Earthquakes and Plate Boundaries Virtual Tour

The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program offers up to the minute updates on the earthquakes around the globe.  This data has been used to create a real-time Google Earth(tm) tour of earthquakes that occurred in the past 7 days.  The tour includes layers to show plate boundaries such as continental convergent, continental rift boundary, continental transform fault, oceanic convergent boundary, oceanic spreading rift, oceanic transform fault, and subduction zones.

To download and take the tour go to http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ and click on the ”Google Earth KML” link.

MapRoom Demo

Click the link below to view a demo of the MapRoom tool that accompanies ”Visualizing Human Geography” by Alyson Greiner.

MapRoom Demo

Arbogast WileyPLUS Demo

Click the link below to view a demo of the WileyPLUS course that accompanies ”Discovering Physical Geography” by Alan Arbogast.

Arbogast WileyPLUS Demo

Fletcher WileyPLUS Demo

 Click the link below to view a demo of the WileyPLUS course that accompanies ”Physical Geology: The Science of Earth” by Charles Fletcher.

 Fletcher WileyPLUS Demo

Atlas of our Changing Environment

Description: The United Nations Environment Programme uses Google Maps to create an electronic atlas that offers satellite imagery, ground photographs, and commentary on the state of the environment from human and physical geography perspectives.

Link: http://na.unep.net/atlas/google.php

Strange Maps

Description: Frank Jacobs blog, Strange Maps, takes a look at maps – real and fictional – and how they reveal a viewpoint of the world that is often witty and intriguing.

Link: http://bigthink.com/blogs/strange-maps

MapQuiz for the iPhone

The Wiley Geo Team is has been having fun challenging colleagues and friends to test their Geography expertise with their new MapQuiz app for the iPhone. Available for download in the iTunes Store, anyone can test their mental maps of the world with this fun quiz game!

To learn more about the app please click here.

Download MapQuiz today: http://www.itunes.com/app/MapQuiz
Friend us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mapquiz

What’s in a Map? The Agnostic Cartographer.

What goes into making a map?  And who gets to decide what is on the map?  Writer John Gravois explores those questions in relation to Google’s mapping services – Google Earth ™ and Google Maps ™.  For Geographers the making, manipulation, and interpretation of maps is not a new discussion.  But does the popularity of Google mapping services change the discussion?  And as students are prone to thinking that a map is the unalterable truth of reality, how do Google’s maps help or hurt trying to teach that the cartographer’s choices of map projection, simplification, map scale, data aggregation, and map type change our perceptions of what we see in the map?  What do you think?  What are your experiences using Google’s maps in lectures or for assignments?

Article Information
Source: Washington Monthly
Date last accessed: 9/02/10
Link: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2010/1007.gravois.html

Below are two maps that are part of the Google Tools for Geographers that were highlighted at this year’s AAG meeting in Washington, DC. http://earth.google/com/outreach/aag.html

View Larger Map

Mapping Your State and Community

A lesson, by Joseph Kerski, entitled “Mapping Your State and Community” is on PUMAS–The Practical Uses of Math and Science – The Online Journal of Math and Science, at NASA. This is a collection of examples (“lessons” or “activities”) showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes can be used in interesting settings, including everyday life.

The lesson:
https://pumas.gsfc.nasa.gov/examples/index.php?id=118

Others lessons in the listing:
https://pumas.gsfc.nasa.gov/examples/index.php

“The examples are written primarily by scientists, engineers, and other content experts having practical experience with the material. They are aimed mainly at classroom teachers, and are available to all interested parties via the PUMAS web site.

Our goal is to capture, for the benefit of pre-college education, the flavor of the vast experience that working scientists have with interesting and practical uses of math and science.” The fact that this GIS lesson is on the site may help you in your ongoing work with your math and science educator colleagues.

Joseph Kerski is a Geographer and Education Industry Curriculum Development Manager at the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI).

Geography through Art, Part 1

For the student of Geography music and movies are often times the most economical and efficient way to see examples of the concepts, places, regions, and environments they are studying.  Recent posts have looked at music playlists for Natural Disasters and we wanted to know what other Geography topics lend themselves to using music or movies to teach the content. 

We asked Carolyn Coulter of Atlantic Cape CC how she would go about using music and movies to help teach the concept and theories of Geographies of Development to students and she shared with us some suggestions: 

Movie Illustration
Movie: Slumdog Millionaire  
Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Running Time: 121 minutes
Main Characters: Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), Salim Malik (Madhur Mittal), Latika (Freida Pinto)

Movie Summary
Jamal Malik spent his entire childhood living and working throughout the slums of India. As a young adult he suddenly finds himself a contestant on the wildly popular game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”. His impoverished life as an orphan on the streets of India is recalled through vignettes from his childhood and these memories parallel the questions that are asked of him on the game show. This film is a testament to the abject poverty that is experienced by hundreds of thousands of Jamal Malik’s all over the world.

Scene Descriptions
[Scene 1] Salim and Jamal are operating a business in which they charge money to patrons to use an outhouse that deposits directly into marshland. A movie celebrity flies into the area via helicopter while Jamal is using the outhouse that is intended for customers. His brother Salim seeks revenge on Jamal for lost wages due to Jamal using the outhouse by locking him in upon the arrival of the celebrity. Jamal only has one exit and he makes the decision to jump into the marshland that contains the deposits from the outhouse so that he can get an autograph from the celebrity.

[Scene 2] A bus full of young children are dropped off under a highway overpass and told “get to work” by Salim. Many of the children do not have shoes and it is unclear what exactly they will be doing for work. This is until Salim happens upon a baby and gives the baby to Latika and remarks “babies earn double”. The children scatter and spend the day on the streets of Mumbai begging for money. This is especially apparent when a young girl pantomime’s feeding herself in an attempt to get money from people in cars.

[Scene 3] Salim and Jamal are sitting atop a semi-constructed high building that overlooks the dharavi slums of Mumbai in which they grew up. The city looks much different now; Salim and Jamal are young adults now and the city itself has changed remarkably. Salim reflects and this as he points to the location that used to house the slums in which he and Jamal lived and worked as children.

Discussion Questions

1. How does the fact that Jamal and Salim work in an outhouse in Scene 1 indicate differing global levels of development?
2. What is happening in Scene 2 that might not happen in More Developed Countries? Why not?
3. How and why has Mumbai changed in terms of development in Scene 3?
4. How does Scene 3 make an argument for World-Systems Theory?

Song Illustration
Song Title: Why? (2:06)
Artist: Tracy Chapman
Album: Tracy Chapman
Label: Elektra/Wea

To view the lyrics click here.  Or you can go to iTunes to download the song.

Discussion Questions

1. What does the line “Why do the babies starve when there’s enough food to feed the world” indicate to you?
2. What might the singer mean when she says, “Why is a woman still not safe when she’s in her home”?

 

What movies or music would you add to this list?

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