"The Social Security Administration this week released its list of 2012’s most popular baby names by state, and maybe explained why there are so many Jacobs and Sophias in your kids’ schools. Do you see your kids’ names here?"
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Global news with a spatial perspective: Interesting, current supplemental materials for geography students and teachers. http://geographyeducation.org
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Seth Dixon
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Put away that old Rand McNally map — it's time for a new way to see what America really looks like.
Seth Dixon's insight:
There is a great series of maps in this NPR article that show that internal political divisions do not always line up with actual regional interactions. The map of the United States shows the what money flows within regions that do not always follow state borders (see Wisconsin, Idaho and Pennsylvania). The map of Great Britain shows the connections based on telephone calls.
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The NBA has the cleanest map of all the sports leagues.
Seth Dixon's insight:
Sports league have historically used geographic references to describe their league, conference or divisions (This was just one of the many reasons I was so appalled that San Diego State was going to join the Big East. Thankfully that plan was stymied). To have successful rivalries, teams often play up local proximity of fan bases (Yankees/Red Sox, Duke/North Carolina, Michigan/Ohio State) to add intensity to the on-field action. Given that teams and fans travel, the logistics make regionally based division economically prudent. This map (and the full set of major professional leagues in North America) shows that the NBA has the most geographically consistent divisions. Delete the scoop?
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The National Rifle Association gives members of Congress a grade ranging from A to F.
Seth Dixon's insight:
Since the Newtown CT tragedy, gun control and second amendment rights have been prominent in the minds on many Americans. Your ideological position on what should be done in th future might be in part a product of geography. How do most people feel about the second amendment where you live? What about your local geography might influence those opinions? 
Eliana Oliveira Burian's curator insight,
December 28, 2012 6:29 AM
And you? What's your opinion about Gun Control Legislation? 
Jim Bob's comment,
December 28, 2012 10:07 PM
Looks like there is enough people to finally have gun licensing stiffened.
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The Muslim Brotherhood has been gaining power in several countries since the Arab Spring. The rise of Islamist power in the Middle East is culturally and politically complex. This interactive lets the user click on selected countries to see how groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood or Hamas are impacting them politically. Tags: Middle East, religion, Islam, political. Delete the scoop?
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The terms cooks enter into search engines can provide clues as to what dishes are being cooked around the nation.
Some fascinating (if not entirely scientific) maps that show the most common searches on www.allrecipes.com and regional differences in food preferences. More importantly, it also is an interesting glimpse into the geography of language. Some similar dishes are called by more regional names (e.g.-"Stuffing" in the Northeast and West, "Dressing" in the Midwest and South). This set of maps also reinforces the concepts of regions. This is a fun way to teach some actual content and enjoy the holiday. Delete the scoop?
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I'm sure most of you have seen the 2008 version of these fantastic maps and cartograms and they've been a go-to reference for me since the last election. The typical red state/blue state map conceals much concerning the spatial voting patterns in the United States and fails to account for the population densities of these distributions. That's what makes this county level voting maps and cartograms so valuable. Questions to Ponder: What new patterns can you see in the county map that you couldn't see in the state map? What do the cartograms tell you about the United States population? Tags: cartography, mapping, rural, zbestofzbest. Delete the scoop?
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Right now, the conventional wisdom says that there are just nine states that might go either way on Nov. Not all votes are created equally; votes in these 9 key states have a greater likelihood of impacting the actual outcome of the Presidential election. If we assume that the other states vote as anticipated, and that each candidate has an equal opportunity in the remaining 9 states (yes, these are a major assumptions, but work with me), than President Obama has a 84% likelihood of winning in the 512 possible permuations. Geographer Andy Baker has created a video that provides a solid non-partisan analysis of the political geography of these states (and other) states. Tags: political, unit 4 political. Delete the scoop?
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Over a bottle of vodka and a traditional Russian salad of pickles, sausage and potatoes tossed in mayonnaise, a group of friends raised their glasses and wished Igor Irtenyev and his family a happy journey to Israel. My regional class has been learning about Russia this week and when I first started teaching a few years ago, I would teach that Russia had a population of 145 million. Today it is 141 million and part of that is due to migrants leaving a country that they see as lacking in economic opportunities and political freedoms (another part of the story is that birth rates plummeted after the collapse of the Soviet Union in what demographers have called the "Russian Cross"). In the last few years the population appears to have stabilized, but there are still many who do not see a vibrant future from themselves within Russia. Tags: Russia, migration, Demographics, immigration, unit 2 population. Via Nathan Parrish Delete the scoop?
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It was just over two centuries ago that the global population was 1 billion — in 1804. But better medicine and improved agriculture resulted in higher life expectancy for children, dramatically increasing the world population, especially in the West. This is an excellent video for population and demographic units, but also for showing regional and spatial patterns within the global dataset (since terms like 'overpopulation' and 'carrying capacity' inherently have different meanings in distinct places and when analyzed at various scales). It is also a fantastic way to visualize population data and explain the ideas that are foundational for the Demographic Transition Model. Tags: population, scale, visualization, Demographics, models, unit 2 population, sustainability, regions, spatial. Delete the scoop?
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Mitt Romney’s narrow electoral vote path explained — in 5 maps... The above map represents the last time the Republican Party won a presidential election in the United States. As the polls currently are projecting that President Obama will be re-elected, the most critical questions about the voting patterns for both parties are spatial in nature. Questions to ponder: how are current political patterns changing the map? Which states become the most pivotal for either candidate to be victorious? Tags: political, regions, spatial, unit 4 political. Delete the scoop?
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NASA's Visible Earth catalog of NASA images and animations of our home planet... This classic image is full of classroom applications. The first impulse of most students is to note that this image will show us where people live, where the cities are or some other comment that speaks to the magnitude of the population in the white areas. Let them analyze this for more time, and they'll notice that population isn't the whole story of this image. A place like India shines, but less brightly than the eastern part of the United States. I like to point out that South Korea appears to be an island (because North Korea is literally blacked out). Politics, development, affluence and population information are all embedded in this image. As with all maps, the more information you have about the place in question (in this case, Earth), the more meaningful information you can extract out of the map. Tags: remote sensing, worldwide, consumption, poverty, population, spatial, political, regions. 
Matt Mallinson's comment,
September 18, 2012 12:35 PM
This image is pretty amazing to see. It shows what parts of the world are more modernized just by the lights seen from space. Looking at the U.S. and Europe, they are lit up very bright because they are richer parts of the world. As you look at places like Africa and some parts of South America, they are shown in darkness due to poorer areas in those regions.
Michelle Carvajal's comment,
September 18, 2012 6:07 PM
I was impressed with the explanation of this picture especially for the simple fact that I thought it was a picture that depicted the population of certain areas of each country. Places like Africa, Brazil, areas of Mexico, and Southern US are not lit because of the areas of forest, desert and less population. Very nice picture. -Michelle Carvajal-
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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 8 major English dialect areas in North America, presented on the map. These are shown in blue, each with its number, on the map and in the Dialect Description Chart below, and are also outlined with blue lines on the map. The many subdialects are shown in red on the map and in the chart, and are outlined with red lines on the map. All of these are listed in the margins of the map as well.
Seth Dixon's insight:
This map is incredibly busy, but the best elements of this interactive map are the links to YouTube videos of particular accents and pronunciation examples. It's not winning any cartographic prizes but the links make the map it worth perusing given its rich detail. See also this article about the map from GeoCurrents. Tags: language, North America. 
Susan Lindell Radke's comment,
May 16, 4:26 PM
Looks like the YouTube links don't work. YT account terminated?
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Europe’s divisions are indeed grave. But counting the ex-communist countries as a single category is outdated and damaging
Seth Dixon's insight:
What places belong in a region together? What are the boundaries of that region? How has this region changed over time? Regional classification is inherently an exercise that relies on our geographic knowledge and requires some spatial thinking. Each semester I have students divide the United States into the regions that explain how they conceptualize the different parts of the country. This 2 minute video is a great example that argues that the regional category of Eastern Europe is less meaningful today mainly because of the changing political and economic geography that is blurring the regional borders of Europe. 
Flaviu Feşnic's curator insight,
March 4, 12:29 PM
the term 'ex/communist' is obsolete .like we could say "ex Nazi Germany" !23 yrs have passed though ! scrap it ! http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=870068
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Seth Dixon's insight:
50% yes, 50% no. The raw statistics would tell you that the country is perfectly divided on this question of whether or not the University of Alabama has the greatest college football program of all time. Not surprising to geographers, in evenly split polls, elections, or other data results, there are oftentimes strong regional factors that influence variation in the data (in this case, local allegiances, media bias and general sport fanaticism). Questions to Ponder: Alabama's voting pattern is obvious, what explains for some of the other poll results from particular states? Why is there a general East/West divide on this question? What are the regional factors that influence the voting patterns? Would the result be different on 6 months from now? Tags: sport, statistics, mapping, regions. 
Mike Busarello's curator insight,
January 8, 10:10 PM
50% yes, 50% no. The raw statistics would tell you that the country is perfectly divided on this question of whether or not the University of Alabama has the greatest college football program of all time. Not surprising to geographers, in evenly split polls, elections, or other data results, there are oftentimes strong regional factors that influence variation in the data (in this case, local allegiances, media bias and general sport fanaticism).
Questions to Ponder: Alabama's voting pattern is obvious, what explains for some of the other poll results from particular states? Why is there a general East/West divide on this question? What are the regional factors that influence the voting patterns? Would the result be different on 6 months from now?
Tags: sport, statistics, mapping, regions. Delete the scoop?
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Seth Dixon's insight:
This map might appear to be completely trivial and it probably is. Still, there are interesting historical and colonial patterns that can be seen in this technological culture region map. Questions to Ponder: Will there one day be a single format? When? What are barrier to that happening? What does this tell us about the extent of globalization? Delete the scoop?
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Finding Materials: This site is designed for geography students and teachers to find interesting, current supplemental materials. To search for place-specific posts, browse this interactive map. To search for thematic posts, see http://geographyeducation.org/thematic/ (organized by the APHG curriculum). Also you can search for a keyword by clicking on the filter tab above. Staying Connected: You can receive post updates in the way that best fits how you use social media. Update Notifications: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+. Email: Click 'follow' button at top right of this page. Delete the scoop?
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I'm pleased to announce that for GIS Day, I created a map that has hyperlinks to regionally specific posts that I put on 'Geography Education.' This map was created using ArcGIS Online (here's a free tutorial on how to to use ArcGIS Online tailored for K-12 educators). This is just another way to search for materials on this site. Feel free to embed this map on your webpage or share the link. I'll add more tags in the future as well (just click on the icon to get a pop-up, then click on the image to see the posts). Happy GIS Day! 
Jamie Strickland's comment,
November 16, 2012 9:15 AM
How cool is this!! This will make it even easier to teach my World Regional and Global Connections courses! Thanks, Seth.
Matt Mallinson's comment,
November 19, 2012 11:40 AM
Overall I think this is a good map. There are a few countries that I think could have better abbreviations, North Korea for example is labeled "N" and South Korea is labeled "SK". I went and looked for an "NK" label and there wasn't one. The map is flawed in that way because of the shortage of tools the program gives you to use. The shortage of tools also leads to many places with the same globe image or same lettering as other places. I think you did a good job with what you had available to use.
Charles Matley's comment,
November 19, 2012 11:46 AM
This map is great. I The use of the national geographic map makes it more manageable and appealing to the eye. The categorization of posts into geographic locations is very clever. It could potentially be viewed as more "fun" because it is interactive.
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Roads? Religion? Accent? Food? Which factor dictates where the North ends? This is a great intellectual expercise to help student think about regions and how we define them. The article can help also inform some of their thinking since one of the main problems for students in drawing regional boundaries is a lack of place-based knowledge. Delete the scoop?
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AIDS is a global issue, but clearly this impacts Sub-Saharan Africa far more than any other region. Tags: Africa, medical, infographic, development. Delete the scoop?
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Geographer Andy Baker provides an excellent spatial analysis of the key voting patterns that will shape the 2012 presidential election in the United States.
Tags: political, statistics, spatial, regions, USA. 
Jesse Gauthier's comment,
October 14, 2012 3:24 PM
This video was very helpful for me because the speaker clearly gave visual examples of the many topics that can steer certain voters in the U.S. to vote a certain way, during election time. It helped me better interpret political data, since I am a visual learner.
Frank Fenn's comment,
March 2, 2:09 AM
I used this during the Political Unit. I find that 9th graders know nothing about politics beyond what concerns them at the moment. Stretching their brain back to when they were 7 helps build the political foundations of the future!
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“It should have been a good year for the Republicans,” said Beckwith. “You have an incumbent president who is not doing well. The economy is bad. But Romney’s own mistakes have undermined his claim that he understands the voters …"
DB: In this election both presidential candidates are attempting to appeal to the heritage, identity and community of the “American” people, leaning strongly towards middle and working class citizens who been hit hard the past decade by the countries economic downturn. States, especial during national elections can become highly symbolic of certain issues prevalent within America society. For example in the state of Ohio, the decline of manifesting jobs has become quite symbolic of the plight that is happening to hard working-class citizens across the country, particular the struggle of the American auto-industry. Ohio in many ways has become the electoral jewel of the Midwest serving as the political battleground in which both Democrats and Republicans alike are fighting for at all levels of government. The main reason why spectators believe that Ohio is gradually swinging towards Obama is Romney’s failure to connect with them. Despite all his campaign contributions a growing number of voters believe Romney does not share their identity or interest making him an outsider as they increasingly gravitate towards Obama. Furthermore, Romney seems unable to shed his identity as a wealthy businessman or "1%"er who represents corporate America. During different times in history states take on certain identities that may symbolize the agenda of specific groups within American society. The 2012 election has become highly symbolic of the economic uncertainty of the times we live in and the political competition between how it should be resolved. So, what impact do you think Ohio will have on the upcoming election in November?
How can things like heritage, identity and community effect what a state or any other territory around the globe symbolize? Is the symbolism embedded in these areas continuous throughout history, inconstantly reinterpreted by different groups or both? Delete the scoop?
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Earlier I have posted the classic image of "Earth Lights at Night," and discussed the classroom uses of the image. This cartogram helps take that analysis one step further. This cartogram helps students to visualize the magnitude of population (with the cartogram adjusting area for population) and then to see the patterns of energy use, global consumption and urbanization with in a new light. Tags: remote sensing, worldwide, consumption, poverty, population, spatial, political, regions.
Matt Mallinson's comment,
October 1, 2012 11:29 AM
This map is obviously not the actual size of countries, but it is in a way. The populations of China and India are so great compared to the rest of the world and this map shows that.
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Nick Flanagan's curator insight,
December 12, 2012 8:28 PM
I like how this map shows regionaly were most fans of a certain team are. However one thing it fails to take into account are fans of a certain team that live in another region. Like I live in Rhode Isalnd so based on the map i would be a Patriots fan, however I am 49ers fan, and I know i am not the only fan of a team not living in that teams region. 
Heather Ramsey's curator insight,
January 25, 7:49 PM
An excellent visual representation of functional regions. 
Sam Capron's curator insight,
February 7, 5:59 PM
In a sense it splits the country into differing regions. While some hold true to the same boarders as in Geography books, they go beyond that and tell a different story. Highly contentious areas on the map are shown such as the fan divide between the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers. This map also shows blurring of fan bases outside of the area for which the team is centered. For example the Cowboys influence bleeds out of Texas and shares New Mexico with the Arizona Cardinals. Delete the scoop?
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