This three-day lesson plan provides students with an introduction to reading topographic maps using multiple modalities. The goal is to give students a range of opportunities using different media to increase their map-reading skills. After hands-on modeling, a summative assessment provides students with the opportunity to put their topographic…

Though overshadowed by their Japanese counterpart, Taiwan's and South Korea's comics industries produce illustrated tales that represent and speak back to their host cultures, even when employing common Japanese manga conventions. As Japanese manga is popular with North American youth, Taiwanese and South Korean comics present a potential…

This lesson plan will illustrate how Taiwan can be used as a case study in an undergraduate human geography, population geography, or demography course. Incorporating Taiwan within the curriculum can equip students with a deep understanding of demographic concepts, specifically as it relates to the demographic trends in Taiwan. Through in-depth…

Map literacy is a key goal of geographic education learning outcomes. Geography classrooms develop map literacy through practicing map skills (Sandford 1986; Hanus and Havelková 2019). One area where map skills pedagogy is deficient is in teaching the analysis and interpretation of maps as inherently political objects, with bias and latent meaning…

Games have been used as instructional tools throughout history. Educational experiences are more effective when learners are active participants, and when teachers carefully choose fun games with appropriate game mechanics and clear curricular connections, students can engage in rigorous mental processes. At the same time, students may learn a…

The objective of this lesson is for students to explain the basic geographic concepts of "space," "place," and "nature and society" using examples discussed in Alexander Murphy's "Geography: Why It Matters." The lesson is taught over two 50-minute class periods using the jigsaw technique and two strategies…

According to the author, this innovative lesson plan incorporates virtual reality (VR) technology to foster environmental awareness and care in late primary-age students. Drawing on the place-based education approach and social constructivism in the lesson design, students participate in collaborative project-based learning. The students' task…

Using geographic information systems (GIS), spatial data, and web mapping tools to enrich teaching and learning in geography courses is an effective way to integrate critical thinking and spatial analysis into the classroom (or virtual classroom). This lesson describes mapping song lyrics through ArcGIS Online. It explores how students analyze and…

The Powerful Geography approach entails strengthening the relationship among curricula, student aspirations and motivations, and applications and practices of geographers in business, government, and nonprofit organizations. As a practical response to the GeoCapabilities project's vision of future geography curricula based on conceptions of…

Models are an important tool for geography teaching, as they can be used to represent features of human and/ or physical systems. In addition, they enable the student to identify with the demonstrated reality, since they work with iconic images and symbols specific to each culture, used to represent the elements contained in the models (da Silva…

The aim of this lesson plan is to explore effective methods that students can use to dispose of wastes around them in their communities. The guiding question for this lesson is: What are possible solutions to increase effective decomposition of waste in our society?

The purpose of this 2-3 day lesson is to introduce students in Grades 2-4 to the idea that people move around the world for a variety of reasons. In this activity, students explore why people move through class discussion, a guided reading, and interviews. The teacher elicits student ideas using the compelling question (Dimension 1 of the C3…

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) empowers the foundational computation resources underlying data analytics, spatial modeling, and many other domains serving the growing knowledge economy in the United States. In every part of these interactions with CI, questions of how to seamlessly integrate CI training into educational programs exist. In this article,…

"Local foods" are inherently geographical, rooted in space and place. Students can explore local foods from multiple geography angles. This introduction highlights some of these potential angles as applied to ice cream shops in New York State. Teachers are encouraged to adapt this lesson to fit their own needs and appropriate local food…

Sustainable agriculture practices are increasingly being used by farmers to maintain soil quality, increase biodiversity, and promote production of food that is environmentally safe. There are several types of sustainable agriculture practices such as organic farming, crop rotation, and aquaculture. This lesson plan focuses on the sustainable…