Instructify

BY CHRISTOPHER PANNA

I often use stories and analogies to help my students understand what another place or another time would be like. This has the most impact when I can present facts to back up my story. If It Were My Home provides just that by generating statistical comparisons between two places.

The site was first created to show the scale of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill by superimposing the contaminated area over a location of your choice. If It Were My Home has since expanded to include a fabulous country comparison tool. Choose a country and you get, “If ___ were your home instead of the United States…” followed by social and economic comparisons based on data from the CIA World Factbook. By default it uses the United States, but you can compare any two countries. The page also includes a short description of the country and an Amazon-generated list of suggested books. Just glancing at the titles gives an idea of the country’s identity; for Russia it displayed books about Stalin, the Cold War, and the transition from communism. The comment section on each country’s page adds an interesting social element, but beware inappropriate posts.

For English or social studies teachers, this is a compelling way to show students the facts of life in other parts of the world. The country comparisons also offer opportunities for math classes working with fractions and proportions. And you can still check out the original page about the Gulf oil spill. If you and your students were so lucky, you’ll be thankful that it was not your home.

If It Were My Home

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BY CHRISTOPHER PANNA

As much as I love maps, they occasionally frustrate me. By their very nature –- distorting a spherical earth to appear on a two-dimensional surface -– maps can represent the world inaccurately and lead to misunderstandings. Consider the Greenland problem in the Mercator projection. When something looks larger or smaller, we easily jump to conclusions about its importance.

But why not use distortion as a teaching tool? Distorting the world in the right ways can give us new insights, and that’s exactly what the Our Changing World map from FedEx does. Choose a topic and watch the size of each country morph to reflect the data. Certain parts of the world will expand or shrink depending on the value of their exports or their number of computer users, for example. Clicking below the map will bring up more detail about how the topic is changing the world. You can even compare two maps side-by-side (click “explore” in the upper right).

You may be skeptical about a resource produced by a corporation, but this map is truly more informational than commercial. There are no advertisements other than a small FedEx logo and occasional mention of the company’s name in the explanations.

This map is a fantastic way to show data visually, but it also makes a great jumping-off point to discuss maps’ power to represent information and influence our perceptions. Students could even research a topic and create their own distorted maps, though it’s probably best for them to focus on one region of the world.

Our Changing World

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BY BILL FERRIS

Did you know that the Mariana Trench is deeper than Mt. Everest is tall? It is, and this infographic from Our Amazing Planet will take you from one to the other and several points in between.

The graphic contains lots if interesting information, such as the forms of life inhabiting various ocean depths, the heights of assorted landmarks around the globe, and the “death zone” — the height above sea level at which the atmosphere no longer contains enough oxygen to support human life.

This should be an interesting companion in a science or geography class. You could use it as a jumping-off point in discussions about different varieties of life and the conditions they live in, or a talk about the geographic features found around the globe. You might not want to print it out, though, as this thing would probably be almost as tall as Everst itself.

Infographic: Tallest Mountain to Deepest Ocean Trench

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BY CHRISTOPHER PANNA

How can 21^st century tools improve geography education? When a European geography association took on this challenge, the result was Geocube. Created by an international panel of educators with funding from the European Union, Geocube is an exceptionally well-designed resource for exploring “what geography is and what geographers do.”

Modeled on a Rubik’s Cube, the Geocube’s six sides each represent a geographical theme, which are then divided into subtopics on the individual squares. Clicking first on a side, then on a square, you’ll zoom to a description of the topic with accompanying pictures and videos. The rotating cube concept does a great job symbolizing the various “sides” of geography. As for Geocube’s fun factor, your students will love spinning the cube every which way and they’ll surely be engaged by the high-quality photos and videos.

For teachers, the site includes a downloadable PDF file of all 54 topics in the cube. There’s also an intriguing template for printing and folding a paper version of the cube. With this you could develop a dice game or even modify it to have students create their own cubes. After all, geography is about teaching them to take ownership of the world.

Geocube

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

The emergence of map mash-ups continues to provide opportunities for students to go places in the world without ever leaving the classroom. More and more developers are now using the Google Maps and Google Street framework for creating interesting sites for exploring the world’s geography and cultures. MapCrunch taps into the growing archive of Google Street Views, which are detailed on-the-ground snapshots of towns, cities and areas all over the globe.

MapCrunch allows you to randomly tour spots on the earth, or choose your tour by continent, and within seconds, you have zoomed right into something interesting. In the span of a few minutes, I had gone from looking over the shoulders of some scientists on a hike in Antarctica to looking down a rural stretch of highway in Japan to squinting through a fog-filled town center in Scotland.

The benefit of using the Google Map platform is that a user can stay a while in a spot, too, and use the navigation buttons to pull back and get a wider lens on the experience, or shift the view of the window to something else. MapCrunch also provides search nagivation by country or by continent. There is also a slideshow feature. And an interesting overlay on an image shows the latitude and longitude of the location that is being featured.

One word of warning: in the upper right corner of the MapCrunch site, there is a link for Streetviewfunny.com, which is another mash-up of images taken from around the world that is supposed to show funny or strange things taken from Google Street View images. I scanned through and did not find anything too objectionable, but a prepared teacher might want to consider this link when they bring students to MapCrunch.

MapCrunch

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BY AARON FOWLES

I live and teach in Memphis, Tennessee. The western border of our city is the Mississippi River. In the part of the city where I teach, a good number of the students can’t tell you where the Mississippi River is, on a map or otherwise. They’d only have to point west.

National Geographic has launched My Wonderful World to combat students’ lack of geographic knowledge. Ever since the Ms. South Carolina debacle, the need for geography education has become extremely apparent.

My Wonderful World provides students, teachers, and parents with abundant resources from National Geographic to study the world around us. I particularly liked the Geographic Literacy quiz, whence comes the startling statistics on the header of the Kids/Teens page.

As far as games go, my heart will always be with Sheppard Software, but My Wonderful World also has some good ones. This would be a good site for students who have some down time and want to explore a bit. Once the site matures and has more content, it looks like it could be a great resource.

My Wonderful World

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Google Maps Mania is a blog that highlights the different ways Google Maps and Google Earth mashups are trending, and the educational value that they have. What is a mashup you say? It’s when you take one geographical element and superimpose or put it side by side with another. For example, if you wanted to see how big the Great Wall of China would stretch if it has been started in Slovakia, there’s a map for that.

Many students’ conceptions of spatial relations when it comes to geography is sorely lacking — outside of what they know locally, it’s hard to conceptualize how big other parts of the planet are in comparison. This is where mashup maps really can open students’ eyes to the vastness of the world they live in. The comparison angle is just one way Google Maps are being used, however. Google Maps Mania is a treasure trove of different types of projects and ideas for schools to use cartography.

Google Maps Mania

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BY CHRISTOPHER PANNA

We’ve come a long way from the days of using a map to memorize the 50 states. With animation and narration, a map can show that geography doesn’t just sit there; it plays a role in shaping ideas and events. Try these animated maps to show the interplay between history and geography.

The Map as History: With a captivating British accent, the narrator sets the stage and the maps zoom around as pictures appear to illustrate events. The maps are about mostly modern European history, but they recently added series about the United States and Ancient Greece, and they’re working on more. The catch is that only a handful are available for free. However, the reasonable subscription rates would make it a good value for both your students and other teachers in your school.

Maps of War: Don’t be misled by the name; this site also has maps that illustrate the spread of religion and democracy from ancient times to the present. We’ve touched on Maps of War before, but it’s worth another look. This thematic design is great for showing a big picture view of history. And these maps are just as visually engaging, with colors and events appearing as the story advances.

Watching these animations will help your students see connections between places and events, as well as inspire them in some creative map making of their own. Give them a blank map and some tools -– as high-tech as an image editing program or as simple as a few colored pens -– and see what they produce.

The Map as History

Maps of War

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

As a geography buff, I get frustrated that many students I talk to don’t seem to have a great grasp of the countries of the world, or in some cases, all 50 states in our own country. Luckily we have free applications like Enigeo. Enigeo is a free download that lets you test your students’ geographical knowledge.

There are a good deal of options and customization in the program that can let you focus in on problem continents and areas. I especially like that you can include capitals and even flags as potential review question types. My only wish would be if you could select individual countries for a custom review (the gold coast of Africa and the “stans” under Russia are always my undoing). For a free application though, Enigeo gets the job done when it comes to working on geography skills for studying up for a test in the future, or if you’re like me, for personal interest.

Enigeo

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BY KEVIN HODGSON

10.10.10 is almost here. Are you ready? A project known as “One Day on Earth” seeks to document the ways in which people live and work and play on a single day when our calendar points to the 10th day of the 10th month of the 10th year in the millennium. Sure, it’s sort of odd but it’s a hook that opens up a possibility for creativity for students early in the school year.

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BY JASON DON FORSYTHE

Do your students need to study for that upcoming geography test? Perhaps the SATs are coming up? Well, flashcards are so 1994. It’s time to head over to Smart.fm. Smart.fm is a free learning and review system that is like your own personal study partner — a study partner that happens to have a super-slick multimedia review system in her backpack.

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BY DAVID BARGER

As Mark Twain famously remarked, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” In today’s world of war and unrest, it is not hard to see that we all could use a little less of these things in our lives. Given the current economic climate, though, overseas travel is probably not making the cut in most family budgets. Although our wallets might be getting smaller, the world is not. It’s as big and wonderful as it has always been.

So how do we get out there and enjoy it? The folks at the EarthWatch Institute have a good idea. They have created fellowships for students, teachers, conservation professionals, and corporate employees to participate in research expeditions worldwide.

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BY BILL FERRIS

Do you enjoy playing video games, learning geography, and helping those less fortunate, not necessarily in that order? The online game FreePoverty rewards your knowledge of geography by donating 10 cups of water to thirsty people around the world for every city or landmark you can correctly place on a world map.

Similar to FreeRice, FreePoverty lets you have fun and help others at the same time. (more…)

BY BILL FERRIS

As schools move away from rote memorization of facts, what happens to those kids who like to rattle off the state capitals or list all the presidents? They can put their knowledge of educational trivia to good use at Sporcle, a site filled with countless list-style quizzes that will exercise kids’ knowledge of…well, just about everything.

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BY BILL FERRIS

As further proof that my pop-culture awareness stopped sometime in the mid-90s, this month’s random roundup features Indiana Jones, apparently Instructify’s go-to reference to convey that a history or archaeology tool is exciting or adventurous in some capacity.

Of course, now that they’re making a fifth Indiana Jones movie, I don’t feel quite so dated.

National Geographic’s Explore a Pyramid: Archaeology with No Risk of Snakes or Nazis!
When I was a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist like Indiana Jones and I dreamed about being on Nickelodeon’s Legends of the Hidden Temple. Sadly, I’m not currently exploring foreign lands for ancient artifacts and getting chased by Nazis, nor did I ever get the chance to be a Blue Barracuda. But with National Geographic’s Explore a Pyramid, your students can have the opportunities that I never did, and learn while doing it!

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