Fall

 

While You Were Out

The Florida Geographic Alliance has been up to many things lately.

This spring brought the Florida Society of Geographers annual conference and meeting to Tallahassee. After wonderful presentations were given in morning sessions, those who attended went to Wakulla Springs State Park to enjoy an afternoon boat tour of the springs as well as dinner and a final presentation from Gil Nelson. To view the track of the Wakulla Springs Boat Trip click here. All attendees are encouraged to upload their photos to it.

The alliance is also fast at work preparing for this year's upcoming Florida GeoWeek. We can't wait to share the new theme with you!

We have updated our newsletter site design to help better inform you and have listed new available opportunities for educators and members alike. Articles this season focus on the National Geographic Geography Bee held in Jacksonville, how the C3 Framework can better geography and social science education and the World of 7 Billion student video contest.

For more information and updates, don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list by clicking the subscribe link above.

 

NGS Florida Geography Bee

Written by Ray Oldakowski

The 25th annual National Geographic State Geography Bee for Florida took place in Jacksonville, Florida on Friday, April 5th.  102 contestants from Florida schools, grades four through eight, earned the right to compete for the Florida title and the opportunity to travel to Washington DC and participate in the National Geographic Bee in May.  The winner was Walker Miller from James Weldon Johnson Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida.

Dean Douglas Hazzard welcomed the students to the bee and to Jacksonville University.  Erik Henderson once again did a superb job as the final round moderator.  FGA advisory board members Jim Curtis and Mary Ellen Adlam served as preliminary round moderators along with JU faculty members Jeff Martin, Douglas Hazzard, and Jesse Hingson.  Ray Oldakowski and his student assistant Ben Reses served as the state bee coordinators.  In addition to the prize money, certificates, and T-shirts provided by National Geographic, the Florida Geographic Alliance provided additional mementos for the winner, 10 finalists, and all of the other students to remember their special day.  The event is sponsored by Google and Plum Creek.

 

C3 Framework

​Written by Elizabeth Smith

Recently, at the April meeting of the Florida Association of Social Studies Supervisors, Dr. John Lee, of North Carolina State University, presented the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards. The C3 Framework helps to prepare students for college, career, and civic life. C3 focuses on four domains: civics, economics, geography, and history. Each of these domains also focus on social studies concepts and skills that help to prepare 21st century students to engage in the decision-making process that is necessary for students to be successful post-high school.

The framework was facilitated by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) to support the literacy expectations found in the recently adopted Common Core State Standards. Though they are voluntary in implementation the C3 framework supports professional development design, resource and materials development, and curriculum/lesson planning. Dr. Lee was very excited to share the “Inquiry Arc.” This arc is designed to provide a foundation on a “set of interlocking and mutually reinforcing ideas that feature the four dimensions of informed inquiry in social studies.” The four domains in social studies are: 1) developing questions and planning inquiries, 2) applying disciplinary tools and concepts, 3) evaluating sources and using evidence, 4) and communicating conclusions and taking informed action.
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The C3 Framework is open to review and a final draft will be released in the summer 2013. The Vision Document is available online at: http://www.ccsso.org/c3framework.
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​Lee, John. “College, Career, and Civic Life (C3): Framework for Social Studies State Standards.” PowerPoint presentation. Holiday Inn Orlando International Airport. Orlando, FL. 19 April 2013.​

 

World of 7 Billion Announces Student Video Awardees

The 2012-2013 World of 7 Billion student video contest, hosted by Population Education, challenged high school students to connect population growth to one of three current global issues - food security, wildlife habitat, or the global status of women and girls. The winners have been announced and include 13 video PSAs from across the three categories with the winning videos in each awarded cash prizes of $1,000 for the first place winner, $500 for second place winner, and $250 for honorable mention prizes.

Katherine Salvatori of Osprey, Florida won an Honorable Mention in the category of the Global Status of Women and Girls with her video, “Women’s World Becomes Brighter Through Education”.

Over 550 submissions were received from all over the world - including 37 U.S. states, one Canadian province, and 17 countries abroad. To select winners out of the hundreds of videos, 21 judges, all experts in the category topic or video/film production, scored the top-ten finalists in each category. The contest had a great turnout and the quality of the videos exceeded expectations - the creative ideas and effort put forth by the students was impressive!

All of the winning videos can be viewed here http://www.worldof7billion.org/student_video_contest/winners along with profiles of the student filmmakers, and a list of our judges. Population Connection wants to thanks to all of the students (and their teachers) who entered and crafted such outstanding video messages on population issues.

 

GOOGLE TEACHER ACADEMY APPLICATIONS 

Google is now accepting applications for the next Google Teacher Academy in Chicago, Illinois on July 24-25. If you know any interested candidates, please have them apply by June 10 for this two day experience. Learn more and access the application on our webpage.  #gtachi #gct

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/google-teacher-academy.html​

 

GLOBAL EXPLORATION FOR EDUCATORS ORGANIZATION (GEEO)

Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that runs summer professional development travel programs designed for teachers.

GEEO is offering 23 different travel programs for the summer of 2013: India/Nepal, Italy, Portugal/Spain, Amalfi Coast, Eastern Europe, Budapest to Istanbul, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Comfort Thailand, Thailand/Laos, Cambodia, China, Comfort China, Russia/Mongolia/China, Turkey 15-day, Turkey 8-day, Kenya/Tanzania, South Africa/Mozambique/Zimbabwe/Botswana, Morocco, Peru, Ecuador, The Galapagos Islands and Costa Rica. The registration deadline is June 1, but space is limited and many programs will be full well before the deadline.

Detailed information about each trip, including itineraries, costs, travel dates, and more can be found at www.geeo.org. GEEO can be reached 7 days a week, toll free at 1-877-600-0105 between 9AM-9PM EST.

For more information, see Announcements on the AC Community Site.

 

VOLUNTEER FOR COMMON CORE TASK FORCE

The Common Core Task Force is working on another piece to support teachers in the field. This is a call for volunteers. We are looking for teachers from all grades to be involved in aligning National Geographic Kids books and resources to the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts. Click here to submit information:  Volunteers. NG Kids has many books so we are looking for a large number of volunteers.  Those who apply and are selected will be able to keep the books or series they review for use in their classrooms. Please sign up by May 31.

 

Winter

 

While You Were Out

Hello everyone and welcome back to school! Here at the Florida Geographic Alliance (FGA) we have been busy, busy, busy with board meetings, outreach, and planning for this year's upcoming Florida Geography Awareness Week! With so many preparations and surprises instore for your, we are more excited than ever to launch this year's GeoWeek. Please keep a look out for emails coming your way on how you might be able to help spread geography awareness and literacy throughout the state of Florida. This year we will be having a call for volunteers as well as a social media campaign to help keep community members, teachers and students involved and up to date with the campaign as it nears. Resources, including websites, books, and a tabloid specifically prepared and created for the week are being gathered and prepared. Want to know how you can help out? Email us at bpichard@ispa.fsu.edu

 

Now Available

 

GEOGRAPHY WEBINARS

​Geography-related webinars are scattered throughout the fall! For NCGE members, there is no cost, and for non-members, it is $20 to watch. The schedule and description of the webinar and guest speaker is listed on the NCGE website: http://www.ncge.org/webinar-schedule.

 

DEVELOPMENT COURSE AVAILABLE​A free online teacher professional development course is available. Titled Water: The Essential Resource, this course provides teaching strategies for environmental topics and puts special interest on oceans and freshwater systems. Registration opens September 4th, and the 8 week course lasts from October 9 through December 11. To register, visit www.eeipd.org.

 

WORLD OF 7 BILLION VIDEO Geography gets creative! By integrating technology into high school geography classrooms, students can create a video (60 seconds or less) showing the relationship between the world population at seven billion and their choice of: climate change, global poverty, or water sustainability. Students have the chance to win up to $1,000 and teachers to receive free curriculum resources. The deadline to enter is February 21, 2014. More information can be found atwww.Worldof7Billion.org.

 

NCGE Articles Available

The National Council for Geographic Education has released several journal articles for public use. This non-profit organization seeks to enrich geography education at all levels. These articles focus on geography teachers and aiding them in connecting their students to the material. There are two highlighted articles, the first called “Using ‘Petite Projects’ to Further Engage Students in Geography”. This will give ideas and inspiration to teachers wishing to deepen the discussion in the classroom. Giving students projects can allow them to have hands-on experience with geography and in aspects they may not experience elsewhere.This idea is explored in the feature article and is written especially for geography teachers.“Teaching Qualitative Research: Experiential Learning in Group-Based Interviews and Coding Assignments” is the second article offered and provides tips to teaching research techniques. The importance of qualitative research is growing, thus the explanation of that research is just as important, if not more. Instructions for accessing the journal articles online can be found athttp://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1103600790101-433/Online+Journal+Access+%281%29.pdf.

 

Reaching New Heights in Geography

The NCGE conference in Denver, Colorado provided new and exciting heights for them. Paul Gray, NCGE President for the 2013 year, gives his commentary on the exuberance and electric feel the conference had. The theme decided upon was “reaching new heights in geography”, and with that, the National Council for Geography Educators soared to new heights in membership. With a goal of ending the year with 1,000 members, the expectations were succeeded when that mark was hit in July. Now, the goal is 1,200 members by the end of December. A guest appearance was made by Ken Jennings, former Jeopardy all-star, who came to speak on topics such as maps, popular culture, and, of course, geography education. Also at the conference were exhibitors, who contributed sessions, products, and feedback for a conference experience like few before it.President Gray also issued a challenge for the future, stating that the hotel room block for the conference was not filled. For the conference to be at the lowest possible price, the hotel blocks need to be filled or else the NCGE has to pay back for spots not filled.This takes away from contributions for the conference.The good news, Gray reports, is that the conference location for next year is in Memphis, Tennessee, and has a better rate than what Denver gave. Memphis will provide more room for growth in NCGE’s future and allow it to keep reaching new heights!

 

Geography Awareness Week

Get ready, get set, GEO! Geography Awareness Week (GeoWeek) is quickly approaching, and excitement is building every day! This week, sponsored by National Geographic, is to promote geography literacy and get people excited about knowing not just their own backyards, but the world as well. The new national theme, “Geography and the New Age of Exploration” takes flight from November 17th through November 23rd. GeoWeek also gets to help celebrate the National Geographic Society’s 125th birthday and the 500th anniversary of Florida. All the excitement and celebrations are being launched by a social media campaign through Instagram, Twitter, Vine, Pinterest and YouTube to encourage local exploration! Ways to get involved in the campaign are to: upload a picture of yourself with outstretched arms in the midst of your favorite place to explore (see image to your left) and add the hashtag #flgeoweek, create response videos for GeoWeek YouTube videos, and follow us on Twitter @FLGeoAlliance, Facebook and Pinterest! Activities and volunteer opportunities for the week are to be announced, but you can bet they will be revolutionary and will challenge you to go out and explore Florida! It is time to “Learn Your Geography” and stay tuned for more updates on Florida’s GeoWeek!