When teaching geography to students in the primary grades, teachers should provide firsthand experiences that young children need to make meaningful sense of their world. David Sobel, author of "Mapmaking with Children: Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years," suggests that teachers in the early grades adopt a small-world approach to…

Programs in geographic information systems (GIS) and related areas (e.g., GPS, remote sensing) have become important additions to the curriculum at colleges and universities of all sizes and types, including tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) such as Haskell Indian Nations University. This article discusses the recent development of a GIS…

Films are often used in schools to illustrate geography, but doing so may favor mainly passive learning. An experiment with twenty-eight pupils aged thirteen years (a whole class) had the aim of using cinema to promote active geographical learning. First, it was ascertained what the dominant geographical stereotypes were among the pupils and the…

This paper is concerned with bringing together and drawing out some diverse strands of thought and action that are striving--from within a broadly green anti-capitalist agenda--to produce a rural space that is different from and a challenge to the mainstream trajectories that the production of the rural is taking in the global North. First, I…

Discusses the commonly held misconceptions that north is up and south is down. Offers suggestions for ways teachers can reinforce correct directional concepts. (JMB)

In last month's column, the authors examined the different kinds of maps that exist in everyday life. In this month's column, they experience, through simulation, the skills that are required of a cartographer. A cartographer is a person who practices the art of making maps. Cartographers' maps were often unique, visual representations of data.…

This paper illustrates how sports can be used to teach geographic concepts, using illustrative examples from the Kansas City area. Given the global popularity of sport and its impacts and links to environment, economy, and culture, it is surprising that more attention has not been paid to sport as a vehicle for the conceptualization and teaching…

Learning science includes learning to argue with "inscriptions": images used to symbolize information persuasively. This study examined sixth-graders learning to invest inscriptions with representational status, in a geographic information system (GIS)-based science investigation. Learning to reason with inscriptions was studied in emergent…

In teaching about Latin America and the Caribbean, bringing a human dimension to the study of the region is essential. Texts on the region can be dull and lifeless or even biased and skewed. Introducing students to the region by exploring prose, poetry, and picture books helps to illustrate the rich diversity found throughout Latin America and the…

A teaching strategy to achieve adequate understanding of topographic maps is presented. It is founded upon a group of integrated illustrations that take the learner from data gathering to the final map. The strategy is applicable from elementary through college. (NH)

A given discipline and the relationships contained within it are frequently portrayable in diagrammatic or schematic form. The model offered in this article may serve to convey ideas on organization and purpose in geography by showing basic elements and relationships. (Author)

Kites allow teachers to illustrate wind patterns by calling on past experience and by present demonstration. Features of the wind illustrated by kites--the effect of surface friction on wind speed, change of wind direction with elevation, gust and lull sequence, and atmospheric stability and turbulence type--are discussed. (SR)

This article examines the results of an online national survey of K-12 educators who attended a series of GIS training workshops conducted by the authors between 1998 and 2004. Data from the self-report survey (N = 186) suggest new information about potential changes in instruction and assessment patterns following GIS training. The survey…

The paper reviews the 18 National Geography Standards developed in 1994. The Standards are grouped under the organizers of: (1) The World in Spatial Terms; (2) Places and Regions; (3) Physical Systems; (4) Human Systems; (5) Environment and Society; and (6) The Uses of Geography. One hundred activities for the elementary classroom with each…

Distance estimates of locations in a camp setting were obtained from 9- and 10-year-olds and adults. Each subject estimated distance on two tasks: magnitude estimation and reconstruction. Data were analyzed for the effects of certain environmental features such as buildings, trees, and hills. (JMB)