Endeavour Geography Resources

The lithosphere (Earth's crust) is a hard, rigid plate on top of a softer molten layer known as the asthenosphere.  Sounds like an Oreo to me!  As a crude analogy that lets you bring food into the classroom, this lesson on plate boundaries sound like a winner.  For an academic article on how to use Oreo's to teach about Earth's crust, see: http://dusk.geo.orst.edu/oceans/Oreo-Cookie.pdf     

Music video by Counting Crows performing Big Yellow Taxi. (C) 2002 Interscope Geffen (A&M) Records A Division of UMG Recordings Inc.

This music video is a vivid portrayal of the cultural power of place and the deep emotional connection many people have to their neighborhoods.  What types of urban geographies are being critiqued by the original lyrics (orginally performed and written my Joni Mitchell) of this song?  What do the images portrayed in the video say to further this critique?  What type of urbanism are these performers advocating?  Given the context of this video, what priorities do you think city planners should consider when building and reshaping cities? 

Find the latitude and longitude of a point using Google Maps.

Simple, straightforward and easy to use.  All you do is point and click on the map to get latitude and longitude in both decimal degrees and DMS (degrees, minutes and seconds).  You can also quickly enter coordinates in either format an have the location displayed on the map.

Tags: GPS, mapping, location.

Find the latitude and longitude of a point using Google Maps.

Simple, straightforward and easy to use.  All you do is point and click on the map to get latitude and longitude in both decimal degrees and DMS (degrees, minutes and seconds).  You can also quickly enter coordinates in either format an have the location displayed on the map.

Tags: GPS, mapping, location.

TED Talks 400 years after Hudson found New York harbor, Eric Sanderson shares how he made a 3D map of Mannahatta's fascinating pre-city ecology of hills, rivers, wildlife -- accurate down to the block -- when Times Square was a wetland and you...

KC: The Manhattan Project created a picture of the area before the development of a city, the way Henry Hudson did during his 1609 exploration. After 10 years (1999-2009), the research project has expanded to study the entire city of New York. The Welikia Project analyzes geography and landscape ecology to discover the original environment and compare it to present day. Scientists have learned that world's largest cities once had a natural landscape of freshwater wetlands and salt marshes, ponds and streams, forests and fields with an equally diverse wildlife community. By focusing on the city's biodiversity of 400 years ago and the modern era, information can be gathered about what has changed, what has remained constant, where the city was done well and where it needs to improve. This source is useful because it allows for the visualization of NYC in a way never seen before. Urban environments, such as NYC, have a landscape largely created by humans, so the skyscrapers, pavement, and mass population is far removed from the landscape it once was.

Find more information about the Welikia Project at http://welikia.org and more on New York City's urban ecology at: http://www.scoop.it/t/urban-geography

"The worst drought in 50 years has intensified across the US midwest, not only condemning this year's corn crop but threatening the prospects for next year's too, new figures showed on Thursday."

The current drought in the Midwest is having a much greater impact than making residents hot and uncomfortable. Farmland prices were on the rise, and the market was acting on the assumption that of good years with bountiful harvests.  As a breadbasket, the drought in deepening fears of a global food crisis and greatly impacting food production with economic, energy (ethanol) and political ramifications.  For more on the environmental problems from drought, especially wildfires, see: http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/04/us/oklahoma-wildfires/index.html  

The Geographical Association has produced numerous resources specifically for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games being held in London.  The Olympics as an event work as an important teaching moment that operates on numerous scales.  What local developmental projects reshaped the urban fabric of London in preparation for these Games?  Do international events such as the Olympics foster a global community?  Is this idea of a global community perfectly harmonious?    

With the country also known as Burma taking steps toward democracy and respect for human rights, Coke is returning after a 60-year absence. What are the two nations where it still won't be doing business?

Globalization has made many companies and products ubiquitious throughout the world.  We take their presence as a matter of course, a sign that the largest brands are in essentially every country in the world--but not all.  Until recently Coca Cola was not in three markets, all for political reasons.  Now that Burma is becoming more democratic, Coca-Cola will bring their product to all countries of South East Asia.  Any guesses on the 2 countries that still don't have Coke?

UPDATED CORRECTION: Thanks to the great people at About.com 's geography page, I was informed that there are more than just the initially listed two countries (North Korea and Cuba) not within the Coke universe (such as Somalia and East Timor to name a few).  For more on this see: http://geography.about.com/b/2012/06/15/coca-cola-in-every-country-but-three-no.htm