Read the August 2010 Newsletter: "Inspire students to take action this year!"

INSIDE:
Editor's Pick: Special Guest Blogger Elisabeth Soep talks about her inspiring new book,
Drop That Knowledge: Youth Radio Stories.

August Challenge: Plan a service-learning project
GeoFeature: 4-H2O: National Youth Science Day
GeoNews: U.N. declares "International Year of Youth"
Blog: A Kid, a Campaign, Iceland

"...Young people can use media to learn about places close to home and far away. The connections they form seem to shrink the physical distance that separates citizens around the world, even as they can reveal disparate experiences and inequalities that young reporters examine through their media stories."










We've all heard the stories of major news organizations struggling in the digital age of new media. If there's a silver lining to the decline of the media behemoths, it's the emergence of more opportunities for diverse perspectives in reporting. For more than 15 years, Youth Radio has been helping under-served young people develop strong leadership, journalism, and media production skills. The National Geographic Education Foundation has supported Youth Radio's work fostering story-telling and civic engagement around local and global issues through grant contributions to the organization. Now, we are excited to join Youth Radio in celebrating the release of a new book about the success of their empowering, educational programs.

There's nothing like a newsroom to make the world feel big and small at the same time. Put young people in charge, and the effect can be even more extreme. At Youth Radio, a Peabody Award-winning, youth-driven production company headquartered in Oakland, California, young people produce stories distributed through global broadcast and digital outlets including National Public Radio, The Huffington Post, iTunes, and YouTube. At a single editorial meeting at Youth Radio, young people and their adult producers might pitch stories on the effects of budget cuts inside local Oakland schools, young soldiers returning from the Iraq war, healthcare reform in a rural Kentucky town, and the transnational Korean musical genre known as K-POP. Inside these freewheeling discussions are recurring teachable moments through which young people can use media to learn about places close to home and far away. The connections they form seem to shrink the physical distance that separates citizens around the world, even as they can reveal disparate experiences and inequalities that young reporters examine through their media stories.

In my new book, Drop That Knowledge: Youth Radio Stories, Vivian Chávez and I take readers behind the scenes at Youth Radio, inside meetings and stories like the ones I've just described. In each chapter, we present a series of Youth Radio media features, detail the negotiations and inquiries that supported their production, and then highlight implications for learning, teaching, journalism, and media justice efforts.

The virtues enshrined in the Boy Scout Law--trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent--date back more than a century to founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell's original manual, Scouting for Boys.
 

Fine attributes, to be sure, but they beg one important question: Where's the geo??? To scout about, after all, a boy scout needs to know how to read or make a map, what's where, and how to get there.

So National Geographic Education pitched its tents, two big ones ... 


 

... at the National Centennial Boy Scout Jamboree near Fredericksburg, Virginia a few weeks ago and invited the assembled teens to view the world through our lens. More than 20,000 stopped by and did just that.

In case you aren't a boy or a scout or otherwise couldn't make it, here are a few highlights of what we shared:

IT DOESN'T JUST GROW ON TREES

 Well, some of what we eat does, but most of us rarely see our food get grown or raised. Often, we don't even know where it comes from. We gave scouts photos of familiar fruits, veggies, nuts, and meats and asked them to find the countries that export them most on a giant map of the world.
 

THE PLANET THROUGH ANIMAL EYES

Animals may share the Earth with us, but their worldview's entirely different. That's why National Geographic's remote imaging team developed Crittercam...



... a suite of high-tech, industrial-strength cameras that strap or stick to animals, then pop off for retrieval and a bona fide creature's-eye look at the landscape. Here, intrepid intern Matt sports Crittercam's ever-popular "KidCam."

Read the July 2010 Newsletter: Use geotechnology to uncover ancient and modern-day mysteries this summer!

Inside
July Challenge: Give geocaching or earthcaching a go!
GeoFeature: Gravestones and GPS
GeoNews: Join Expedition: Mongolia
Blog: Find bargains near you

Plus: more newsletter highlights on the next page!

August is kind of a crazy month.

Here in Washington, D.C., the trains are nearly empty as Congress begins its summer recess and thousands of non-profit staffers (like we here at National Geographic Education) make use of their oft-generous vacation leave. Fewer numbers of bodies on the Metro mean slightly cooler, more comfortable conditions--a welcome change in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave sweeping the Eastern U.S.

What exactly is a heat wave, anyway, I wonder? Is the definition the same in Nova Scotia and New Mexico? What was the hottest temperature ever recorded in the U.S.--and where was it?

This short, 5-question quiz from Family Education provides some answers to these questions (just make sure to click the little link at the top right of the screen when an advertisement pops up to go back to the quiz--it's not too distracting).

Unfortunately, It's not clear that the scorching temperatures will abate any time soon. Climate change is conspiring against us, after all, and we are smack-dab in the middle of the Dog Days of Summer, to boot.

Do you know where the phrase "Dog Days of Summer" comes from?

Ok, so you've heard us talk about GIS (Geographic Information Systems) before on this blog. A LOT.

But let's be honest: Chances are you've probably never actually used a GIS to analyze geographic data and make maps. Most casual geography buffs don't have their own license for a GIS software package such as ArcGIS, which is usually purchased by businesses or universities. And if you're not a classroom teacher, then you've probably never used AEJEE, either, a free GIS "lite" program for educators and students.

Well, now's your chance to give GIS a shot!

The National Geographic Society  recently awarded Alexander Graham Bell Medals to GIS pioneers Dr. Roger Tomlinson and Jack Dangermond. 

The Alexander Graham Bell Medal is named after the inventor, who also served as the second president of the National Geographic society.  It is awarded for extraordinary achievement in geographic research. 

Bell's great-grandson, National Geographic Society Chairman Gilbert M. Grosvenor presented the medals to Tomlinson and Dangermond at the ESRI International User Conference on July 12, 2010. 

Check out Matt Rosenberg's Five Favorite Geographic Apps for iPhone and tell us what your favorite five geographic cell phone apps are. 

Keep checking back to see our favorite five geographic apps for "other" smartphone users!

Background:  In early June, ethnic rioting broke out in and around Osh, Kyrgyzstan.  To better understand the nature of the current violence, the roots of the violence, and the global implications, see our recent blog posts, Ethnic Violence Breaks Out In Kyrgyzstan,  Kyrgyzstan: Roots of Violence, and International Implications of Violence in Krygyzstan.

The Project:  Following recent reports of extensive violence, including looting and arson, between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) used satellite imagery to conduct a damage assessment of the area around Osh, Kyrgyzstan. AAAS conducted the study at the request of Amnesty International, USA, who wanted to corroborate that on-the-ground reporting was consistent with a bird's eye view of the violence. 

The images show that an estimated 1640 structures were damaged including 172 damaged structures in in Furkat, 297 in Cheremushki, 448 in Kizil Kishtak and 551 in Osh.  These are damage estimates, not exact counts, as it is difficult to count structures in dense urban areas using satellite imagery.
 

2010 Fine Art is an international exhibition and sale of original artwork, specially commissioned for the World Cup.  Check out the work of artists around the world, including the World Cup's host country, South Africa.



Courtesy New York Times

"The Real Heroes-- Silhouette 2" by Clint Strydom of South Africa.
















Michelle Renn