Centennial of the National Parks Service, and coastal geography.”

Source: ncge.org