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clay dubeHi Folks,
Let's use this thread to talk about issues that came up during our brainstorming session on what the statistics in the reader suggested about East Asian geographic realities.
Americans, as most know, are geography-challenged. In a 2002 survey American kids placed next to last in geographic knowledge. For example:
only 58% of US teens named Afghanistan as the Taliban base (in 2002 – after we had invaded Afghanistan to attack the Taliban), 63% of Mexican kids knew this, more than 80% of Swedish, German, and Italian kids did.
Source: National Geographic/Roper survey, 2002
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foundation/pdf/NGS-Roper-GeoLitReport2002.pdf
A web version of the Japanese geography presentation:
http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/japan/geography/
I turned the Korea presentation that I was not able to share into a web presentation. It is slow to load because I haven’t optimized the pictures for the web. This is not a public webpage because I have not sought nor received permission to publish the images used to the web. You may view it and I’ll give it and the Japan presentation to you on a cd-rom at the end of the seminar.
Internet Explorer version 5 and later: http://www.asia.ucla.edu/k/korea-geography.mht
Netscape, Internet Explorer version 4 and later : http://www.asia.ucla.edu/k/korea-geography2.htm (smaller images, but works in more browsers)
AnonymousIt is fascinating to me that although I grew up all over the United States and even lived in Germany for 3 years (on an Army base) I can still be so confused about geography. I wonder if it is because it is not emphasized in schools?
Or because it is not high on the list of priorities of things to remember if it is easy to get around and things are comfortable in the country?
Or maybe I just had a knack for getting it wrong?
My husband (who is reading this over my shoulder) thinks that it depends on the kids being exposed to it; if they are interested they remember, if they aren't interested or they are lazy, they don't remember.
Does it have anything to do with our society as a whole? That we only share borders with 2 countries? Maybe the size and physical arrangement of our home?
AnonymousI hope we can discuss more about geography and how The unique land masses of China (Continental), Korea (penninsula) and Japan (island) have had a profound effect on the distinct cultures of these three countries. My wife mentioned some interesting thoughts about how being an island nation has had a profound effect on the Japanese character. I 'm sure we could come up with some other interesting theories as to why the East Asians are all so different due to geography.
AnonymousI've noticed geography weaknesses for my students too
Here are the reasons I give
1. It really isn't emphasized in History classes. The only teacher in my department that used maps for than once a month just retired after 30 years. All the teachers who have started in the last 20 years tend to .not have time to fit it in. This has been going on for such a long time that I have noticed a lot of history teachers are weak on geography themselves.
2. The U.S. is not physically in the middle of the excitement. I'm sure most students can point out Canada and Mexico but when you get to the far off places, then it gets tricky.
3. Students do not watch the news nearly as much as past generations. I don't have any data on this, i'm just going with my personal experiences with students.
AnonymousI really appreciate the posts here with ideas for fun, kinesthetic geography activities. I agree with the claim that geography is neglected in our curriculum. I think the fact that we do not have state geography standards is evidence that geography is not respected and understood throughout our culture.
I teach 7th grade world history, and I do not have time to teach geography since the California state history standards are so numerous and demanding for my grade level. However, I still take the time to teach geography, starting the year with a general world geography unit and beginning each specific unit of study with a geography lesson on the region to be examined.
My pacing really suffers as I see colleagues that focus on the history standards moving faster. While there are times I feel pressure to skip the geography components, I know in my heart that would be a disservice to my students so I stick to my plans.
There is no way to teach history properly without teaching geography, and since social sciences in general and geography in particular are so sorely neglected in our educational system, those of us attempting to teach it well at any level have to spend extra time trying to remediate the deficiencies our students arrive with.
How did the state content standards get written without geography and does anyone know if is there any timetable to reevaluate the standards and possibly revise?
At a few points throughout the school year I have students do some reflecting and inevitably the geography lessons come up as some of their favorite activities- the kids find them meaningful and interesting.
AnonymousHi,
One webpage I use in my history classes is from the University of Texas Map Collection
Here are the Asia Maps
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/asia.html
For Historical Maps about China
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/history_china.html[Edit by="jdelarme on May 27, 3:25:53 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousThanks for the tip on the website providing maps. I found it to be much better then some others I have seen and it really provides alot of good geographical information that can make for a comprehensive lesson.
clay dubeHi Folks,
James is quite right about the usefulness of The Perry-Castenada Map Library at the University of Texas. You should also look at the web resources thread of the Asia in My Classroom forum lists many excellent sites.
You can also access a dated, but still useful catalog at:
Asia via the Web
AnonymousOne idea our social studies have latched on in the last couple of summers is create multimedia files on the geography of the world. We have a set list of grade-appropriate vocabulary words and concepts every year, so the faculty is trying to collect appropriate materials for student lessons. Starting with vacation photos and slides, we are hoping to build classroom bulletin boards that hits key geography standards in coordination with history standards. For example, the 8th grade students who went to Washington D.C., Jamestown, and Colonial Williamsburg in 6th grade, could now use their own PowerPoint and iMovie presentations to build a curriculum unit on American colonies next year.
Since we have a few world travelers in our department, and a pretty diverse faculty at our campus, we plan to keep building museum-like exhibits to share culture and traditions with our communities. An ideal would be to have thematic classrooms occupied by social studies teachers to bring the world closer to the students. For example, the geography room could be a cross between the old college lecture room with multiple wall maps, while also supporting new digital media and resources. Materials to teach the geography concepts could be stocked in the room similar to science labs and their equipment. We could maybe even rotate teachers between classes to better utilize our collective resources?!?...
How about 6th grade teachers with theme rooms of: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome...
How about 7th grade teachers with theme rooms of: Islam, Medieval China, Feudal Japan, Medieval Europe...
How about 8th grade teachers with theme rooms of: American Colonies, American Revolution, Civil War...
The coolest thing I saw was at CalTech, which is a 3-D map created by laser holograms...The dream with be a room similar to a movie sound stage surrounded by green screens, in which students can wear Virtual reality goggles and headsets. A little temperature control at the fingertips, some natural/human sounds pumped in to student headsets...
Connecting all this is the good old horticulture class and after school activity. I always enjoy the Huntington Garden with all the diverse plants from the world... Since most middle schools still have their garden area???... While geography is better experienced through travel and personal contact, there should be no reason the world should be closer to us in our own playgrounds?!?
AnonymousHow early is too early to start teaching geographical skills? When considering the National Geographic - Roper 2002 Global GEographic Literacy Survey, it would appear that the answer to that question should be " the earlier, the better." I can recall that once when I taught first grade at a school in Birmingham, Alabama during Geography month, each teacher had to choose a country and spend the entire month concentrating on teaching his/her class and the rest of the school about that paricular country, its geography and its culture. I chose to teach about Japan because of its intense focus on education and its intriguing culture. My students and I first decorated our classroom door with bonsai trees and cherry blossoms. We created a border of Japanese characters. The month was spent learning about the location of Japan, the language, people, and culture. As a culminating activity we made Kimonos from bed sheets, cut in half. We cut slits for the sleeves and a section of material was cut from the bottom of the sheet to serve as a sash. Then I wrapped each student tightly in a "Kimono" and tied the snugly beneath their rib cage. We sat down on floor cushions with a table board in the middle and had "sushi" (noodles with canned tuna mixed in), which we ate with "chopsticks" or in our case , craft sticks. Those first grade students learned a lesson in Japanese geography and culture that they never will forget; and neither will I.[Edit by="wjkillian on Aug 6, 10:15:51 PM"]I mistakenly wrote peach blossoms whrn I really meant cherry blossoms.[/Edit]
[Edit by="wjkillian on Aug 6, 10:17:33 PM"][/Edit]
AnonymousI recently read an article entitled "Green Great Wall" that revealed the fact that vast areas of China is being turned into a dust bowl due to overgrazing, drought, deforestation, and overexploitation of water resources. About these existing conditions, New Scientist magazine makes reference, dubbing this "the biggest ecological problem the world has seen. To combat this, the authorities in China have taken on a major project which has become known as "the great green wall." Under this program, trees have been planted on a major scale to create a barrier that will " halt the dust in its tracks." The Chinese are also planting bushes and shurbs to stablilze the soil." This project began in 1978 and is halfway to reaching its goal, that being to cover 86 million acres of land with trees and drought-tolerant plants.
This would be a superb lead lesson for teaching students about deforestation and the need for resource conservation.
AnonymousAccording to the prologue to the movie The Last Samurai, " A god dipped his sword into the ocean and when he pulled it out four perfect drops of water fell from the blade forming the four major islands of Japan. But I am inclined to agree with the second notion mentioned in the same prologue that Japan was built by an army of courageous warriors. I'll also add that natural occurances on earth's surface and beneath its core helped to form the mountainous arcipelago.
Japan's geography offers so many opportunities for lessons to be taught and learned. Because of the many earthquakes and volcanoes that occur there, this country makes for a wonderful platform on which to more closely examine these natural phenomenons. Another lesson could be to compare the size of Japan with more familiar areas such as California or the similarity of its latitudinal location to places such as Portland.
We as educators should take full advantage of every opportunity to learn and to teach our students about this wonderful and amazing string of islands located off the eastern coast of Asia.