More Geography Links

" Take students on a virtual whirlwind tour of the world this November with MyWonderfulWorld.org, a National Geographic-led campaign to give kids the power of global knowledge. During Geography Awareness Week (November 16-22), experience a range of geo-activities designed to engage kids in exploring their world while they become more informed global citizens. You can take a geo-tour of global hotspots on a virtual globe, including polar regions, coral reefs, and great cities. Explore earth's marine ecosystems as you pilot an underwater vehicle. Hear from young people living and working around the world. Give kids the power of global knowledge! Find out how you can help now at http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/gaw to see the world in new ways!

The page, linked closely to the Geography Action! page on NG.com, is designed to educate the public about what geography has to offer, providing tools and resources for students and their families to explore.

Geography-at-a-Glance

In support of Geography Awareness Week: Mapping the Americas,
check out the following fabulous http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ websites for teachers, kids, and parents:

• National Geographic EdNet teacher site: http://www.ngsednet.org/
• National Geographic education gateway site: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/
• National Geographic Bee school competition and registration information: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geographicbee
• The JASON Project Bring your students into the exciting world of scientific exploration and discovery, as a JASON Argonaut! A nonprofit subsidiary of the National Geographic Society, JASON connects young students with great explorers and great events to inspire and motivate them to learn science. Its core curriculum units are designed for 5th – 8th grade classrooms but are flexible enough to be adapted for higher or lower grades. http://www.jason.org/public/home.aspx
• National Geographic Student Expeditions Designed for high school students, these hands-on expeditions combine education and adventure with projects that allow students to focus on photography, writing, culture, or conservation. http://ngstudentexpeditions.com/
• Geography Action!Find out more about our annual K-12 geography education and awareness program—a five-year world curriculum tour starting in Africa. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geography-action/index.html
• My Wonderful World Campaign Help give kids the power of global knowledge. Parents and educators, take action. Find out more!
• National Geographic Channel http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/
• National Geographic Xpeditions Maps, lesson plans,Xpedition Hall http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/hall/
• National Geographic Live! Live events for students featuring National Geographic explorers, scientists, adventurers, and photographers.http://www.ngsednet.org/community/index.cfm?community_id=482
• Giant Traveling Maps Geography comes alive when a Giant Traveling Map visits your school, taking K-8 students on an unforgettable hands- and feet-on adventure! http://www.ngsednet.org/community/index.cfm?community_id=515
• Join Your State Geographic AllianceYour local geography alliance can help you get classroom materials, extend your skills with professional development opportunities, and meet fellow geography-minded educators in your community. http://ngsednet.org/community/about.cfm?community_id=94
• ePals Join the leading global online community of connected classrooms for safe collaborative learning and project-sharing. http://www.epals.com/
• In2Books ePal's research-based, curriculum-aligned e-mentoring program for 3rd-5th graders. Free to Title I schools for the 2008-09 academic year. http://in2books.epals.com/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fdefault.aspx
• All Roads Film project With 29 dynamic films and 4 captivating photography exhibits, collectively representing 20 cultures from 15 countries, the 5th anniversary of the All Roads Film Festival showcases a special selection of contemporary stories from indigenous and under-represented minority artists from across the globe.
• NatGeo Music http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/worldmusic/view/page.basic/home
• National Geographic Maps http://maps.nationalgeographic.com/maps
• NGS Literacy/School Publishing:http://ngsp.com/

(A few of the above website descriptions are direct quotes from NGS links)

MyWonderfulWorld.org

To all Teachers: Did you know that of all the subjects called out in the
No Child Left Behind mandates--GEOGRAPHY RECEIVES ABSOLUTELY
ZERO FUNDING??? TRUE. National Geographic is part of a huge business coalition leading the charge to change the Federal funding status of Geography dictated by NCLB!! They have created an on-line campaign to raise 100,000 "signatures" (online registrations) in support of the coalition campaign's to include funding and requirements for teaching Geography in America!
Go to MyWonderfulWorld.org today and register your "voice/signature"....and indicate that you too believe Geography Education is not only important....but vital to the future of our country and our world. If you wish, there is also a link on the website, where you may send a ready-made email message/letter to all of your state's legislative Representatives (county and national) indicating your concern for proper funding of NCLB's geography requirements....easy! Join the MyWonderfulWorld.org coalition! Register your "voice" to improve funding for Geography at the MyWonderfulWorld.org site today!!

Geography Awareness Week: Mapping the America's

CELEBRATE GEOGRAPHY AWARENESS WEEK:
NOVEMBER 16-22, 2008!!
"For more than a century, the National Geographic Society has fostered awareness of the world’s diverse cultures and environments. The tradition continues with Geography Action! , an annual awareness program that helps educators promote geographic fluency in schools and communities across the United States and Canada."


Geography Action! Mapping the Americas
"Join schools from across the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico in planning celebrations during Geography Awareness Week, November 16-22, and throughout the school year. Download a free Geography Action! Mapping the Americas Toolkit filled with activities, maps, and tips for planning highly interactive, festive events for students, families, and communities to enjoy.
Find more ways to celebrate online and in your community at the Geography Awareness Week website. "

Make a "BIG MAP" for Geography Awareness Week

Make a BIG MAP for Geography Awareness Week: Mapping the Americas Nov 16-22, 2008!!!
The map shown here is composed of enlarged "map tiles". Students are given several tiles, which they need to correctly tape together, color, & add geography features as directed by the teacher. Each student then matchees their set of connected tiles to another child's set of tiles...ultimately forming a 12' x 20' map of the Americas!!
The tiles (177+key!) are FREE and can be downloaded from the National Geographic GeoAction! website toolkit: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geography-action/index.html

You can download just the tiles you wish (if you only want a map of North America), and use them for any geographic topic...all ages of kids and adults love this activity! Ideas for how to use this map are available at the above website as well. This group of teachers put the North America section together (without coloring) in about 20 minutes. It will obviously take more time for kids to do this so plan accordingly, and you'll need to schedule a large room or gym, and have lots of scotch tape available!

Enjoying Mapping the Americas in a BIG WAY during Geography Awareness Week, Nov. 16-22, 2008!!

Utah Atlas

FINALLY! A fabulous student-friendly, State Curriculum CORE aligned, low-cost, atlas of Utah is now available!! The Utah Atlas was developed by Cliff B. Craig , Ph.d. & M. Elijah Carr, M.S. (Geography Department, Utah State University), and is published by: Gibbs-Smith
This Atlas is particulary perfect for teaching Utah Studies subjects taught in 3rd, 4th & 7th grades where traditional world atlases do not contain enough Utah specific Geography/History maps.

"This full-color atlas boasts 32 pages of maps, including:

• political
• topographical
• climate
• population
• historic"

For ordering information:
www.gibbs-smith.com/education
education@gibbs.smith.com
1-800-748-5439
Price: $6.95 (with discounts for orders over 25 copies!)
ISBN:

"Statetris" geography game

Sharing a fun link to a geography "tetris-type" game that recently caught my attention! This would be something your kids could do in your computer labs to "engrain in their brains" locations of states/countries, etc:
http://www.mapmsg.com/games/statetris/

GREAT GAME & LEARNING TOOL!!!!
(The directions to run the game....to use the cursor keys.... is scrolling
Slowly on the page where you choose the level of difficulty...kind of deceiving when you are trying to find the instructions.)

GREAT Pumpkin!!!!

REPOSTING..perfect way to use those pumpkins...carve them into world GLOBES!!!

It's that time of the year when pumpkins of all shapes and SIZES are plentiful. Instead of carving your pumpkins into ghouls and scary creatures for Halloween...think GLOBALLY...and turn your pumpkins into World globes! Challenge your students--have a contest--to see who can make the most accurate "pumpkin globe"!

Pumpkins arounnd the world:

http://www.pumpkinnook.com//commune/world.htm

To see a "Pumpkin Globe" lesson plans:

http://fga.freac.fsu.edu/resources/1994/pumpkin.htm

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/SSHalloweenContinentsAndOceansOnPumpkinGlobe3.htm

http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/689.html/

RARE SPACE SHUTTLE PHOTO

A good friend of mine, while taking a tour bus to Cape Canaveral took this amazing photo. In her words:

"While we were in Florida, we planned on visiting the Kennedy Space Center and Sea World. We were going to visit Sea World on Thursday and the Space Center on Saturday, but the weather got blustery and rainy so we switched plans. We figured we needed better weather for Sea World. So Thursday, October 23, we drove to Cape Canaveral. We took the bus tour that takes people out to the observation gantry from where you can see the two main launch pads. RIGHT THERE, STOPPED, WAS THE CRAWLER WITH THE SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR! The tour guides were all abuzz; they had never been that close either. One guide said they usually closed the gantry when they took the shuttle to a launch pad. I don't know why they didn't or why it was stopped along the way, but it was SO COOL! "

She was right!!! This was cool and I'm glad she shared the photo...!!

Thanks, Captain!!

National Anthems of the Americas

I was looking for sites with music from the Americas that would help support teachers/schools sponsoring Geography Awareness Week: Mapping the Americas.

I discovered a couple of sites with National Anthems of the Americas:

http://www.national-anthems.net/info/info.htms

This site shows each country's national anthem, population, map, compares country area in sq miles, flag, and other interesting information.

http://www.nationalanthems.info/ar.htm

This site shows most of the world's country national anthems as music files, lyrics (English and Spanish) and sheet music for each anthem.

Maybe the above siteS could help kids with reports or presentations as you and your students "Map the Americas!"

Enjoy!!

"Newspaper In Education" geography resource

Howdy All UTAH geography friends...

The Newspaper In Education (NIE) dept. of the Deseret News, will be producing 3 section/editions related to geography. You can order classroom sets of the the Connect 1-2-3 edition (Mapping the Americas) and two C'3 sections from Deseret News....they are FREE!!
****Order FREE sets for your school The Connect 1-2-3 edition (that will include the Mapping the Americas materials), by Oct 30.
****Order the two (Tuesday delivery) Free sets of the C3's geography related editions (for November 11 & 18) by November 4.
To order free NIE materials online go to:
1) http://www.deseretnews.com/home > education> NIE site > order online .
2) scroll toward the bottom of the page and find: Order Connect 1-2-3, newspapers for Tuesday delivery > c;ick add to shopping cart > type in amount of newspapers needed.
3) return to Order online page. Scroll back down to and find: Order educational sections, papers for Tuesday delivery > click add to shopping cart > type in amount of newspapers needed.
4) supply school/delivery information and submit.

ALL the geography editions will be delivered to your school free! This is a great free resource for UTAH teachers ...hopefully you can use in your classrooms! Enjoy...just sharing the info...

Geography Quiz sites

I found a couple of sites with collections of ready-made physical geography quizzes and games that might come in handy for student practice or homework help:

http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/geography/physicalgeography.html

http://www.funtrivia.com/quizzes/geography/physicalgeography/bodiesofwater.html

Great Geography Lesson Plans Collection

Check out GENI'S (Geography Educators' Network of Indiana) webpage for their collection of many, FABULOUS, geography lessons!

http://www.iupui.edu/~geni/

I just learned about a great geography site to help Geography/U.S. History teachers! It is a site from the National Park Service National Register of Historic Places. In addition to the many, many historic places to explore listed (with great maps, photographs, etc.), the newest online travel itinerary is "American Presidents" with a great interactive map of the U.S. Since this is election time, it is a great time to explore past presidents' homes and historically related sites.
Website: http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/

I'm sharing this information from GAW/Dolores of Oklahoma...Thanks!!

Geography lesson in a Drift Bottle

"The Voyage of Daisy's Bottle" is a great story by Paul Harvey from DESTINY...And a great geography lesson!!

Discover the voyage of a drift bottle from England to U.S.A. as you follow geography clues from the story and marking the journey on an World Ocean Currents map. (double click on images to enlarge)

Pizza Hut's Book IT! GeoReader list

I have been going through files and have found some really great resources from bygone years. Years ago, Pizza Hut's "Book It!" reading incentive program, produced a list of recommended geography literature. The program was called The GeoReader & GeoReader II, and it was author by James Goodman, Dept of Geography@ University of Oklahoma. List of books are suggested from each continent and have suggested activities for each title of book! I scanned the pages of suggested books for Canada, U.S.A. & Latin America for use with the GAW theme of Mapping the Americas.The book titles and activities are based on The Five Themes of Geography. The scanned pages are attached. (Double click on pages below to enlarge.)

"The World on a String: an activity"

I dusted off an old, but classic geography lesson that has been oh so useful for me in the classroom and for geography workshops lessons over the years. It is called "The World on a String: An Activity" and it is a very hands-on activity demonstrating the interconnectedness of countries.(Click on lesson to enlarge)
Sharing also two similar activities at the following links:
www.iupui.edu/~geni (click on "lesson plans" and scroll to the bottom)
(Thank you, Hilary Steinhardt, GENI Director, Indianna!)

http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Social_Studies/Geography/GGR0041.html

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Telescopes

Sharing a couple of interesting "lists" from Discovery Magazine:
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Telescopes


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Map sites for Geography Awareness Week: "Mapping the Americas:

I'm collecting a list of useful map websites that would help support Geography Awareness Week: "Mapping the Americas"activities:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/
One of the best sites for maps & lesson plans for national geography standards!!
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/map/atlas
On-line atlas from NGS!!!
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/americas.html
America's map collection @ University of Texas...
http://www.worldatlas.com/
User friendly maps...
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/g-south_america.html
Animals of the Americas...
http://library.thinkquest.org/11353/e-animals.htm
Endangered continental animals...

MORE POSTS TO BE ADDED.....

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Galileo

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Galileo

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