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Suggested by Fortunato Navarro Sanz onto Geography Education |
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This is another old classic image that I might have shared earlier but it merits repeating. As Salvatore Natoli (a leader in geography education) once said, "In our society we unconsciously equate size with importance and even power." This is one reason why many people have underestimated the true size of Africa relative to places that they view as more important or more powerful.
Tags: mapping, Africa, perspective, images.
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How Many Rhode Islands is a simple web application that shows and tells you how many Rhode Islands would fit inside a given country. 
Seth Dixon's curator insight,
May 10, 8:38 PM
The Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance is as pleased as could be to discover this marvelously fun website. While the Ocean State is larger than countries such as Andorra, Nauru, Tuvalu and Malta, there are not many countries smaller than the smallest of the United States of America. Russia could contain 5,445 'Rhode Islands' and the United States could contain 3,066 Rhode Islands (that's a LOT of senators!). Delete the scoop?
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USGS National Geologic Database- TopoView
Seth Dixon's insight:
The National Geologic Map Database is a simple interactive tool to find USGS topographic maps that you can dowload. Users can search for current or historic maps.
Tags: geospatial, GIS, mapping, cartography. 
Bruce Deitrick Price's comment,
May 4, 7:52 PM
Topographic relief maps..get the biggest and best you can afford.. the best way to teach history, science, etc.
Paul Nicoara's curator insight,
May 5, 5:05 PM
The National Geologic Map Database is a simple interactive tool to find USGS topographic maps that you can dowload. Users can search for current or historic maps. Delete the scoop?
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Seth Dixon's insight:
March and April are key months for harvesting sap from trees, making this sugar time in New England. New England's climate and biogeography make this the right time because the because the combination of freezing nights and warm spring days gets the sap in the native species of maple trees to flow. The sap get boiled down to syrup, but did you know that it takes roughly 40 gallons of sap that to get 1 gallon of pure maple syrup? 
Louis Culotta's comment,
April 8, 11:45 AM
this is cool. A friend of mine bought all the equipment and is making it in the woods in his backyard up in Cumberland.
Mary Burke's comment,
April 12, 3:53 PM
When I get pancakes at a restaurant I always ask for real maple syrup. They charge more but its worth it. I venture to say that the Canadian maple syrup subsidies might have something to do with less syrup production around here and also might be why syrup so expensive.
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"Brown University's Choices Program invites secondary level geography teachers to apply for a 2013 Summer Institute that focuses on using the Choices approach and materials to ask What is Where, Why, and So What?"
Seth Dixon's insight:
Applications for this tremendous Summer Institute are due April 8th and I am very pleased to announce that I'll be one of the presenters there at Brown University. I hope that many of seriously consider applying. I look forward to collaborating with all the participants in person (the only cost is travel to and from Providence, RI). Tags: Rhode Island, APHG, training. Delete the scoop?
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Seth Dixon's insight:
This is a simplified Census data map viewer specifically for Rhode Island. To see a simplified U.S. Census data at the national scale, see: http://sco.lt/7G5rur Tags: statistics, Rhode Island, census, GIS, mapping, cartography.
Seth Dixon's curator insight,
February 24, 11:50 AM
This is a simplified Census data map viewer specifically for Rhode Island. To see a simplified U.S. Census data at the national scale, see: http://sco.lt/7G5rur Tags: statistics, Rhode Island, census, GIS, mapping, cartography. 
Meg Conheeny's comment,
April 26, 7:12 PM
This data really gives you a sense of the community in Rhode Island. You can find statistics on education, economic factors, health, housing and the environment. There are slightly more females than males in Rhode Island. The population pyramid shows spikes in both males and females from the ages of 15-24 and 45-54. There could be a higher population of 15-24 year olds because that age group is enrolled in school so many kids go through the public school system in Rhode Island then stay in state to go to college, trying to save some money. There’s a higher amount of 45-54 year olds because they have established themselves in this state with a job, house, family and roots so they are less likely to leave.
There is a high number of families with children under 18 in Cranston, Pawtucket, Warwick and Providence. This could be because those areas are the major cities and towns in the state so there are more families having kids in those places. There also is a high number of people in the city of Providence that speak English “not well” or “not at all”. Migrants tend to move to the cities to try to find work and cheap housing and Providence is the biggest city in Rhode Island so it is populated with many migrates who are new to English. Rhode Island has some of the highest unemployment numbers. The highest places of unemployment in Rhode Island according to this graph are East Providence, Cranston, Pawtucket, Warwick and Providence. Again this could be because those areas are some of the largest cities and towns in the state. Delete the scoop?
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Find out how the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native Americans celebrated the first Thanksgiving together at Plymouth Plantation. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and this is a great resource with videos, primary documents, virtual field trips and lesson plans for all grades, K-12. Students can see aspects of lifestyles, housing types and economic activies of both the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags. For more resources about the Mayflower and the historically re-enacted village, see the Plimoth Plantation website. Tags: K12, seasonal, historical, colonialism, virtual tours. Delete the scoop?
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This is a link from the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance which is now on Twitter. UPDATE: This shows the number of power outages in the state. Delete the scoop?
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WEATHER GANG | With computer models locked in on the eventuality of a punishing blow for East Coast from Hurricane Sandy, analyses suggest this storm may be unlike anything the region has ever experienced. This weekend's storm for the East coast is especially interesting. I won't pretend to be a meteorologist, so I'll quote one: "The upper-air steering pattern that is part of the puzzle is not all that unheard of. It happens when the atmosphere gets blocked over the Atlantic and the flow over the U.S. doubles back on itself. Sometimes big winter storms are involved. The freak part is that a hurricane happens to be in the right place in the world to get sucked into this doubled-back channel of air and pulled inland from the coast." Stay safe everyone on the east coast. Tags: weather and climate, physical, disasters. Delete the scoop?
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What are all these news reporters and school administrators doing in my classroom? Monday, September 24, 2012 was most certainly an interesting day in my Mapping Our Changing World (GEOG 201) class... One of my students applied some mapping skills and spatial analysis to a string of unsolved bank robberies in Rhode Island. After 7 months of eluding capture with at least 8 robberies under his belt, the "bearded bandit" was apprehended less than 48 hours after my student handed over his analysis to a contact in the police department. Coincidence? I think not! Great work Nic, showing that spatial thinking and geographic skills can be applied to a wide range of disciplines and activities. Tags: RhodeIsland, GIS, mapping, GeographyEducation, edtech. 
Elizabeth Allen's comment,
September 25, 2012 8:07 PM
Wow! Awesome story. Professor Dixon thanks for sharing this. Nic must be thrilled and you must be proud!
Matt Mallinson's comment,
September 26, 2012 10:11 AM
Awesome presentation of it all, it was very interesting.
Victoria Morgia Jamolod-Umbo's comment,
September 27, 2012 8:58 AM
This is a great development! Today, there are so many unsolved crimes because of lack of investigative skills of our investigating authorities. So, if this new way of solving crimes can really help victims to attain justice, then we have to support it, by all means....
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Ever wonder how charitable the people are who live in your area? It turns out that lower-income people tend to donate a much bigger share of their discretionary incomes than wealthier people, according to a new study.
Questions to ponder: What are some reasons that Providence RI is the 'least charitable' metropolitan area in the United States according to this data? Why is the state of Utah ranked as the 'most charitable state?' Why are the bottom 3 states all in the New England region? Delete the scoop?
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There are plenty of regional biases about other places. This map was generated by Google autocomplete. If you Google, "Why is Rhode Island so...." if will automatically suggest some responses. This was done for all the states and these autoresponses are quite revealing (and often humorous). 
Jesse Gauthier's comment,
September 2, 2012 9:59 PM
I find it funny that from state to state the same adjectives are being used over and over again. For example: "so boring," "so humid," and "so liberal." As much as there are stereotypes for each region, we share the same qualities as a union, for the most part.
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Whoa, check out Trulia Local - A visual way to explore crime, schools, home prices, and local data.
The map above was generated to display the areas within a 30 minute commute of Rhode Island College in Providence. This site generates commuting maps and other layers that are especially pertinent for home buyers---schools, crime stats, property values and local amenities. This is GIS data brought to the real estate shopping community, but consider this a project in the making. One of the best exercises to get to know a place holistically is to shop for housing and make some locational analysis decisions. Delete the scoop?
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"EarthView is an educational outreach project of the Department of Geography at Bridgewater State University."
Seth Dixon's insight:
Bridgewater State is the home of SEMAGNET, the Southeast division of the Massachusetts Geographic Alliance (housed at Clark University). Bridgewater State is also home to Project Earthview (I've never been so jealous of a globe before). This inflatable, hand-painted globe in a fantastic teaching resource. You can even enter the globe with a group under 20 and explore the Earth from the inside out. The link is to the Earthview blog, with provides information of the project to take this globe to local schools, and other geographic resources. UPDATE: This event was televised by WGGB with the clip now online. 
Nic Hardisty's comment,
September 4, 2012 11:58 AM
I love that Bridgewater opted to teach Geography from such a simple, yet unique perspective. It's an interesting concept to view the Earth outward from its core, and see if that inspires any unique views and observations from students.
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"Preparing to Teach Social Studies: Geographic Content for the Praxis Exam."
Seth Dixon's insight:
I know that most of my readers are in-service teachers as opposed to pre-service teachers, but I thought it was still worth sharing. Several schools have noticed that without geography classes, social studies teachers have difficulty becoming certified without some core geographic content. As a part of job at the Alliance coordinator for the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance, I'm giving a workshop tonight at Salve Regina University designed to strengthen pre-service teachers geographic content as outlined on the Praxis Exam. I have prepared these materials with that audience in mind, but if there is anything you find useful, please use it or share it with those that could use it (local School of Education, Alliance, etc). Most of the images in the presentation are hyperlinked to articles, videos and infographics that I have posted here in the past. Tags: Rhode Island, training, geography education. 
Dean Haakenson's comment,
April 19, 2:22 PM
Too bad that many school districts do not teach pure geography courses as well.
Louis Culotta's curator insight,
April 27, 11:26 AM
This will be abig help when i have to take that exam...Thanks for the info on it. Delete the scoop?
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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Rhode Island is one of five states in which the number of people getting help from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP-formerly known as 'food stamps') has more than doubled since 2008. In 2012, 16 percent of its residents received aid from the program. Read the related article. The article details how Woonsocket's economy is impacted by these monthly fluctuations is disposable income. Why is Rhode Island one of that states with a doubling participation in this program? What other spatial patterns to you see?
http://redgage.com/photos/macb/postage-us-liberty-of-all-15-c.html
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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A massive winter storm is coming together as two low pressure systems are merging over the U.S. East Coast. A satellite image from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite on Feb. 8 shows a western frontal system approaching the coastal low pressure area.
This NASA "image of the day" of the Nor'eastern shows the scope and impact of the storm quite vividly.
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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This classic Geography in the News by Neal Lineback has been re-released on his Lineback World View site. This is an excellent lesson for K-12 educators to prepare their students to understand the historic and geographic context of Thanksgiving.
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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After cutting a destructive path through the Caribbean, Hurricane Sandy caused extensive damage along the East Coast this week.
While the damage wasn't as bad as many feared it could have been, place and spatial context are especially important in assessing the impacts of a natural disaster. This is a excellent collection of the many devastating images as a result of Hurricane Sandy. To see some more local images, Rhode Island Department of Transportation put this collection together.
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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This interactive map of coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island shows some basic flooding data including: 1) where are the flood warnings (essential the entire coastline), 2) how high the storm surge is, and 3) how high the waves are.
Tags: Rhode Island, water, disasters, geospatial.
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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The Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance seeks to promote geo-literacy here in the Ocean State. So what is geo-literacy? The National Geographic Society’s Educational team...
As the Alliance Coordinator for the state of Rhode Island, I organized these three videos (two from National Geographic) and some pictures to provide a basis for understanding what geo-literacy is and why it is important for society and within the workforce. In the spirit of sharing, I thought I'd share these links beyond the borders of Rhode Island.
Tags: GeographyEducation, NationalGeographic, geo-inspiration, RhodeIsland.
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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the undersea work & world of Michael Lombardi...
Michael Lombardi is a both a scientific and commercial diver; as an author and environmentalist and an Explorer in Residence with the National Geographic Society. This Saturday he will be the guest speaker for the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance meeting and I am incredibly excited to hear from him.
Tags: water, National Geographic, RhodeIsland, physical, biogeography, environment.
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Scooped by Seth Dixon |
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While touring Kevin Babola's art studio yesterday, I found this thought-provoking piece entitled ‘Political Landscapes.’ I greatly enjoyed my conversation with the artist about the political, economic and urban visions that went into this painting. The conceptual idea behind this painting started when the artist was exploring the neighborhoods of New Bedford, MA and noticed how a sense of place can change very quickly. I dare say most cities have areas similar to the one portrayed here where the socioeconomic character changes very abruptly. While physically it might be very easy to cross from the side of the street with tenements to the neighborhood with single family homes, making that transition permanent is incredibly difficult.
Questions to ponder: what leads to cities having abrupt changes in the urban fabric? What might this chasm represent to people on either side of the divide? How does this impact the neighborhood institutions (schools, local government, etc.)? Please visit the artist's webpage at: http://www.kbolaillustration.com
Polotical Landscape paintings are great because they are a vision of what the world is becoming, what it used to be, and what it could be.
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Suggested by Roland Trudeau Jr. |
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RT: As we discussed in class today about businesses basically running cities, CVS has a dominating presense in Woonsocket, where it's corporate headquaters is located. In 2009 closing the exsisting CVS on Cass Ave and erecting a new larger one up the street was proposed, doing so would involve demolishing 7 buildings, and change the comunity forever. An uproar was caused within the community, and the in protest this blog was created. Despite the community disagreement, CVS was able to pass all the zoning laws and problems involved with constrution. This is an example of a corporation using their influence to get what they want.
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Suggested by k.vig |
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KV: Development of a high end apartment complex in a low income area would force pre-gentrification people out of the neighborhood. The taxes would get raised to amounts that make it difficult for these people to afford. However, the people in charge of this project are ignoring the consequences and focusing on the 5 million dollars tax break.
SD: This sign went up in to 2006 protest the mills-to-condo developments in Providence, Rhode Island. Click here to see the photographer's work.
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This picture is great because while most people understand that Africa is a big place, most do not realize how big. Comparing the size of Africa is this visual manor makes it more real than just seeing a square mileage statistic.