Florida Geographic Alliance Newsletter

2011

Fall

While You Were Out

Articles this season focus on the progress made at the FGA Strategic Planning Summit, this year’s Florida Geography Awareness Week theme, and the Geography NAEP Assessment results. The newsletter has also posted many new and exciting opportunities that are listed under the Now Available section.Don’t forget to tell your friends- FGA is now on both Facebook and Twitter! Like/Follow us today!

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Speak Up for Geography: The 10,000 Letter Challenge

The goal of this public campaign is simple: to send 10,000 letters to Congress in support of the bipartisan Teaching Geography is Fundamental (TGIF) Act by November 18, 2011. This date marks the ending of Geography Awareness Week 2011 and the last day of the Congressional session before the Thanksgiving recess.For free downloads of 10,000 Letter Challenge resources–display ads, postcards, flyers, and a widget for your website–go to https://sites.google.com/site/speakupforgeography/. As always, it’s easy to send letters to Congress from http://speakupforgeography.org.

Are you wondering which state has logged the largest number of TGIF supporters by House district atSpeakUpForGeography.org? Nebraska has earned this distinction in no small part because of the work of Geographic Educators of Nebraska Coordinator Randy Bertolas. When asked about his efforts to promote TGIF through SpeakUpForGeography.org, Randy said “via our Alliance membership email list, we strongly encourage all of our teachers and administrators to become involved with this mission”.

National Geographic Society Bee Reimbursement

In order to help further promote participation in the National Geographic Society Bee, the Florida Geographic Alliance will reimburse the $90 registration fee to any school that has not participated in the Bee in the past, but is interested in doing so this year. This support will be made available for up to 10 schools on a first-come first-served basis. To participate follow these simple instructions:1. Send an email message to lmolina@admin.fsu.edu with Bee Sponsorship in the subject so we know you want to be sponsored. We will then respond as to the availability of the sponsorship slots.

2. Once you have gotten a confirmation from Laurie Molina that your school is eligible for sponsorship, go to the NGS Bee site and register your school.

3. Once you have been confirmed and you have a receipt for the registration, send it via e-mail tolmolina@admin.fsu.edu or by post to Laurie Molina 296 Champions Way UCC2200 FSU Tallahassee FL 32306-2641 and we will reimburse you for the registration.

Principals of schools in the U.S. with any of the grades four through eight are eligible to register their schools to receive contest materials for a school-level Bee. There is a minimum participation requirement of six students from the eligible grade levels in a school-level Bee. Beginning in early September, principals may write a letter on school letterhead and enclose the registration fee of U.S. $90 requesting that their school receive the contest materials. In their letter, principals may designate a teacher in the school to be the recipient of the contest materials.

Mail the letter and registration fee of $90 (check or money order made payable to National Geographic) to:

National Geographic Bee
1145 17th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20036

Schools with proper registrations received at our offices by October 15 will be sent the school contest materials in mid-November. More guidelines regarding rules for eligibility and suggested procedures for school-level Bees can be found in the Instruction Booklet sent to registered schools.

Big Cat Initiative

National Geographic Education is partnering with the NG Channel and Mission Programs Big Cats Initiative to host an event September 25-27 for school district personnel. The Big Cats Initiative is a global program with a goal to save the world’s big cats (http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/big-cats/cause-an-uproar/)

They will be inviting district level curriculum coordinators, social studies and science supervisors, and similar individuals. All expenses for attending the event (airfare, hotel, meals, conference materials) will be covered by NG. This offer is only being extended to certain cities and districts.

The event will include an introduction to free, standards based, multi-media education resources particularly relevant to social studies, science and English language arts – across all grade levels;

ideas for inspirational, hands-on projects for students to engage in throughout a district;
Meetings with Big Cats experts and activists from around the world; and
Discussions with 120 select education leaders from across the country.
If you are interested in attending this event, please email a response to Kathleen Schwille at kschwill@ngs.org

All materials, ideas, and multimedia will be available free on NG’s website for any teacher or district to use.

Geography and Earth Science Workshops

Stetson University’s Gillespie Museum of Minerals now offers geography and earth science workshops for K-12 teachers. The museum hosted two workshops for Volusia County teachers this year. In May, an “Earth Science Workshop” was conducted by Dr. Bruce Bradford, Florida Geographic Alliance board member, and Dr. Karen Cole, Director of the museum. A second workshop in November focused on “Native Florida Plants” and was directed by Dr. Tony Abbott, Associate Professor of Geography & Environmental Science, and Dr. Cindy Bennington, Associate Professor of Biology. Twenty middle school teachers from Volusia County attended. Information about arranging a workshop may be obtained from Dr. Karen Cole, kcole@stetson.edu or Dr. Bruce Bradford,bbradfor@stetson.edu.

GAW Theme Announced

The 2011 Florida Geography Awareness Week (GAW) theme is The Adventure in Your Community. GAW will be held November 13-19 of this year. Some of the materials that will be available to you include but are not limited to:

The Adventure in Your Community Brochure
The Adventure in Your Community Poster
Access to the 2011 FL GAW website
FL GAW Kids Zone games available online
The Adventure in Your Community Bookmark
2011 FL GAW brochure
The Adventure in Your Community reusable bags
Through this year’s theme, we hope to educate children about their local Florida community and help improve geography literacy. We want kids to realize the different things that their community has to offer, the different adventures they can take in their community, and the different ways that they can help to build and better their community.

If you would like to receive materials for this year’s Florida Geography Awareness Week, please emailbpichard@ispa.fsu.edu. (Materials will be sent out in November)

Florida Strategic Planning Summit

This summer, the Florida Geographic Alliance held a Strategic Planning Summit which was designed, facilitated and summarized by the FCRC Consensus Center at Florida State University. During the summit, FGA’s chairs, board members from all around Florida, and the Florida Department of Education met together in efforts to come up with a future vision for geography literacy in Florida.

FGA now has a new mission statement, a more improved vision for the future of geography literacy in Florida, and a detailed plan of how FGA will improve in the next year, as well as how Florida education will improve in the next ten years.

Summit Executive Summary

Laurie Molina, Co-Chair of the Florida Geographic Alliance, welcomed the participants to Tallahassee and Florida State University and introduced Bob Jones and Chris Pedersen from the FCRC Consensus Center at FSU who have been providing advice on designing the strategic planning process and facilitating the Summit. Participants introduced themselves and each offered one outcome they hoped would result from a successful Summit. Throughout the sessions of the Summit, the participants reviewed the relevant pre-Summit questionnaire responses as grist for their discussions.

The facilitators outlined the Summit objectives and timed agenda and suggested that the intent was to meet everyone’s expectations and create a compelling vision-based roadmap for the Alliance’s work ahead. Mr. Pedersen reviewed the proposed Summit assumptions regarding theroles and process guidelines and the participants agreed to utilize these.

Mr. Jones highlighted the general planning approach known as appreciative inquiry, which he suggested was a particularly fitting strategic planning frame for an Alliance since it depends heavily on volunteers and their passion for geographic education. The approach is based on the premise that “organizations change in the direction in which they inquire.” So an organization that inquires into problems will keep finding problems but an organization that attempts to appreciate what is best in itself will discover more and more that is good and present an exciting and compelling path for improvement and success. It can then use these discoveries to build a new future where the best becomes more common.

In an opening exercise (“Go Left-Go Right”) participants were asked to “vote with their feet” and gather by one of two easels that presented different paired work style preferences on a series of 12 metrics. The facilitator suggested the results offered a profile that included a healthy diversity of preferences among participants, which often makes for more effective and productive groups. The participants noted that these two-sided metrics were not mutually exclusive but provided insight to the group as it started the Summit process.

In April 2011, the FGA Advisory Board and its guests participated in an exercise to identify who were/are the key people and what were the events and issues that have had the greatest influence on the Florida geographic education community as we see it today? The participants reviewed the shared history and were encouraged to add to it over the course of the Summit (See Appendix #6)

The Summit participants were asked to take some time and recall a time when you joined with others in making a positive change for geographic education. In interview pairs they explored stories of personal “high point” moments of leading positive change. They then reflected and discussed what were the things emerging from the stories contributed to that success and what they valued the most and would want to preserve and leverage going forward.

To hear more about FGA planning and to view the full Strategic Planning Summit Summary, please visitfgaplanning.wikispaces.com.

Geography NAEP Assessments

Department of Education recently administered the NAEP. Fourth, eighth, and twelfth grade students from around the nation were given the NAEP Geography assessment.
Upon comparing the results to the 1994 and 2001 scores, one can see how students have progressed.Click here to view the assessment results.Click here to view NAEP article.Winter

While You Were Out

Geography Awareness Week 2010 has officially come to a close. However, this does not mean that its resources and lesson plans are no longer available. Materials such as FGA brochures, GAW brochures, bookmarks, water bottles, and/or posters are still available and can be received by emailing bpichard@ispa.fsu.edu. Please act now, though, because materials are limited.

The theme this year was The Three C’s of Florida’s Freshwater: Community, Controversy, and Conservation. Students focused on the use of water throughout Florida, Florida’s aquifers, the water cycle, and much more.

Through the five water management districts, the Florida Geographic Alliance was able to acquire even more materials than expected, which can be found under the Water Saver Club page under the Florida GAW website. The links will also direct you to each water management district, where you can find more information pertaining to your specific region.

Apart from these resources, teachers, students, and parents still have access to the vast array of materials presented to them on the GAW website including a Community Map, the Governor’s Proclamation, Free Teacher Resources, Water Saver Club, the Florida Water Timeline, and Kids’ Zone games. If you participated in this year’s Geography Awareness Week program, please remember to fill out the evaluation form here.

2011 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow Program is now open for applications!

National Geographic Education Programs (NGEP) and Lindblad Expeditions are pleased to announce the 2011 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow program. This professional development opportunity, named in honor of National Geographic Society Chairman Gil Grosvenor, will give current K-12 classroom teachers and informal educators from the 50 U.S. states, Canada and Puerto Rico the opportunity to extend Grosvenor’s legacy of excellence in geographic education. Selected educators will travel aboard the National Geographic Explorer‘s Land of the Ice Bears trip in June or July, 2011 to Arctic Svalbard. Through this program, hard-working educators will be recognized for their commitment to geographic education and given a professional development opportunity to be actively engaged in finding new ways to bring geographic awareness and ocean stewardship to their classrooms or informal learning environments through a field-based experience. Seewww.expeditions.com/teachers for more details and a link to the online application. Application deadline is January 15, 2011.

Letter from Heidi Lannon– Florida Society of Geographers Annual Meeting

Fellow Geographers:You are invited to attend the Florida Society of Geographers (FSG) 47th Annual meeting at the University of Florida, Reitz Union – February 18-20, 2011 (late Friday to mid-Sunday) on the campus of the University of Florida. The conference will be held at the Reitz Union, in the heart of the University of Florida Campus, in Gainesville. The Reitz Union functions as the Student Union for University of Florida, and also contains a hotel, restaurants and conference facilities. Parking will be available on campus over the weekend to hotel guests and conference attendees.

We encourage research presentation of topics in all fields of geographic research. Papers and posters may address Florida, national, or international topics. Please submit abstracts of 200 words or less by email to: Program Chair, Dr. Corene Matyas at flsocgeog@gmail.com by January 15, 2011. Abstracts should be submitted as attached Microsoft Word documents. The annual meeting registration form can be downloaded from the FSG website http://www.floridasocietyofgeographers.org

The Reitz Union provides a superior location and has offered us an attractive rate. A Standard two double beds, or 1 queen room is offered at $89 per night. Deluxe rooms with two queen beds or a single king bed will be $99 per night. These rates will be available only until January 15, 2011. The hotel has allocated 30 rooms for our meeting. Rooms will be released and the conference rate will not be guaranteed after January 15, 2011. You can reserve your room by calling (352) 392-2151 to make a reservation. Please mention the Group Code FSG11when you make your reservation. You can view the rooms at the Reitz Union Websitehttp://www.union.ufl.edu/hotel/

Continuing with tradition, the FSG Annual Meeting will dovetail with a Florida Geographic Alliance (FGA)meeting for teachers, to be held on Friday, February 18, 2011, at Santa Fe College. This will ensure easy access to I-75 and free parking for all teachers. (For more information about the FGA, please contact Laurie Molina atlmolina@admin.fsu.edu or 850-644-2007.) We encourage all teachers to stay for the weekend and participate in the Florida Society of Geographers.

Please circulate this to any members of your department that I may not have on the distribution list.

Regards,
Heidi Lannon

Letter from Dena Bush– West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc. — Regional Conference

Dear Colleague,

West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc. (WFHPI) announces our upcoming regional conference in May 2011. Our mission for this annual event is to better equip educators to teach social studies by providing them continuing education opportunities, resources and materials. The theme of this year’s conference will focus on regional and state history, multiculturalism as well as civics and government. With the support of the Florida Council for the Social Studies, Alpha Delta Kappa and the Escambia Area Council for Social Studies, this conference will enable teachers to collaborate with one another, share and equip, and better instruct their students.

This event is a wonderful opportunity to support our education system and community as well as get your message out to regional educators. I ask that you consider becoming directly involved by offering your input, financial support or time. For the first time, we are hosting an exhibit hall for vendors relevant to social studies education. Any funds from exhibitors or sponsorships will go directly for conference hospitality, receptions and materials. All exhibitors and sponsors will be recognized during the event. There is also the opportunity to submit a session proposal form if you would like to be considered as a presenter at the conference. We encourage you to attend as well; registration forms are available on our website. Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

Sincerely,
Dena Bush

GIS in Education

To a researcher, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a way to store data and visualize patterns or correlations; to an analyst, GIS is an avenue for making spatially informed decisions and better understanding the world that we inhabit, but what is GIS to a student?

In today’s world, technology is a normal aspect of life to most K-12 students, and even though the average twelve year old might not know what GIS is, branches of the technology reach into his/her life every single day. The best examples of this are online mapping sites such as Google Earth and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Google Earth or its counterparts along with GPS are literally everywhere: in phones, cars, watches, and even boats, and most students today can use them better than their parents.

But what does this technology have to do with GIS?

GPS’s are used in GIS as a way to collect data. Matter of fact, data collection is one of the most important steps in using a GIS to reach goals, and GPS’s are one of the simplest, most accurate ways to collect spatial data while an online mapping site is the most common way people manipulate data and maps that were developed using a GIS. Even though jumping straight into GIS might be difficult in a classroom setting, using a GPS, which is a link between both worlds, allows for a smooth transition from everyday life to the growing field of science and technology.

But why teach it at all?

GIS isn’t only useful to researchers and analysts, it is also useful to teachers. Geography is far more than recalling states and capitals; it is connections, cycles, and trends. Although these are often harder to teach due to their elusive nature, GIS makes these often vague ideas concrete by creating a way for the students to actually visualize the world around them, and the way that it moves, changes, and interacts. Understanding the planet in this way can lead to students making better decisions for their lives as well as the life of the planet.

How?

There are a number of ways to get students interested in using geospatial tools, but the most common, and often most fun, is an activity called a geocache. Simply put, geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a GPS or other navigational techniques to hide and seek geocaches—containers—anywhere in the world. Obviously sending students around the world or even around their city might lead to some safety complications, but sending them around a park or schoolyard is not only hazard free, but incredibly fun. With a geocache, students can learn how to collect data, as a researcher might, but taking waypoints at different locations around their school. They can then hide any sort of treasure that they want—often times having the ‘treasure’ being a piece of an artistic or informative sub-activity—at the way points may prove useful in making sure they actually followed their GPS and collected all of their items instead of following another group who may be using their GPS’s to find the treasures in another particular order or pattern. Geocaches illustrate to students how technology can help in both collecting data and finding specific locations.

Another, more direct way, to use GIS in a classroom setting, is to have students complete activities with the use of a GIS. Although this might seem intimidating, there are ways to go about completing the activities simply using online sources. For instance, both Google, and ESRI have mapping platforms that are free and open for public use. All that needs to be completed is a simple downloading process. From here, ready to go activities are available on varying levels and topics depending on your curriculum and comfort with GIS; many of which are located on ESRI’s ArcLessons webpage. The majority of the activities use GIS as a platform for illustrating aspects of the planet and allowing students to actually visualize the spatial connections that surround them at all times. From oil spills, to language arts, to exploring math concepts, GIS is a wonderful, interactive way to inform and stimulate.

So, what is GIS to a student?

GIS is a way to better understand the world and all of the millions of connections within it. GIS is a way to visualize patterns and correlations that were once difficult to see and even harder to comprehend. Simply put, to a student, GIS is a way to visually make a complicated world easier.

Bringing Culture into the Classroom

How can your students visit the Pyramids of Giza, dance the Flamenco, and take a journey through the Amazon Rain Forest – without leaving the school? The Global Corner International Learning Center, a non-profit organization based in Pensacola, can bring international cultures into your classroom – and bring a world of excitement to your students.

Founded in 2008 by retired Navy Captain, Lee Little, The Global Corner introduces students to a different country and culture each year. Through fast-paced, hands-on activities brought into area classrooms, students in Escambia County have discovered Japan, Spain, Egypt, and this year, Brazil. “Having lived and traveled around the world, I realized that many Americans didn’t understand other cultures, or the geography that impacts those cultures. I knew if I wanted to change that, I would need to start with kids.”

The Global Corner, whose motto is Bringing the World to Life – One Child at a Time develops curriculum for an introduction and five activities each year. This year, in the introduction they teach about the geography of Brazil, introduce several Portuguese phrases, and describe what children would expect to see on a trip to Brazil. Students then “travel” back to their classrooms where they participate in activities that help them learn about Brazilian heritage, music and dance, culture, The Amazon, and art and architecture. Lessons are designed for each grade level from Kindergarten through 5th grade. Children receive take-home “passports” which are stamped for each activity and contain all their Portuguese words and phrases, with an assignment to teach a member of their family at least two new words.

The learning doesn’t end there. The Global Corner’s website www.theglobalcorner.org has an audio Learn the Language page that is updated weekly. The site has resources for teachers and parents, and includes worksheets and activities for students as well. (If resources for previous years’ countries are required, teachers can contact Ms. Little directly at 850-332-6404.)

When asked about the response from schools attending the program, Little smiles and says, “The feedback from the teachers and kids makes my job the best in the world. We see kids who have never traveled outside their own neighborhoods exploring Tokyo, Cairo, and Rio – and talking about them with such enthusiasm. One principal called and asked what our next country would be. She said her Media Specialist had not been able to keep books about Brazil on the shelves and she wanted to get ready for next year. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

We’d have to agree! To find out more about The Global Corner, visit their website www.theglobalcorner.org.

Traveling Teachers

Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that runs professional development travel programs designed for teachers.

GEEO is offering 13 different travel programs for the summer of 2011: India, China, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey/Syria/Jordan/Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa/Mozambique/Zimbabwe/Botswana, Morocco, Argentina/Uruguay/Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Costa Rica and Guatemala/Belize/Mexico.

Educators have the option to earn graduate school credit (3 credits through Indiana University) and professional development credit while seeing the world. The trips are designed and discounted to be interesting and affordable for teachers. GEEO also advises teachers on how to find funding to subsidize the cost of the trips. The trips are open to all nationalities of K-12 and University educators and administrators, as well as retired educators. Educators are also permitted to bring along a non-educator guest.

Detailed information about each trip, including itineraries, costs, travel dates, and more can be found at www.geeo.org. GEEO can also be reached 7 days a week, toll free at 1-877-600-0105 between 9AM-9PM EST. To sign-up for GEEO’s listserv, please send an email to listserv@geeo.org with the subject line “subscribe.”

Geography and Earth Science Workshops

Stetson University’s Gillespie Museum of Minerals now offers geography and earth science workshops for K-12 teachers. The museum hosted two workshops for Volusia County teachers this year. In May, an ”Earth Science Workshop” was conducted by Dr. Bruce Bradford, Florida Geographic Alliance board member, and Dr. Karen Cole, Director of the museum. A second workshop in November focused on ”Native Florida Plants” and was directed by Dr. Tony Abbott, Associate Professor of Geography & Environmental Science, and Dr. Cindy Bennington, Associate Professor of Biology. Twenty middle school teachers from Volusia County attended. Information about arranging a workshop may be obtained from Dr. Karen Cole,kcole@stetson.edu or Dr. Bruce Bradford, bbradfor@stetson.edu.

Spring

While You Were Out

This Spring at the Florida Geographic Alliance, students are blossoming in their geography knowledge as the Top 100 Florida Geography Bee candidates were announced and thoughts of this year’s next Geography Awareness Week are on the horizon.

Florida Geographic Alliance coordinator, Laurie Molina, and Stephen Veliz, our Teacher in Residence, traveled to Washington, D.C. to talk to our Florida representatives. A Florida contingent does this each year and has played a big role in collecting representative support to help geography become a well-taught core subject.

In other attempts to increase student’s knowledge of geography, each year the Florida Geographic Alliance sponsors the Mapping History Award. This year, the award was given out to Jonathan Borturla at the 2011 Florida History Fair state contest. Borturla attends Father Lopez High School in Volusia County and won the award for his senior individual exhibit titled: “The Spotted Owl Debate: Federal Lands, Logging, and a Threatened Species.”

The statewide Florida History Fair program this year was a success as it drew 950 students in from 29 different counties. 60 state finalists will represent Florida at the National History Day competition at the University of Maryland this June.

Articles this season focus primarly on the Florida Geography Bee’s Top 100 candidates and how geography is a core subject worthy of attention. Under the Now Available section, Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO) offers travel programs and Stetson University’s Gillespie Museum of Minerals offers geography and earth science workshops for K-12 teachers. To read each article, simply click the articles link above.

Missed a newsletter? Don’t worry! Past articles are available in the archives section located at the top of each web page.

Resources are available at the top of the newsletter as well! For more teacher resources, be sure to visit the Florida Geographic Alliance’s home page, and click on resources.

Letter from Dena Bush– West Florida Historic Preservation, Inc.– Regional Conference

Dear Colleague,

Sincerely,
Dena Bush

Florida Geography Bee

2011 marked the 23rd year of the National Geographic Society Geography Bee. For the 20 years prior to 2011, the Florida State Geography Bee has been coordinated by Beth Kirk-Kent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Beth is a familiar face in the geographic education community. She was an original member of the Florida Geographic Alliance Advisory Board, and she represented Florida at the National Geographic Summer Institute in 1988. Beth decided to retire as State Coordinator for the Bee after the 2010 competition. She had a fitting conclusion to her many years of service as the Florida Geographic Bee winner, Aadith Moorthy, captured the national title as well. Beth was honored at this year’s Bee with a warm round of applause from all the competitors, and their teachers and parents. Beth also received a plaque from National Geographic commemorating her service.

This year’s Florida State Geographic Bee winner is Martin Konstantinov from Lake Mary Preparatory School. Martin and his parents will travel to Washington, DC for the National Competition May 24-25. Their travel is provided by Plum Creek, a sponsor of the National Geographic Bee. We all wish Martin the best of luck! Next year’s Florida Geographic Bee take place on Friday, March 30, 2012 and will once again be held at Jacksonville University.

Geography: Core Subject

It wasn’t too long ago that we were all in school. Most of us remember our k-12 days, lugging around overly-sized backpacks and sifting through a mass amount of information that ranged from algebraic equations to thesis statements. Somewhere between the muddle of numbers and letters, we might even remember a few tidbits of science, and if we think even harder, a few elements of geography. In an attempt to keep students learning and to create a standard to better assess progress, the Federal Government created the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Under NCLB, English, Mathematics, Science, Foreign Language, Civics and Government, Economics, Arts, History, and Geography were all styled as the “core academic subjects”.

One of them has yet to be financed.

Even though Geography is considered a core subject, there is no dedicated federal funding to help move the discipline forward. Each of the other eight core subjects receives funding each year to aid schools and teachers in their task of keeping each subject important, relevant, and thoroughly taught. Without funding, Geography will continue to decline in both our school system and our community. The United States is already deemed to be “geographically illiterate,” which is becoming more and more dangerous as the global economy continues to grow.

Luckily, there is still hope. Organizations such as National Geographic, The National Council for Geography Education, and the State Geographic Alliances are fighting to have Geography funded by illustrating to Capitol Hill just how important Geography is to our students and our future. Other organizations are battling against the decline of geography in our school systems, by incorporating geography into each avenue of social studies. Although this solution is not the ideal, it allows elements of Geography to still be taught. The publication, which is titled “Strengthening Geography In The Social Studies,” illustrates and explains the different ways to enhance geography within a curriculum that already exists.

Many senators and representatives feel as though it is a waste of our national money to fund geography; they side with those who believe geography is adequately integrated in other subjects. Their argument is based in the fact that funding would be taken away from the other core subjects and siphoned over to geography. But is that truly the case? Especially when non-core subjects, such as physical education, are receiving funding?

Education is by far the most important gift that we can give the children of this country. A well-rounded, complete curriculum will help to prepare our younger generations for future battles, whether they are personal or global. If we move forward with this idea, maybe we can actually create a community where no child is left behind.

GEEO Travel Programs

Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO) is a non-profit organization that runs summer professional development travel programs designed for teachers.GEEO is offering 13 different travel programs for the summer of 2011: India/Nepal, China, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey/Jordan/Egypt, South Africa/Mozambique/Zimbabwe/Botswana, Morocco, Argentina/Uruguay/Brazil, Peru, Costa Rica and Guatemala/Belize/Mexico. Registration deadline is June 1st, 2011, however some of the programs will be full before then.

Educators have the option to earn graduate school credit (3 credits through Indiana University) and professional development credit while seeing the world. The trips are 8 to 23 days in length and are designed and discounted to be interesting and affordable for teachers. GEEO also advises teachers on how to find funding to subsidize the cost of the trips. GEEO provides teachers educational materials and the structure to help them bring their experiences into the classroom. The trips are open to all nationalities of K-12 and University educators and administrators, as well as retired educators. Educators are also permitted to bring along a non-educator guest.

Geography and Earth Science Workshops

Stetson University’s Gillespie Museum of Minerals now offers geography and earth science workshops for K-12 teachers. The museum hosted two workshops for Volusia County teachers this year. In May, an ”Earth Science Workshop” was conducted by Dr. Bruce Bradford, Florida Geographic Alliance board member, and Dr. Karen Cole, Director of the museum. A second workshop in November focused on ”Native Florida Plants” and was directed by Dr. Tony Abbott, Associate Professor of Geography & Environmental Science, and Dr. Cindy Bennington, Associate Professor of Biology. Twenty middle school teachers from Volusia County attended. Information about arranging a workshop may be obtained from Dr. Karen Cole, kcole@stetson.edu or Dr. Bruce Bradford,bbradfor@stetson.edu.