Recently in Geography Awareness Week Category

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!

In 2006, the theme of Geography Awareness Week was the continent of Africa. That November, we featured a series of posts about Africa on the My Wonderful World blog, which was brand new. More than three years later, those posts are still some of the most popular in the history of the blog! This month, as we re-focus our attention on Africa in celebration of the World Cup, we are revisiting these fantastic resources, which include news articles, interactives, and lesson plans, and sharing them with our new members--all 75,000 of you who have joined since 2006!

Post #1:  Africa and Human Origins (Human Geography)
Fossil and genetic evidence suggests that human history began in the valleys of Ethiopia, called the Cradle of Humanity. Here, paleo-anthropologists discovered the famous early hominid skeleton "Lucy." Read more about the origins of humans in Africa.

Post #2: Africa's History (Human Geography)
Throughout history, many civilizations have commingled on the African continent. Have you ever heard of the country of Rhodesia, the ancient trade city of Timbuktu, or the Zulu nation? Read more about Africa's unique and tumultuous history.

Read the May 2010 Newsletter: Go on an Outdoor Adventure!

Inside
May Challenge: Map Your Outdoor Adventure
GeoFeature: Horses...in North Philadelphia??
Geography in the News: Eyjafjallaökull Volcano
Blog: National Geographic Adventure


Plus: Keep reading for more newsletter highlights

Sarah Kozicki is program associate for National Environmental Education Week (EE Week), a program of the National Environmental Education Foundation designed to connect educators with resources to improve K-12 students' understanding of the environment. An annual event, EE Week will be held this year from April 11-17. For more information and to get involved, visit www.eeweek.org.


Have you had a glass of water to drink today? How much energy do you think went into treating and transporting that water from its source - probably a lake or aquifer - to your kitchen faucet?

In the United States, 13 percent of the total energy produced each year is used to treat, transport, and heat our water. While that sounds like a lot of energy, getting clean water in the United States is as easy as turning on the tap. In some places around the globe, it is not that simple. 

In some parts of the world, water is pumped by hand to fill buckets that are carried by women and children from a public source to their homes
Photo Credit: WaterAid/
Layton Thompson


Water around the World: Carrying Water

In the United States and other developed countries, cleaned and treated fresh water is piped directly into our homes - we can turn on the tap for drinkable water any time. However, in less-developed countries, human energy is a necessary part of daily water use. About two-thirds of the world's families do not have a water supply in their homes and must fetch water in jugs and buckets from wells, rivers, hand pumps, and other public sources. This water is usually collected and carried by women and children.In Asia and Africa, the average woman walks a total of 3.7 miles to collect and carry fresh water home each day. The average weight of water that a woman in Africa and Asia will carry is about 40 pounds! Water is usually carried on the head, back or hips, which can cause severe health problems. On average, a person living in sub-Saharan Africa uses four gallons of water a day, while someone in the United States uses 82 gallons of water a day or more.


How many trips would you have to make if you had to carry all the water your family uses in a day?

It's World Water Day, an occasion to celebrate the miraculous liquid that bathes more than 2/3 of our planet and sustains all life.

We're continuing the fiesta de agua all year long as we look toward Geography Awareness Week 2010: "Freshwater." Check out the March edition of the newsletter for more information on what's in store for November 14-20.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, here are our picks for the top 5 ways to celebrate liquid life today, World Water Day.
 


1. Check out National Geographic magazine in all its watery blue glory.
In recognition of World Water Day, National Geographic magazine will offer a free interactive version of its April single-topic issue, Water: Our Thirsty World. Between March 22 and April 2, anyone can visit nationalgeographic.com/freshwater to download the April issue for free. In addition to all the material in the print issue, readers of the digital issue will get animated images, photo slide shows, and more.

We encourage you to take advantage of the special, limited-time offer; after April 2 access to the new e-zine will cost you $5.95 an issue. Be one of the first to experience this innovative technology and tell us here on the blog what you think!

Read the March 2010 Newsletter: Geography Awareness Week 2010 theme announced: Freshwater!

Inside
March Challenge: Find 5 ways to reduce your water use
GeoFeature: National Environmental Education Week, April 11-17
Geography in the News: Celebrate World Water Day, March 22
Blog: Guest blogger: Making the Water-Energy Connection



Plus: Click to the next page for more newsletter highlights...

Each month we offer a challenge to MWW members to get involved doing geography; that is, taking an action that requires a geographic perspective or advocating on behalf of geographic education.

Our March Challenge: Choose 5 of 100 ways to conserve water and tell us how it goes!

Here's your chance: Please comment on this post with your water-saving stories.

Adam teaches at the Academy of Urban Planning in Bushwick, Brooklyn. in addition to teaching Global Regents, he co-teaches Urban Geography, an interdisciplinary class (History, Science, Geography) that analyzes the urban environment. A major focus of the class is Geographic Information Systems and other geospatial technology. Adam is in his 3rd year of the NSF funded City as Lab program with Brooklyn College, which assigns PhD students to his class to support inquiry and project learning. If you are interested in getting involed, please get in touch with him at aschwartz@aupnyc.org

Geography can take us to distant places and help us to understand the processes occurring around the world. But geographic awareness has the firmest grounding in our immediate surroundings, especially for students will a limited experience of other places. The way our city is shaped affects our student's lives intimately on a daily basis, most readily in its streets.

So this Geography Awareness Week, we had the pleasure to work with NYC's Livable Streets Initiative. Working together with Rebecca Jacobs, director of Street Education, we set out to get our kids active in transport planning.

There are few experiences more real and visceral than almost being hit by a car, an experience our students are very familiar with. In a pre-survey of experiences and attitudes (shown below), 75% report a near miss with a car. One out of every five of our students report bring hit by a car. Almost 90% of them know someone who has--there were many harrowing stories shared in class to back up these statistics. This is clearly an area where students have a great deal of concern, if not a complete understanding. But that is a great place to start a unit!

Matt is an award-winning professional geographer who has covered the field of geography on About.com for more than a decade. He is a former adjunct university faculty member in geography, city planning and GIS intern for local government, newspaper columnist, and a disaster manager for the American Red Cross.

A new study on the number of scientific publications per capita found that European countries led the world in research and innovation. The seven most productive countries in terms of scientific research articles published per citizen are: 1) Switzerland, 2) Sweden, 3) Denmark, 4) Israel, 5) Finland, 6), the Netherlands, and 7) Canada. The U.S. ranked twelfth while Germany ranked fifteenth in the study based on scientific articles from 2005.

Check out Matt's blog for more interesting studies, articles, and other news-worthy geography!
http://geography.about.com/b/

Special Note: My sister Kate lives and teaches in India. I told her about the Blog-a-thon, and she was inspired to have her students write about geography! Thanks for sending these, Kate!

I am an English teacher at Primrose School in Puducherry. We are in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, on the Indian Ocean. In the spirit of Geography Awareness Week, I gave all my students the creative writing assignment, "If you could fly, where would you go and what would you see?" I was curious how my students would describe their land from up above. Would they write about water buffalo glistening after the monsoon rains, women weaving garlands of jasmine blossoms to wear in their hair, or business men smearing white ash kum-kums on their foreheads in devotion to Shiva at the temple before they go to the office? My students' stories are as diverse as India itself. Enjoy!
--Kate Strassman