September 2011 Archives

Long-time readers of this blog know that each year My Wonderful World hosts a Blog-a-thon during Geography Awareness Week (November 13-19, 2011) inviting contributors around the world to share their geographic voice. This year, we are making the Blog-a-thon bigger and better than ever before, and we need your help! We are accepting submissions of all forms ranging from traditional blogs to digital media (e.g. photos, videos, music) to art work, academic papers or even old geography homework assignments. You can be a special part of GA Week by sending us your best original geographic creations. Teachers: this is a great opportunity to get your classroom involved in thinking critically and writing about geography, and for your students to see their work posted onto the web.
The 2011 GA Week theme is "Geography: The Adventure in Your Community."  It is about connections between people and their surrounding environments, local action, and, of course, geography education. Starting now, we will be accepting any geography-related blog posts that honor Geography Awareness Week, the 2011 theme of "Adventure in Your Community," and geography or geographic education in general. You can e-mail your intention of submission at anytime to NatGeoEd@ngs.org--just let us know what you have in mind, and we will be on the lookout for your work. With the Blog-a-thon in mind, this week's Five for Friday looks at five cool ideas for ways to participate. Get inspired!

1. The "Classic": Write a blog. (Duh!) Here are some great ideas to get you started on your brainstorm:

• Document your daily activities in blog format, showing how place and space play an important role on your route to work, when shopping for food, or while sending a text message to your friends in California. It may surprise you just how much geography is incorporated into your daily life!

• Write a blog post about the geography of a particular current event topic, or a series of news stories you have followed over the past year. Talk about how major changes in climate, natural disasters, and developing cultures/nations have played a part in your life or your understanding of what it means to be geo-literate.

•  Describe a representation of your "world." Include all your favorite things about this Earth and the places you want to see and experience. Do some critical thinking: How would your perspective of your world change if you were born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Beijing, China; or Curepto, Chile?

2. The "Art-star": Not much for words? Try creating a unique piece of art that represents GA Week. Think painting, sculpting, drawing, jewelry-making, collage, graphic design, and beyond! Scan or photograph what you have crafted and send it to us with your basic information, a description of your art, what it means to you and, how it celebrates the geography of our world.

Mark your calendars, BioBlitz 2011 is just around the corner and it's going to be the best yet! The annual celebration of biodiversity takes place this year on October 21-22 in Saguaro National Park, Tuscon, Arizona and online as a free electronic field trip. Information about the live event, how to register for the electronic field trip, schedules, goals, links, and more are provided below thanks to National Geographic Education, and the partners of BioBlitz 2011--Enjoy!

Summary of BioBlitz:
BioBlitz is a 24-hour event in which teams of volunteer scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members work together to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms as possible. A BioBlitz gives adults, kids, and teens the opportunity to join biologists in the field and participate in bona fide research expeditions. It's a fun and exciting way to learn about the biological diversity of local parks and to better understand how to protect them. National Geographic is helping conduct a BioBlitz in a different national park each year during the decade leading up to the U.S. National Park Service Centennial in 2016. --www.natgeoed.org

Group and individual registration is now available online. Families, schools, clubs, scout troops and other groups are encouraged to participate. For questions or to receive updates and registration information when available, send an email to bioblitz@ngs.org.

Goals of the Saguaro BioBlitz:

• Count, map, and learn about the park's diverse organisms, ranging from microscopic bacteria to migrating birds, elusive mountain lions to 200-year-old cacti.
• Provide scientists, school kids, and the general public an opportunity to conduct fieldwork together.
• Add to the park's official species list.
• Highlight the importance of protecting the biodiversity of this extraordinary place.
  

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: [physical geography] featuring the Plastiki
Noun: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch and the Pacific Trash Vortex, lies in a high-pressure area between the U.S. states of Hawaii and California. This area is in the middle of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

An ocean gyre is a circular ocean current formed by the Earth's wind patterns and the forces created by the rotation of the planet. The area in the center of a gyre tends to be very calm and stable. The circular motion of the gyre draws in debris. Debris eventually makes its way into the center of the gyre, where it becomes trapped and builds up. A similar garbage patch exists in the Atlantic Ocean, in the North Atlantic Gyre. Read more about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch on our website!

New NASA website available for kids: Two award-winning websites for kids have joined forces to further inspire a new generation of explorers. Click here to see for yourself!

NASA's former science and space websites have now combined to bring users a streamlined version that provides several new web features with interactive graphic design and easy, versatile navigation. The hybrid site includes the extensive and rich science and technology content of the 'old' Space Place with over 50 NASA science missions enriched with years of research in science and education. These sites offer the best of NASA material for elementary school students.
The site includes over 300 separate modules available in English and Spanish. Modules are sorted into menus for Space, Earth, Sun, Solar System, People and Technology, and Parents and Teachers. Information mirrors the missions of the NASA's Science Mission Directorate, as well as the agency's commitment to education and public engagement.

Visitors can filter the menus by subject or type of activity (game, hands-on project, or exploration) and use the search field to produce customized menus. All pages are printer friendly.

Harvard University's Center for Geographic Analysis is the process of developing WorldMap, an open source web mapping system available to anyone. The project is a fantastic new opportunity in modern education. Teachers can now assign mapping project for students and have access to view and aid in their progress through map sharing. This will allow teachers more direct contact with student questions, struggles and successes. The best part is, it's easy to use! The tools for mapping are streamlined down from traditional forms of GIS and made simple for any skill set to enjoy. The project is still under construction, so many amazing additions are scheduled for the coming year. Highly anticipated new additions include: geo-referencing of photos, videos, and text directly onto the map. Another user-friendly feature is the unlimited access to external data that anyone can export and add to a map. WorldMap requires a quick registration that asks for a user name, password, and e-mail in order to login. The capability is truly amazing; to show you what I mean, I made this week's Five-for-Friday a collection of five unique, beautiful and useful maps I made using WorldMap.  Make one yourself and share the link to your map in our comments box below! Clicking on the maps I have created will show them in their full size and detail.

1. Map of Cuba that combines satellite imagining with Wikipedia reference points. Using the "identify" tool I was able to find the city of Santiago, as shown in the red box and provided with a direct link to Santiago's Wikipedia page. 2. Map of the Southern United States from the 1860's population distribution of slaves. Just one example of the historical maps that are provided in WorldMap.3. Map of Eastern Africa that layers place names and boundaries with soil types of the region. The red outlined shape in Kenya represents the soil class Zo9-3a.

National Geographic Education is extending an invitation to all "mommy bloggers" in the D.C. area: Nat Geo is hosting a FREE blogger preview on Sunday, September 25 from 1-3 p.m. at the National Geographic Museum. On view will be the upcoming exhibition, Animal Grossology, and the companion exhibition, Weird But True, based on wacky facts from the popular NG Kids series. Children are welcome to attend and participate in this youth-focused exhibition.
You will see gross animals from around the world in a way that surprises and delights even the most fickle museum-goers. Based on the book by Sylvia Branzei, the exhibition combines solid science with disgusting fun. Visitors will experience some of the stickiest, slimiest and just downright yuckiest creatures on earth. What's not to love?

Hightlights Include:
1.) This event (blogger) preview is free.
2.) We are giving each blogger who attends a set of four museum tickets (to giveaway on your blog!).
3.) It is a great way for bloggers from around the region to get a behind-the-scenes look at our new Animal Grossology exhibition.
4.) We'll be raffling away a great gift basket including the official exhibit books, a four-pack of tickets to see "The Jimmies" from the Nat Geo Live music series, and NG Kids merchandise. The raffle will be held at 1:30pm.
5.) The event will be a great atmosphere to network and promote your blog.

To confirm attendance, please RSVP to NatGeoMuseum@ngs.org by September 23 (this Friday) with your name and the number of people attending from your family. Photography will be allowed during the event only. Feel free to bring stands, lights, and any equipment you would like.  Free parking will be available in the National Geographic parking garage, located on the south side of M Street.

The MWW Blog is launching a new series called "Wednesday Word of the Week." This feature will contribute to our ongoing work educating the public about geo-literacy--the ability to use geographic knowledge to make informed decisions about the dynamic world we live in. Geo-literacy is a relevant, applicable, and global tool; it is a communicative bridge between the peoples, places and possibilities of our earth.

Autotroph: [aw-tuh-trof, -trohf] [environmental geography]
Noun: An autotroph is an organism that can produce its own food using light, water, carbon dioxide, or other chemicals. Because autotrophs produce their own food, they are sometimes called producers.

Plants are the most familiar type of autotroph, but there are many different kinds of autotrophic organisms. Algae, which live in water and whose larger forms are known as seaweed, is autotrophic. Phytoplankton, tiny organisms that live in the ocean, are autotrophs. Some types of bacteria are autotrophs.

What about carnivorous plants? How would you classify the venus flytrap--is it an autotroph because it is a plant? Or is it a heterotroph? (HEH-tuh-roh-trohf) noun. An organism that cannot make its own nutrients and must rely on other organisms for food.

Educators stuck in the age of lightning-speed technological growth may sometimes find themselves "the students" when it comes to keeping up with the latest advancements and applications. "The World" by National Geographic, an iPad-compatible app created in August 2011, is the ideal tool to help teachers leave behind the 1970's style approaches of teaching geography--with chalkboards and heavy maps--and move into 21st century education. Now any teacher can give Mary Poppins a run for her money with classroom maps, atlases, globes, and world flags all available in the palm of his or her hand.  Not only great for teachers, "The World" is an enjoyable reference tool for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of cartography and cultural geography and taking traditional print (maps) into the digital environment.

As one user said [on the iTunes review page], "The pictures are brilliant, the facts presented for each country are perfectly laid out, and the functionality of this app is very intuitive. Hats off to NG for an app well done."

The app allows users to manipulate the world with their fingertips. In terms of exploring physical geography, the "globe" function can spin, rotate, zoom, overlay country or regional atlas data, and identify locations. For more cultural geography uses, the app includes demographics, flags, and National Geographic photographs from every country.

Additionally, the app includes a description of each country highlighting major historical events and offering insight into the current condition of the country.  The demographics include basic facts such as population size, capital city, land area, and government structure, all of which are bullet-pointed for quick, convenient access.

Like what you hear? Bring "The World" to your classroom with our suggested starter activity:

As a fresh way to kick off the work week, My Wonderful World is now bringing its readers a Monday-Funday Photo of the Week.  Designed not only around aesthetics, this photo sharing start-of-the-week is also about facilitating geographic discussion on current events and relevant topics. Our first Photo of the Week comes from a recent environmental issue in Iceland where the hunting of endangered fin whales is causing quite a stir.  President Obama has taken this recent assault against the fin whale very seriously. He has initiated six contingent sanctions against Iceland that threaten to limit visits and cooperation with the country if strong measures to protect the species are not taken. Photo of the Week and National Geographic Education hope to shed light on an important issue and to ignite a conversation about protection and litigation as they apply to endangered species.

• What is your initial reaction to this issue and the supporting photographs?
• How do you feel about President Obama's actions?
• What can we all do, as fellow mammals, to help save the whales?
• Are there any other ideas or discussion questions that should be addressed?

For more questions, comments or concerns feel free to contact us at NatGeoEd@ngs.org
--Julia from My Wonderful World

1. Tomorrow, Saturday, September 17th is the third annual "Passport Day in the USA" hosted by the U.S. State Department! This means that any U.S. citizen can apply at their regional passport agency without making an appointment, and on a Saturday (a day they are normally closed). This is great for working families, students, and others interested in the many opportunities that travel abroad can offer. See the State Department's website for more information and to find printable applications that can be completed in advance.

2. As of January 2007 you must have a passport to go anywhere outside of the United States. Post September 11, 2001 documentation regulation has become an increasing concern for traffic inside and outside of the United States. Under the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative the requirements for foreign travel are more rigid than ever, including traveling within the North American continent.

3. Because NOT everyone is doing it! According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are currently 312,226,000 U.S. citizens.  Of those 300 million, the U.S. Department of State finds that (as of 2011) roughly 102,184,000 people have valid passports in circulation. Based on the math I acquired in the 2nd grade (so please don't quote me on this) less than one-third (32.7%) of the living U.S. population has a valid passport today.  As you can see in the graph below, the past three years show a decline in the number of annually issued passports. Why do you think this is? Due to what we learned in reason two,  two-thirds of the U.S. population cannot leave the country--not even to eat tacos in Tijuana. Do you predict the numbers will start to rise with our ever-globalizing world? Or will Americans continue to only dream about going bob-sledding in Nova Scotia, eh?

Join National Geographic and First Lady Michelle Obama this October 11-12 to help break the Guinness World record for the most people doing jumping jacks. All it takes is one minute of your best jumping-jacks to be a part of history!
We need more than 20,000 people around the world to participate if we are going to jump into a new record. So, gather your friends, sports teams, after school groups, or even the entire school and get ready to jump-for-joy! Once you find your group of jubilant jumpers, visit the organize an event section of the Let's Jump! website to learn more about the rules for proper documentation of your event or to make it open to your surrounding community.  If hosting is not your thing, no problem! You can find an event to join in your area.



Let's Jump! is one way that National Geographic is helping improve health and wellness education for youth and expand community involvement in this important initiative. It is also a great way to show your support for Let's Move, an initiative started by First Lady Michelle Obama to combat childhood obesity. Let's Move works to provide healthier food in schools, higher-quality health education, and increased physical education, by empowering parents and giving children a healthier start. At National Geographic we tip our hats and tighten our shoelaces to "America's Movement to Raise a Healthier Generation of Kids." Let's Jump!

Jumping will be tabulated between 3 p.m. ET October 11, 2011, and 3 p.m. ET October 12, 2011. Jumping must be timed, witnessed, and properly documented to be accepted--read the frequently asked questions for more details. Good luck!

As always, we want to hear from you--send your event stories, photos, videos, questions, or comments to NatGeoEd@ngs.org

--Julia from My Wonderful World

The MWW Blog is launching a new series called "Wednesday Word of the Week." This feature will contribute to our ongoing work educating the public about Geo-Literacy--the ability to use geographic knowledge to make informed decisions about the dynamic world we live in. Geo-literacy is a relevant, applicable, and global tool; it is a communicative bridge between the peoples, places and possibilities of our earth.

The Wednesday Word of the Week is just one way to start expanding the breadth of your geographic vocabulary. Some words you'll recognize, and some will be new. Regardless of whether you know the word or not, we at National Geographic Education challenge you to use our words of the week.  Whether in the classroom, in everyday conversation, through the arts, or simply by checking out our provided links, we encourage you to make great use of our words in creative ways!

Hello! Hej! Dumella Rah! Vaturak! Mingalarba! Olá!* to all the great readers of My Wonderful World!

My name is Julia Guard and I am one of the newest additions to the National Geographic Society.  I hail from Lawrence, Kansas where I studied geography and business at the University of Kansas. I have recently moved to Washington D.C. to commence my fall internship with the National Geographic Society, Education working in Public Engagement.  My journey to National Geographic begins with my ever-present interest in travel, and the itching sensation I feel to personally contextualize anything I am ignorant of in this (wonderful) world.  My favorite form of self-education is getting up and moving around!  Thus, I have spent much of my free time racking up destinations such as: Hawaii, Alaska, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.  Whether it is a new country, a new face, or even a new idea, I maintain to be adaptive and open-minded in the name of continuing my education and strengthening my connection to mankind.