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. 

Question 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.

The authors of this article are from American Geographical Society and discuss the results of a study that indicate that Americans want more geography education in the school systems today.  Often geography gets buried within the social studies curriculum and it is up to the individual teacher to ensure how much geography actually gets taught in the classroom.  This is not a new problem; in a bulletin published by the Bureau of Education in 1922, it was said, "So long as it is assumed that history is all of the social studies the elements of the others will be neglected as they are now."  This article provides good sources to help educators argue for more geographic content in the curriculum at all educational levels.

Tags: Geography Education, geo-inspiration.

Google has become more and more involved with geospatial technologies and platforms.  This new Maps Engine (still in beta testing) appears to be Google entry into the world of GIS.  Maps Engine is not nearly as robust as ArcGIS Online or even Google Earth and it has many limitations (can't upload a CSV file with more than 100 data points, can't use KML or shapefiles, no archive of ready-made layers, etc). 

It's redeeming value lies in the simplicity of the platform; if all you want to do is draw your own points, lines and polygons on top of a map and be able to get started within 30 seconds, then this is worth exploring.  Those features are incredibly intuitive and user-friendly and I foresee various educational possibilities using this in the classroom, but am still 'test-driving' the platform.      

Tags:  google, GIS, geospatial, edtech, K12.

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 continuation of the desertification set in motion.  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 a 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.

This is a poignant image that strikes a chord with me.  History is embedded within place even if the historical events are not memorialized within the landscape.  May 4, 2013 not only marked the anniversary of the Kent State tragedy, it also was the day that the great Wilbur Zelinsky passed away. He was a geographer who analyzed the cultural landscape as well as anyone ever did, and I consider myself fortunate enough to have had conversations with him while I was at Penn State. 

Tags: historical, war, landscape.

I would dispute the accuracy of some of the alleged linguistic origins of the state names, so take this with a grain of salt (still it's a clever concept for an inforgraphic and shows some interesting patterns).  As with all long infographics on this site, you can "scroll down" on the image by putting the cursor in the top right-hand corner of the image and sliding on the translucent bar.

Tags: language, USA, infographic, toponyms, historical, colonialism.

This 16 question quiz is a challenging quiz that a great little mental workout to start the day for you trivia buffs who love online games.  Can you get more that 13 correct? 

There is power in the words we choose, especially for those those that are in the media that influence the way we frame any topic.  If a reporter in a news article, for example, were to describe a group as freedom fighters instead of insurgent rebels it impacts our perception of the news. See also this gallery of images on the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Tags: migration, ethnicity, race, population, podcast.

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 busiest 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 interactive feature shows some intriguing historical insight into the United States metropolitan housing markets and this article associated with the interactive analyzes the growth trends in particular cities.

Questions to Ponder: how is this real estate interactive a portal into the historical economic geography of U.S. cities?  What explains the regional patterns?  New England?  Texas?  

Tags: housing, urban, unit 7 cities.

The article leaves me with more questions than answers.  What do the residents think about the tons of tourists wondering through their winding streets?  The very idea of tourism to see poverty in situ in an authentic slum is riddled with power and cultural imbalances.  Why would wealthy tourists from the developed world want to more fully explore the slums in the developing world?  What do you see as the 'wrong' and the 'right' within this situation?   Is slum tourism ethical?

The NPR blog Code Switch focuses on issues of race, culture and ethnicity.  In this podcast they explore the changing demographics of Oakland due to gentrification and the cultural impact that it has had.  In the 80s, African-Americans represented nearly half of Oakland's population, but today is now 34 percent white, 28 percent black, 25 percent Latino and 17 percent Asian.  The music scene, night life and sense of communal identity has consequently shifted, and that causes some to yearn for what once was.   

Tags: neighborhood, gentrification, urban, place, culture, economic.