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?

Exploring the Gulf Coast Oil Spill with AGXOnline

Exploring the Gulf Coast Oil Spill with AGXOnline
Submitted by Chris Bunin, The Virginia Geographic Alliance

http://edcommunity.esri.com/arclessons/lesson.cfm?id=536

This tutorial provides a quick and easy introduction to ArcGIS Explorer Online (AGX). Using the Gulf Oil Spill as the presentation topic, students learn to build an AGXOnline project by adding a base layer, adding content to the map (layers, points, and hyperlinks), and by capturing and editing slides into a classroom presentation.

WWMKD?

For those of us who teach very large classes (my Intro Environmental Science course has about 650-700 students each year, and my Natural Hazards class is bursting at 150 students), it can be a constant challenge to think of each student as an individual. I think we can agree that everyone in academia is big on maintaining a mutually respectful environment in the classroom. But how this can be done effectively, if we know our students as a nameless, faceless mass?

Professors use a wide variety of tricks to get past this problem. I know of someone who teaches courses with hundreds of students (Intro Biology), and has the students make name-plates that stand on their desks at each lecture session. She then attempts to learn all of their names, and connect them to their faces…! At my age, I’m sorry, but I am way past being able to learn several hundred names and faces each term. That simply won’t work for me.

Instead, I try to focus on always being conscious of the HUMANITY of each individual student. I actively remind myself that “students are people, too.” Each of them has a mother and a father, and some of those moms and dads are pressuring their kids in not-always-healthy ways. Each of my students has a work schedule, health issues, family stresses, assignments for other courses, trouble sleeping, relationship problems – whatever it may be that takes their attention away from my course, or clouds their thinking from time to time.

It is probably MOST difficult to remember that “students are people” when you are answering the same stupid question for the 10^th time. Yes, I said “stupid question,” even though it’s not politically correct. In my opinion, contrary to popular belief, there ARE stupid questions in this world. For example, consider the following: I use i-clickers in my class (I’m not a complete fan of them; more on that in a future posting, perhaps), and one of my students once asked me, “Can I use my i-clicker at home?”

Let the full weight of that question sink in for a minute, and I think you will agree that it IS possible to ask a stupid question.

I answered that particular question with extreme patience; that is my practice. After all, what do I know about this student’s life…? Maybe he didn’t get any sleep last night because he works a graveyard shift. Or maybe he’s got a lot on his mind because he just got kicked out of his house, or his mom is dying of cancer. There are many reasons why people ask not-very-brilliant questions from time to time. I make sure that my answer doesn’t make my students feel that THEY are stupid, although I might gently hint that the question itself could have been better thought-out.

To help me remember the life pressures and humanity that lies behind each student’s classroom face, I carry around in my head a screening tool that I call WWMKD?, which stands for, “What Would My Kid Do?”. For those who don’t have kids, or those whose kids are still little, this will obviously be difficult to apply. But my oldest is now 21, so for the past five or more years she has been a pretty good analogue for my students. This does not mean that I treat my students like children, nor that I think of them as if they were my own kids (please, no!). It just reminds me that each one of them is an individual young person (for the most part), with the same types of pressures and concerns that my own children are facing.

So if my TAs and I take more than a week to hand back marked work, in my head I can hear my kid (and therefore my students) saying, “Mom, why hasn’t my prof posted our marks yet? I’m so worried about my grade – I won’t be able to sleep until I find out what I got on that paper.” I think about how I would feel, as a parent, to know that my kid is losing sleep over this, and I try to hustle our processing of the papers as much as possible.

If I am tempted to give a very weighty assignment at a time when I know students will have other course work due, I can hear my kid saying, “Mom, I can’t stay up any more to finish this assignment – I’m just too exhausted.” And I think about tweaking my scheduling just a bit.

If I am losing patience with answering yet another of those not-so-brilliant questions, I remember how complicated and daunting this institution looked to my own child when she first started as an undergraduate. I try to give them just a bit of leeway, since I know that they are still working at conquering the complexities of university life.

I don’t think this WWMKD approach harms my “bottom line” in terms of maintaining high academic and behavioral standards in my courses. Just as for my own kids, I never pass up an opportunity to remind my students that clearer thinking, better efforts, and higher-quality work is always desirable, and pretty much always possible no matter what pressures you are facing. But it helps me to remember that none of us is perfectly brilliant or brilliantly perfect all the time, and we all – even students – have burdens to carry.

Barbara Murck is a Geologist and Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at the University of Toronto, Mississauga as well as a Wiley author.

Investigating 3 Hazards of 2010

Investigating 3 Hazards of 2010:
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in Iceland, and the Haiti Earthquake
Submitted by Joseph Kerski

http://edcommunity.esri.com/arclessons/lesson.cfm?id=537

Investigating Three Hazards of 2010: The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill, Eyjafjallajokull Volcano, Iceland, and the Haiti Earthquake This 30-question lesson invites exploration of three 2010 hazards using GIS as the investigative tool. Each hazard uses progressively more robust GIS tools and invites deeper exploration. (1) What is the difference between natural hazards and human-caused hazards? What are three hazards that caused much devastation and destruction in 2010, and why? Which of the three were natural hazards, and which were human-caused? What are the “gray areas” between natural and human-caused hazards? (2) What are the geographic components of hazards? How can GIS help us understand the causes and impacts of hazards? (3) What were the chief causes, impacts, location, movement, and spatial pattern of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano in Iceland, and the earthquake in Haiti?

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

Disastrous Playlist (Redux)

Pursuant to my posting from last week concerning My Disastrous Playlist, I am posting the whole list of songs that I have put together for use during the breaks in my Natural Hazards class. I have added a couple of the suggestions provided by commentators, too – thanks!

James, I’m saving your suggestions for my Environmental Science playlist – stay tuned for that, or maybe you can post yours…? But I also like the idea of using songs to introduce specific lecture topics. How about this one for your insolation lecture: Why Does the Sun Shine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas) by They Might Be Giants, which I discovered while researching one of the other suggestions. I haven’t actually listened to it yet, but the lyrics start out:

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Yo ho, it’s hot, the sun is not
A place where we could live
But here on earth there’d be no life
Without the light it gives

Again my disclaimer for using the playlist – you need to actually LISTEN to all of these before you play any of them in your classroom. I have vetted them fairly thoroughly for overtly objectionable language, but everyone has different levels of tolerance. The range of musical styles represented here is very broad – everything from punk to alternative, hip-hop, reggae, inspirational, jazz, and traditional music. You have to decide what to play based on your own level of comfort and your students’ sensibilities.

But they’re all fun! So here’s my complete Disastrous Playlist – so far – along with the name of the album in parentheses; it’s in some kind of semi-alphabetical order, as per iTunes. By the way, so far Bob Dylan and Sufjan Stevens are tied for the most songs on the list:

1. Volcano by The Akkademiks (The Akkademiks….ROCK! And by the way, this is an entire album of geologically-themed songs. They have other-themed science albums, too, hence the band’s nerdy name.)
2. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) by The Arcade Fire (Funeral)
3. Los Angeles Is Burning by Bad Religion (The Empire Strikes First)
4. Volcano by Blues Machine (The Blues Tribute to Jimmy Buffett)
5. Shelter From The Storm by Bob Dylan (The Essential Bob Dylan – Disc 2)
6. Hurricane by Bob Dylan (The Essential Bob Dylan – Disc 2)
7. The Levee’s Gonna Break by Bob Dylan (Modern Times)
8. Black Diamond Bay by Bob Dylan (Bob Dylan: The Collection)
9. I Feel The Earth Move by Carole King (Tapestry)
10. 20 Year Flood by Chris Velan (Twitter, Buzz, Howl)
11. Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
12. London Calling by The Clash (London Calling)
13. Volcano by Count Basie & His Orchestra (The Classic Swing Collection)
14. Landslide by The Dixie Chicks (Home)
15. Riders on the Storm by The Doors (L.A. Woman)
16. Flood by Eleven Fingered Charlie (Owl Hollow Acoustic Sessions)
17. Landslide by Fleetwood Mac (The Very Best Of Fleetwood Mac)
18. The Lightning Storm by Flogging Molly (Float)
19. End Of The World by Great Big Sea (Rant And Roar)
20. Warning by Green Day International Superhits)
21. Storm by Gregory Isaacs (One Man Against the World: The Best of Gregory Issacs)
22. Volcano by Jamaican Steel Band (Steel Drums of the Caribbean, Vol. 2)
23. Fire And Rain by James Taylor (Sweet Baby James)
24. Flood by Jars of Clay (Jars of Clay)
25. Willow by Joan Armatrading (Love and Affection: Joan Armatrading Classics 1975-1983)
26. Electrical Storm by Joseph Arthur (Nuclear Daydream)
27. Down In the Flood by Mark Selby (Mark Otis Selby…And the Horse He Rode In On)
28. Red River Flood by Murray McLauchlan (Songs from the Street: The Best of Murray McLauchlan)
29. Volcanoes by Povi (Life In Volcanoes)
30. End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by R.E.M. (Document)
31. Riders On the Storm by Snoop Dogg featuring The Doors (Riders On the Storm – Fredwreck Remix)
32. Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step-Mother! by Sufjan Stevens (Illinoise – and yes, I know that’s not how it is spelled – you’ll have to talk to Sujan Stevens about it…)
33. Prairie Fire That Wanders About by Sufjan Stevens (Illinoise)
34. The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us by Sufjan Stevens (Illinoise)
35. The Avalanche by Sufjan Stevens (Illinoise – who would have guessed that Sufjan Stevens would have so many disaster-themed songs…?)
36. Galveston Flood by Tom Rush (Take a Little Walk With Me)
37. Wasn’t That a Might Storm by Tom Rush (New Year)
38. New Orleans Is Sinking by The Tragically Hip (Yer Favourites – Disc 1)
39. Electrical Storm (William Orbit Mix) by U2 (The Best of 1990-2000)
40. Volcano Girls by Veruca Salt (Eight Arms to Hold You)
41. Deluge by Wayne Shorter (Juju)

Barbara Murck is a Geologist and Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at the University of Toronto, Mississauga as well as a Wiley author.

Fieldwork Videos

Geographer Joseph Kerski is using YouTube to post videos from his fieldwork, workshops, and work with GIS technologies.  Videos range from wind farms, lava rocks in Idaho, red soils in Oklahoma, GeoCaching, and Geotechnologies in Education.

URL: http://www.youtube.com/geographyuberalles

How do you share photos and videos from your field work/travels?

My Disastrous Playlist

In my Geography course GGR378 Natural Disasters: Risk and Vulnerability, I have started using music to welcome students at the beginning of the class, and during the lecture breaks (it is a two-hour class session with a 10- to 15-minute break).

A fair bit of research has been done on the use of music in the classroom. Most of the published research is in educational/pedagogical and psychological journals. Much of it focuses on children, adolescents, and special-needs learners (see, for example, Hallam and Price, 1998). The adult-centered research tends to focus on the role of music in memory, skills acquisition, or test performance (see, for example, Furnham and Bradley, 1997). Another area of interest, for both children and adults, has been the use of music to create a setting that is conducive to learning, and to establish the mood of the classroom.

To that end, I started to keep my eye out for “disaster-themed” songs – earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides, tsunamis, storms, floods, fires, even pest infestations – to fit the themes of my course. I was surprised to discover how many disaster songs there are out there. I’ve been collecting them on a separate playlist on my iPod.

Some disaster songs are obvious right from the title: “New Orleans is Sinking” by The Tragically Hip, or “Los Angeles is Burning” by Bad Religion, for example. Some are obvious, but metaphorical: “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan, “I Feel the Earth Move” by Carole King, or “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac or the Dixie Chicks (I’ve got both versions on my playlist). Others are more subtle; can you find the disaster references in songs like “Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out)” by Arcade Fire, “Warning” by Green Day, or “Decatur (or, Round of Applause for Your Step-Mother)” by Sufjan Stevens?

You need to use a bit of caution and set ground rules for the language and even the type of music you want to permit in the classroom; these are adults, but it is an academic setting, after all. I also find that you either need to present a wide diversity of music or be prepared for students to be somewhat disdainful of your choices. If you are going to play the Spice Girls, for example, you should probably do it with a certain amount of irony, or students will find you hopelessly out of date. You can expect that students will come up with suggestions to add to your playlist, once you tell them what you are up to.

Does anyone have any disaster-themed songs I could add to my playlist?

References:

Hallam, S., and Price, J. (1998) Can the use of background music improve the behavior and academic performance of children with emotional and behavioral difficulties? British Journal of Special Education 25, 2:88-91.

Furnham, A., and Bradley, A., (1997) Music while you work: The differential distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts, Applied Cognitive Psychology, 11:445-455.

Barbara Murck is a Geologist and Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at the University of Toronto, Mississauga as well as a Wiley author.

Sandy Beach, Oahu, On Location with Chip Fletcher

Learn about the Geology of Sandy Beaches in Oahu with Wiley author and University of Hawaii Professor Chip Fletcher.

Running Time: 3:46

Video created by Sufiya Mohamed Ismail and Chip Fletcher.

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