Haak's APHG

If we haven't done these things already we are over a decade late!

Just sayin' -Lou

22 mapas que muestran las diferencias lingüisticas del inglés en Estados Unidos. Herramientas para la geografía lingúistica que visualizan las isoglosas

And of course, regional accent variants are often accompanied by a wide variety of lexical variants.

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.

I present this map (hi-res) without any context to my students and ask the question: is this statement true?  How can we ascertain the truthfulness of this claim?  What fact would we need to gather?  This exercise sharpens their critical thinking skills and harnesses the assorted bits of regional information that they already have, and helps them evaluate the statement.

The answers to these questions can be found here.

Tags: density, social media, East Asia, South Asia.

wow....lovely map.........

It's quite amazing!

Teaching about human trafficking and child slavery can be very disconcerting and uncomfortable.  How much of the details regarding these horrific situations is age-appropriate and suitable for the classroom?  The BBC is reporting on events with sensitive stories to both give a human face to the story, while protecting the identity of under-aged victims (to read about the production of this comic, read Drawing the News.)  I encourage you to use your own discretion, but I find this comicbook format an accessible, informative and tasteful way to teach about human trafficking in South Asia to minors.  It is a powerful way to teach about some hard (but important) aspects of globalization and economics. 

As geographer Shaunna Barnhart says concerning this comic, "It moves from trafficking to child labor to pressures for migration for wage labor and the resulting injustices that occur. There's differential access to education, gender inequality, land, jobs, and monetary resources that leads to inter- and intra-country trafficking of the vulnerable. In the search for improved quality of life, individuals become part of a global flow of indentured servitude which serves to exploit their vulnerabilities and exacerbate inequalities and injustice. Nepali children 'paid' in food and cell phones that play Hindi music in 'exchange' for work in textile factories - cell phones that are themselves a nexus of global resource chains and textiles which in turn enter a global market - colliding at the site of child labor which remains largely hidden and ignored by those in the Global North who may benefit from such labor."

Tags: Nepal, labor, industry, economic, poverty, globalization, India.

Where is Human Rights Watch? Human trafficing is a crime to humanity!!

I understand that my readers are not people that I need to convince the geo-literacy is an essential component for a 21st century education; but we are the people that need to convince principals, politicians, school administrators, teachers and parents that teaching geography is fundamental.  Consider this an accessible article to use to make the case for geography for someone who sees the educational value from a business perspective.

Tags: edtech, unit 1 GeoPrinciples, geo-inspiration, geography education, models, spatial.

While I find business quite boring, I do understand it's necessity. I think this illustrates very nicely the relevance of studying geography and how it relates to the "real" world. 

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.

Tags: USA, UK, borders, mapping, regions.

Choose a country and easily see how it's population has changed and is predicted to change.

Fantastic way to show population pyramids for different countries /regions of the world. 

I'm not an iPhone or iPad user, but this $1.99 app has received good reviews from within the APHG communities.  Please share in the comments section any feedback. 

I suggest you watch to see the spatial patterns emerge!

Very useful visual tool for exploring patterns of change

Exciting!!

To become truly fluent in a language, mastering idioms is often the last and greatest hurdle.  In this video is show way understanding idioms are so difficult because they are often stripped of their cultural context. 

For example, people smuggling contraband that knew their shipments were going to be searched would hide objects in large barrels of beans.  So, to reveal a secret is to 'spill the beans.'  Today, that cultural context is lost, but idioms can endure far beyond their cultural context. 

It's that time of year to really buckle down; several teachers have created PDFs versions of review guides for the May 17th AP Human Geography test.  James Nelsen, a veteran APHG teacher has produced a “grand review.”  This resource intentionally does not come with a key to force the students to delve deeper and search for the answers themselves.  Allison Hunt had her students create their own study guide for the APHG test focusing on the ‘big ideas.’  Best of luck and these and other resources are archived on my "thematic" tab on http://geographyeducation.org.

Looking forward to reading this. Seth Dixon's insight mentions the current practice of building walls that separates the haves from the have nots is telling. Is it possible to include natural resources in the whole wealth question? Is damming water a form of building a border wall?

This broadcast states how advances in cartography over time maps borders of territory that became public in europe since the 180's, before that places to travel to were only by memory.  After WWII orders were recognized and redrawn.  Maps and borders organizes land around us as fixed territories to control.  It allows territories control over their land and authority.  Less than 5 borders or fences shortly after WWII existed and now there are at least 50 ,75% which are within the last 70 years.  Physical walls being built slows human travel, borders wealthy from poor--US/Mexico has one of the largest gaps where US GDP is greater by 4 to 1 compared to Mexico (US$40,0000

Mexico $10,000 us dollars)  India/Bangladesh border also illustrates this.  They share the same Bengali languge, with 15 million Bangladeshis living and working in India.  This border is 4000 km long with 200,000 border agents employed.  The border fence is about 10 ft high doubled barbed with many gates and flood lights (no camerastation in space because of the flood lights).  Bangladesh cross into India to visit relatives living there, and work.  Bangladesh has poor standards of living and India has increased standards of living.  Bangladesh has over 160 million people , 1238 people per sq km (dense population) in the comparable size of US state of Iowa, is a low lying area with floods, (Ganges River empties into Bay of Bengal) and as sea levels rise one meter flooding occurs.

The future of borders between $$wealthy and poor and world trade capital movement ,investments of US in other countries and trade of other countries into the US, and the poor becomes a threat to the territories (states, countries) sine they cannot move around in the world.  Morre walls and fence borders are to com.  In the last 15 years walls and fences has increased between countries to protect resources and control their area and even used strategically to their own advantage for resource control, political control and military advantages while affecting the environment, economics and peoples way of life.

This is a must read book which has won Geography awards and very insightful.

Questions to ponder: How much do you agree with the author's assertion that geography explains the foreign affairs of the U.S.?  Is there any environmental determinism in this argument?  

There are so many facets to geography and the United States has certainly benefitted from all of them; from location to abundant natural resources to cultural histories. I think this is a good introduction to the topic.

This article is timely given the need for the ambassador of the Czech Republic to release a statement to explain that the Czech Republic & Chechnya are in fact different places.

I had an idea that this area of the world is complex in its linguistic, cultural & political make up. I must admit though I had no idea it was as complicated as it is. Absolutely fascinating!

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.

Tags: USA, UK, borders, mapping, regions.

The majority of the most religious metros are concentrated in the South or Utah.  This particular weekend, many of the rythmns of urban life in Utah cities are remarkably visible as the LDS church holds it's semi-annual General Conference.  On the opposite side of spectrum, 5 of the 10 least religious metros are in New England; the west coast is the other center of diminished religiosity (with a mini-center in Colorado). 

Questions to ponder: What cultural patterns help to partially explain the levels of religiosity in the United States?  What other factors explain the patterns of religiosity in your in your local area? 

Tags: USA, culture, religion, Christianity.