"Wicked problems" are complex to understand and challenging to teach. Our experience of teaching about environmental concerns in Aotearoa New Zealand suggests how these concepts are taught is more important for student learning than the nature of wicked problems themselves. By offering opportunities for students to co-develop their own…

This paper suggests that college-level geography instructors use novels to help students understand how people have interacted with particular environments within particular periods of time. In addition, it offers excerpts from approximately 20 novels that deal with topics often treated in human (cultural) geography courses. The author suggests…

Discusses how analytical behavioral geography can be taught at all levels of education. Fundamental concepts and principles of behavioral geography are examined including course content, models of man, models of the environment, perception and cognition, information diffusion and adoption, space preferences, and time-path analysis. (Author/RM)

Discusses how instructors can design a local field trip for undergraduate students enrolled in an economic geography class. The purpose of the field trip is to help students observe and interpret familiar scenes in terms of geographical concepts such as central place theory, changing land use, and spatial competition. (RM)

Describes objectives, content, and teaching procedures of an introductory college-level urban geography course. Lectures, student papers, and role playing are designed to help students learn about central place theory, space economy, land use, and social geography. (Author/AV)

The concept of shape often enters introductory cultural geography textbooks through the subject of political geography. This paper focuses on a quantitative way to introduce the concept of shape to students of cultural geography. The measure used in this approach was to compare the perimeter of the sovereign state with the perimeter of a circle…

Designed for students in grades 7 through 10, this teaching unit presents illustrative resource materials depicting the multi-factor nature of a geographic region. The unit focuses not only on climatic factors, but also on introducing other regional factors in an informal way. A blackboard summary of a class discussion of the different regions is…

Describes the use of concept mapping in teaching complex notions in urban geography. Discusses the nature and characteristics of concept mapping, course context, three experimental exercises, and student responses in evaluations. Finds that concept-mapping techniques increased students' understanding. Emphasizes the continuing potential of this…

Designed for students in grades 7 through 12, the paper presents illustrative resource materials for teaching concepts related to geographic regions. Emphasis is on giving students an understanding of the interrelationship between regional characteristics and human behavior. The paper introduces students to the following notions: environmental…

Suggests enhancing geographic education by teaching geography as a relationship between humans and the environment. Explores how to use the geographic themes of location, place and relationships, movement, and regions in the classroom. Provides suggestions for teaching geographic skills and developing geographic tools. Argues geographic awareness…

Inquiry techniques are described in which students investigate geographic phenomena in microcosm. The objective of this strategy is to enable students to examine geographic concepts and generalizations on a level which they can easily understand. Specifically, strategies for investigating and analyzing self-contained buildings and planned…

This conceptual unit in geography at the kindergarten level consists of a student Workbook and Pictorial Test, and a Teacher Manual. The objective of the unit is to develop the concept labeled "habitat", or the idea that the earth is man's home. Teaching strategies include questioning techniques, an analysis of pictures, classroom…

This document is one in a series of instructional materials on population education developed for the Baltimore public schools. The unit, designed for elementary grades 5 and 6, focuses on demography and human factors and consequences. The first part of the resource unit presents basic information, methodology, and understandings of demography and…

This document on the life cycle contains the 7th grade teacher background material, student activities component, and a unit test. The major objective of the unit is to encourage students to think critically about their own past and future through examination of how people in various cultures live. The teacher background component is presented in…

Observations of geography instruction in two high schools in London and research at the University of London Institute of Education provide the basis for an overview of pre-college geography instruction in Britain. Because British secondary schools concentrate more on universal education, they are developing a curriculum which is similar to the…