Landscape-scale conservation planning performed in a systematic and transparent manner is becoming more common as it is increasingly evident that ecological processes are being affected at large spatial scales. The Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative undertook a 15-state landscape conservation planning project, resulting in a landscape…

Do more natural settings improve students' learning? We collected surveys immediately following 283 U.S.-based environmental education (EE) field trip programs for youth and used land cover data to examine the relationship between levels of naturalness, defined as the percentage of natural land cover of the EE field trip site, and student learning…

The U.S. Census is a geography teacher's toolbox. As a member of the Statistics in Schools (SIS) development team, Chris Bunin was tasked with exploring existing resources to develop lesson plans. Census.gov is a dynamic online reservoir filled with infographics and visualizations, articles and reports, and best practice instructional materials.…

Place-based education has traditionally had a limited focus on mathematics, and critical mathematics education often lacks explicit attention to place and space. We explore integrating theories of place, spatial justice, and critical mathematics education. To begin, we consider various frameworks of place--including Indigenous, urban, and critical…

An Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture (ATCOFA) senior spatial science undergraduate student engaged in a multi-course undergraduate research project to expand his expertise in remote sensing and assess the applied instruction methodology employed within ATCOFA. The project consisted of performing a change detection…

This article illustrates the steps taken to enact a new methodology for participatory social mapping by the Environmental Education, Communications and the Arts (GPEA) Research Group of the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT). The aim of Social Mapping is to record the identities, territories and socio-environmental conflicts experienced by…

In this dissertation, I analyze the impact of three environmental education strategies implemented in rural northern Tanzania focused on forest-related knowledge. In Chapter Five, I assess the impact of two strategies--face-to-face group discussion and mobile phone texting--on knowledge. I also compare the effectiveness of the two strategies in…

For decades, educators have hoped to integrate geospatial tools into K-12 classrooms but struggled with barriers of time, technology, and curriculum alignment. The authors formed a design partnership with ninth-grade science and social studies teachers in an urban high school in order to conduct teacher professional development while also…

The development of a blended learning approach to enhance surveying education is discussed. The need for this learning strategy is first investigated based on a major review of the surveying course, including analysis of its content, benchmarking with key national and international universities, and surveys of key stakeholders. Appropriate blended…

Due to the inappropriate planning and explosive population growth in urban areas, especially in developing countries, sustainable and disaster-safe urbanization has become the most important challenge for governments. Urbanization presents benefits in different ways but has led simultaneously to changes in land use/land cover (LULC), impacting…

Auburn University--a prominent land-grant and comprehensive research institute in Alabama--is no exception to the need to grapple with transportation planning. Auburn launched its transit system (called "Tiger Transit") in 1997 to address the needs of student commuters and a shrinking parking supply. However, by 2007 Tiger Transit faced…

People have always been fascinated with investigating their home--the Earth. For centuries, maps have stirred imaginations and inspired explorations of the unknown. Maps are a rich source of information, showing spatial relationships between climate, vegetation, population, landforms, river systems, land use, soils, natural hazards, and much more.…

In November 1996, the voters of Montgomery County (Maryland) approved by referendum an amendment to the County Charter that changed the County Council's review and approval cycle of the six-year Capital Improvements Program (CIP) from an annual to biennial cycle. The referendum specified that in odd-numbered fiscal years (on years) the County…

Google Earth (GE) is proving to be a valuable tool in the science classroom for understanding the environment and making responsible environmental decisions (Bodzin 2008). GE provides learners with a dynamic mapping experience using a simple interface with a limited range of functions. This interface makes geospatial analysis accessible and…

The map is a primary tool in geographic research, and the discipline of geography has experienced a significant methodological transformation during the last three decades with the development and now near ubiquity of geographic information systems (GIS) technology. The introduction of this technology into Indian country has spurred a debate over…