September 2010 Archives

Do you instinctively think all rivers flow in a southern direction? If you were planning a road trip in the US, would you rather drive from New York to Texas than from Texas to New York? If you answered yes to these questions, guess what? You're wrong, but it's not your fault. Your mind is playing tricks on you! Welcome to the world of cognitive mapping.

Happy autumn My Wonderful World readers! How are you planning on kicking off the fall season? Here are 5 fun activities you can do to celebrate and enjoy the colorful, chilly, and tasty season!

1.    Forage for Foliage
One of the best - and most beautiful - parts of the fall is the foliage. Although New England is famous for having some of the best foliage in the world, you can appreciate the vibrant orange, red, yellow, and brown hues all over the country. Check out this map at theweatherchannel.com that shows you the stage of the foliage in different regions of the country. Plan a hike during peak foliage time that will allow you to experience some of the best scenery nature has to offer. Ehow.com offers a simple guide of how to view fall foliage.

Ever wonder why the leaves turn different colors in the fall? The US National Arboretum explains the science of color in autumn leaves.

2.    Let the Fall Bring Out Your Inner Artist
Use the beauty of the season to inspire your creativity! Here are 24 simple fall arts and craft projects that you can do with a friend, a family member, or your class!

Read the September 2010 Newsletter: Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month!

INSIDE:
Editor's Pick: Thinkfinity Back-to-School Portal - packed full with educational resources!


September Challenge: Learn something new about Hispanic heritage
GeoFeature: Donors Choose: helping classrooms in need
GeoNews: Study hurricanes on Katrina's five year anniversary
Blog: Register today for the 2010 Geography Awareness Week Blog-a-thon!

PLUS...more newsletter highlights on the next page!

Make your voice heard in the national dialogue about conservation for the 21st century! President Obama's America's Great Outdoors Initiative has provided an online forum for you to share your ideas, comments, and opinions about effective conservation efforts. Want to join the conversation and make a difference? Support environmental education organizations like NatureBridge by commenting on and voting for the discussion that promotes environmental education in national parks. Here's how to help:

1.    Create an account on the America's Great Outdoors online forum
2.    Add your comments to the discussion titled "Environmental Education in our National Parks - America's Best Classroom"
3.    Click the link next to the title to promote the discussion!

It's Constitution Day, a time to celebrate the anniversary of one of America's most important documents. It was 223 years ago, back on September 17, 1787, that 39 brave men (a.k.a. "dead white guys") signed the parchment paper that was to lay the groundwork for the United States government, and, in many ways, our national system of values.

Here are my top five ways to honor the Constitution today:

1.    Read the Constitution.
Perhaps it sounds obvious, but for many of us, it's been a long time since we've gotten up-close-and-personal with the ink-on-paper--or text-on-screen--language of the Constitution. So drag out your dog-eared copy and start reading--at least a couple excerpts. Check out ConSource.org for an online text version of the Constitution.

2.    Read About the Constitution--from Today's Top Judges.

CALLING ALL GEOGRAPHERS, cartographers, general geo-nerds and activists, techies, teachers, politicians, moms, dads, students...and anyone who's ever had an interesting thought about geography. We want to hear from YOU this Geography Awareness Week!

While this year's theme focuses on freshwater, we'll let you decide which specific geographic topic to write about:
 
·      Offer an opinion on a current event or policy issue.
·      Share a lesson plan or field trip idea.
·      Post a favorite photo.
·      Write a poem or design a work of art.
·      Show how geography connects to popular culture or everyday life.
Whatever!

Check out last year's blog-a-thon for ideas and examples, and email Sarah Jane  to reserve a spot.

Here's how the process will work:

While you may have heard of the age-old tradition that many Americans partake in every year - heading out into the forest on Thanksgiving Day to hunt a wild turkey - you may be less familiar with a similar practice that happens just south of the United States in Central America. Except instead of a wild turkey, it's the Central American River Turtle. And instead of heading out on foot, hunters require a chartered plane to reach the remote wetlands where the turtles live. But the end result is the same: a holiday meal featuring a culturally symbolic animal. Though it may be hard for you to imagine eating a giant turtle, it happens all over the world - and unfortunately for turtles - at an alarming rate.

Remember Earl?

The hurricane-turned-tropical-storm that swept the Eastern seaboard over Labor Day Weekend? Well, meet his younger - but possibly bigger - brother, Igor. While Earl reached up to a category 4 level as he traveled over the Atlantic, Igor may reach as high as a category 5! Hurricane Igor is the fourth hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic Hurricane season, and is making his way westward across the Atlantic Ocean. Not far behind Igor is Hurricane Julia, the fifth hurricane and tenth storm to be named in the 2010 season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's (NOAA) Hurricane Center shows the location of each storm on this cyclone activity map.

Hello My Wonderful World readers! My name is Jane, and I am a geography intern with National Geographic Education this fall. I recently graduated from Syracuse University, where I majored in geography. I have participated in many geographical-endeavors, of which my favorites include studying Hawaiian culture at the University of Hawaii, doing conservation work in Sydney, Australia, repairing school buildings in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and doing geography research at Syracuse University. My academic interests include but are not limited to cultural and urban studies, race and race relations, and sustainable agriculture.

It's hard to believe that nine years have passed since the first and second World Trade Center towers fell.

Most of us remember September 11 like it was yesterday--I was in high school PE class. Many students, however, may be too young to have meaningful memories of September 11. All of us, young and old, can benefit from taking time to reflect on one of the most significant events in recent U.S. history.

This Friday, here are 5 Ways to Commemorate September 11.

1. Educate
Teachers and parents can help students understand the events of September 11 and the impacts on the global community with these educational resources from the National 9/11 Memorial. Watch webcasts, view collections of artifacts, read articles, and more.

National Geographic Education partners also offer a range of 9/11 resources through the Verizon Thinkfinity consortium. Of course, maps are great tools for visualizing historical events; check out the image above.

2. Share
Students and others old enough to remember September 11 can share their stories on the 9/11 Memorial Website by recording a short video testimonial, uploading a photo, or submitting a piece of writing. It's a great way to practice public speaking, build media literacy, and cope with complex emotions.

It's International Literacy Day!



This day of recognition is sponsored by the United Nations and the International Reading Association (IRA), a National Geographic Education partner and member of the Verizon Thinkfinity Consortium, and supported by many other leading organizations.

IRA suggests classrooms celebrate the day by participating in a readathon, kicking off a cross-grade reading buddy program, or making original books to share with others in the community. For additional ideas, download the IRA's collection of ideas: Idea Starters! International Literacy Day Activities and Events.

Check out these other International Literacy Day resources for bibliophiles and beginning readers alike:

My roommate, another National Geographic Education staffer, first introduced me to the Geography Collective about a year ago. An artist who does a good deal of graphic design work for our group, she was enamored with the playful design of the website. We both fell in love with the Collective's revolutionary approach to engaging kids in real-world learning through "guerrilla geography," and pledged that if we ever decided to pick up and move to the U.K., we'd see if we could join them.

You can imagine my excitement when Daniel Raven-Ellison, a member of the Collective, contacted me a few months later to see how we might collaborate "across the pond" on our respective geography campaigns. He was in the process of releasing a new book called Mission:Explore, a geography "training manual" with 102 missions challenging kids to (re)discover our world, and was looking for opportunities to spread the word. I couldn't think of a better forum than the blog!

Read on for more about Mission:Explore and the Geography Collective, and stay tuned for future collaborative projects with National Geographic Education. Next Mission: Geography Awareness Week. Daniel and I are working on a series of freshwater missions (I might even become an honorary member of the Collective)!

Endangered Geographies
Now is a very exciting and rich time to be a geographer. Opportunities for us as professionals and as a field of study are developing at lightening speed. We  have a better knowledge and are more equipped than ever to understand a wide range of social, economic, and environmental issues empowering humanity as never before. Yet, in my view, there are many ways in which the potential of geography is under threat.

In this blog post I am going to outline five of these threats.

Threat 1 - Children's Physical Geographies