Cross-Quarter Days

REPOSTING:

Happy Ground Hog Day ..with an

"astronomy-geography" connection!!!

Did you know that Ground Hog Day

is a cross-quarter day?

For more information about astronomy and Cross-Quarter Days, see:

http://www.astronomy.ohiostate.edu/~pogge/Ast161/Unit2/time.html

A cross-quarter day is a day falling approximately halfway between a solstice and an equinox. These days originated as pagan holidays in Sweden, Norway, Finland, United Kingdom and Ireland, and survive in modern times as neopagan holidays.

The Cross-Quarter Days:
1 November

2 February
1 May )
1 August

From Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-quarter_day

"There are Christian and secular holidays that correspond roughly with each of these four, and some argue that historically they originated as adaptations of the pagan holidays, although the matter is not agreed upon. The corresponding holidays are:
St.Brigids Day (1 February), Groundhog Day (2 February), and Candlemas (2 or 15 February)
Walpurgis Night (30 Apr) and May Day (1 May)
Lammas (1 August)
Halloween (31 October), All Saints (1 November), and All Souls' Day (2 November)"

For more Cross-Quarter Day information see:

http://www.clarkfoundation.org/astro-utah/vondel/

Cross-Quarter Day lesson plan:

http://digitaliseducation.com/curricula/halloween-astronomy.rtf

"The World in a Candy Bar" lesson plan

REPOSTING>>>>>>>>>>>>> turn your students' Halloween chocolate treats into a world geography lesson...............

"The World in a Candy Bar" lesson plan!

This is another great lesson plan, used to show how "Geography Rules!"..even when determining the ingredients of a chocolate candy bar. This would be a great lesson during Geography Awareness Week: Mapping the Americas, because so many of the ingredients that make "good ole U.S.A. candy bars" come from so many other countries -- particularly from the Americas. (click on lesson plans to enlarge).

Another great "geography of chocolate" lesson plan from the Hawaii Geography Alliance:

http://www.hawaii.edu/hga/ASGI99/joy.html

For 09 Geography Awareness Week "Mapping Europe", explore the European chocolate connections:

http://www.cocoatree.org

http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/articles/chocolate_museums.htm

http://aphrodite-chocolates.co.uk/history_chocolate.htm#CHOCOLATE

SkyWatch Friday

I just got back from Washington, DC. after seeing the National Geographic Bee Finals May 18-21. While in D.C., I was able to take in a few of the sites, including visiting our Nation's Cathedral...Beautiful and humbling architecture..inside and out!!!! I could help but look skyward in the amazing place!!!

See other beautiful sky views @

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

SkyWatch Friday...pink blooms

See other amazing sky views @

http://skyley.blogspot.com/

This is an interesting photo. I have a little league baseball field located to the west of my house...and bright light from the night time games shines over the top of my house
into my backyard. The light illuminating these pink blooming crabapple trees was a very eerie scene.

This "sky view" is overlooking the many beautiful blooming peach orchards of Perry, Utah and westward to the

Great Salt Lake., Utah, USA.

GeoSpatial Revolution

A friend shared information about an huge geospatial geography project at Penn State University:
Geospatial Revolution Project ..The location of anything is becoming everything! http://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/index.html

The project is under developement..sign up for updates!!

Info about the project from thehttp://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/index.html website:
"We live in the Global Location Age. “Where am I?” is being replaced by, “Where am I in relation to everything else?”Penn State Public Broadcasting is developing the Geospatial Revolution Project, an integrated public media and outreach initiative about the world of digital mapping and how it is changing the way we think, behave, and interact.The project will feature a web-based serial release of eight video episodes—each telling an intriguing geospatial story. Overarching themes woven throughout the episodes will tie them together, and the episodes will culminate in a 60-minute documentary. The project also will include an outreach initiative in collaboration with our educational partners, a chaptered program DVD, and downloadable outreach materials."

Ge...MOOOO...graphy cartoon

Sharing another GE-MOOOO-GRAPHY cartoon!

Geography comic strip

sharing Another great geographic cartoon/comic strip...especially funny to those of us that live in and around BIG Mountains...hahhhahhha

Geographic Comic Strips

I have been collecting geographic comic strips for a LONG time to use as instructional starters & "attention getters" for students and teacher workshops. I used this cartoon when I taught the "World in a candy bar" activity (see lesson plan under "candy bar" tag), and to show global connections...even with a candy bar!!

(double click on comic strip to enlarge)

"Amazing facts for a Geography of the 21st Century. See www.geography.org.uk See www.pupilvision.com "

Sky Watch Friday

SKY WATCH FRIDAY:
See other fascinating sky views @
http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Ah, Spring in the Rockies!...Or at least along the Wastach Front portion of the Rocky Mountains!

Last weekend was lovely, sunny and warm (upper 60's)...the snow had melted so only the Mountain tops were snow covered. Then this week, Winter tried to return!! This picture was of the approaching storm front blowing in across the Salt Lake City toward the Wasatch Mts!! It has been raining, snowing, blowing, and COLD ever since. In fact, yesterday 4/16/09 the snow storm left 10-14" of snow in our surrounding area of Northern Utah County, Utah. The snow had a lot of moisture and most of it melted by last night.....Another storm is blowing in today. Needless to say, the Mountains are covered from top to bottom with snow again. Oh well, the extra "wet" snow will help fill our depleted water reserves!!!!!!!!

This picture just taken...mountains covered from top to bottom...again.

Bring on SPRING!!!!!!!!

3G on W3

3G on W3 (Great Globe Gallery on the WWW)

is a HUGE collection of globes & map projections! If you need a specific type of globe or map...this is the place to look!

http://www.staff.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/glob/3GonW3.html

Earth "hearts"

I really like GeoLounge: All things Geography blog.
http://geolounge.com/

A recent entry titled
9 Gigantic Hearts From Above
was pretty cool....showing
Earth "hearts"....


Warning!
http://damncoolpics.blogspot.com/2008/12/9-gigantic-hearts-from-above.html This particular log is a great link....but other content on the site is not appropriate for kids!!!!!!!!

Earth Hour 3/28/09 8:30 pm

TURN OUT YOUR LIGHTS AND SUPPORT EARTH HOUR 2009!
Turn out. Take action.
Be part of this historic event.March 28, 2009, 8:30 pm local time. The World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights for one hour – Earth Hour – to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions.

FOR ACTION TOOLKITS, TEACHER MATERIALS, AND OTHER INFORMATION SEE: http://www.earthhourus.org/main.php

Comparing Lakes by area size

You can just about find anything you would ever need to know at Wikipedia. I was searching for a site where I could find a list of lakes by area size, and Wikipedia poped up. This site lists all the world's major lakes and their locations in order of size, area, volume, country flag, picture/shape of the lakes and much more....great research site for student reports!
OTHER WORLD LAKE SITES:

International Lakes Environmental Committee:
http://www.ilec.or.jp/database/database.html

LakeNet (more categories of lakes: oldest, deepest, etc.)
http://www.worldlakes.org/lakeprofiles.asp

Take a quiz about the 10 largest lakes in the world:
http://www.ilike2learn.com/ilike2learn/lakemaps/Lakes.html

World's deepest lakes from the U.S. National Park Service:
http://www.nps.gov/archive/crla/brochures/deeplakes.htm

Geography Pronunciation Guide

Nauru: an island country in the west Pacific ocean

Pronunciation: nah-OO-roo

I found a website with a very useful geography tool...for students and teachers alike-- a Geography Pronunciation Guide! The website is very simple, but allows the user to identify the location of every country in the world AND to hear (an audio file provided) the correct pronunciation of each country as well!

http://www.brookscole.com/earthscience_d/templates/student_resources/0030339669_salter/geo2_pronunciation/geoGuide.html

A single link from the main simple website directs you to this easy to use Geography Pronunciation Guide, Country locator, and simple country facts site (Capital, population, area/size, currency, climate, & nationality):

http://www.brookscole.com/earthscience_d/templates/student_resources/0030339669_salter/geo2_pronunciation/geoApp2.html

I found another site that offers correct pronunciations of world countries and some other interesting topics as well:

http://inogolo.com/pronunciation_guides

(This site offers only the pronunciations.)

SkyWatch Friday

See other SkyWatch Friday views:
http://skyley.blogspot.com/

It was a dark and gloomy winter morning.....

I took this photo last week, the dark snow/rain clouds were rather foreboding..

Feb/09 Wasatch Mountain Range, near Mt. Timpanogos, northeastern Utah Valley, Utah, USA

Geography of "Rock 'n Roll"?

I found an odd, but interesting site linking geography to music...

http://www.jananddean-janberry.com/maps/maps.html

This website has a map of Southern California indicating locations of

all the places mentioned in songs by the singing duo

Jan & Dean as well as The Beach Boys...also places where the groups lived, worked, recorded songs..all California locales.

Interesting twist to teaching Southern California geography????

World Festivals

Pre-Lent holidays celebrated differently around the world: Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, Carnival....

This video was available for download today 2/24/09 on MSN.com...great segment from the History Channel about the geography & history of pre-Lent world celebrations.

How to dig a hole to the center of the earth

http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780064432184

Speaking of clay...I've had students build a cross-section model of the earth's inner layers in conjuction with the story: How To Dig A Hole To The Other Side Of The World, by Faith McNulty.
As you read this story to your students (assign students into teams of two) each team will model the different layers of the earth using clay as described in the story: core (small marble- sized ball) in a red clay, inner/outer mantle (surround the core with a different-colored layer of clay about 2" or more thick), and the crust (thin layer of blue-colored clay about 1/4" thick covering all of the mantle layer). When the story/models are completed, students (with a piece of string or a plastic knife) then cut the earth model in half. Each person then gets a "hemisphere" ....and students make little labels for each of the earth's layers (attach label to a toothpick or straight pin) and insert into the clay to identify the earth's inner layers. Great 3-dimensional geography/art projects for displays and take home.

I found a few more lesson plans (with lots of extensions) that relate to teaching about the inner layers of the earth. These lessons also use: "How To Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World."

http://www.usmint.gov/kids/teachers/lessonPlans/50sq/2005/0406-3.rtf
http://www.thesolutionsite.com/lesson/1206/watsonelB1.html

http://www.nku.edu/~enved/services.htm

Realistically, we could not dig to the other side of the earth....but if we could? The following fun websites below will show you where you would exit (antipode locations) ...if you could dig to the other side of the world!!!!!
http://www.freemaptools.com/tunnel-to-other-side-of-the-earth.htmhttp://www.antipodemap.com/

SkyWatch Friday

See what others are
seeing when looking skyward
at: http://skyley.blogspot.com/
Earlier this week, in the morning before work, I saw this almost fully round "sun dog" !! The day was clear and sunny but there was a hazy foggy area as I neared my work. The result was a fully round
sun dog (rainbow) from the sun peering through the haze.
This photo shows the sun dog, but the actual sun dog was
more colorful. I took this photo right outside the front door
of my work location, but feel lucky to have captured this much of the
sun dog. What a site!!! (The diagonal line in the photo is
an overhead electric line to the bldg.)