Provides an overview of the National Commission on Social Studies in the Schools' publication, "Charting a Course: Social Studies for the 21st Century." Reprints the report's curriculum characteristics and goals segments, which briefly outlines content placement. Presents conflicting conceptions of social studies education and questions…

Reports findings of a study that tested the geographic knowledge of preservice and inservice teachers using the same National Council for Geographic Education's test given to elementary and secondary students. Concludes geography instruction for teachers is inadequate and that this helps perpetuate geographic illiteracy in the United States.…

Criticizes the Deep Ecology Movement as a new ecological world view. Discusses the limits of this philosophy including its views of destiny, evolution and cosmology. Concludes that although its intentions are admirable, Deep Ecology leaves too much unanswered. (CW)

Presented is support for the basic tenets of the Deep Ecology Movement. Answers several criticisms concerning mysticism, nuclear war, and destiny. Provides a platform and two models for the philosophy of Deep Ecology. (CW)

Contrasted are the philosophies of Deep Ecology and ancient Chinese. Discusses the cosmology, morality, lifestyle, views of power, politics, and environmental philosophies of each. Concludes that Deep Ecology could gain much from Taoism. (CW)

Reviews a model used in the teaching of plate tectonics which includes processes and concepts related to: terranes and the amalgamation of terranes, relative plate motion and oblique subduction, the effects of continent-continent collision, changes in plate motion, plate configuration, and the type of plate boundary. Diagrams are included.…

Examines the content-based approach and the form-based approach to values education in order to determine the more effective approach for Hong Kong geography instructors to adopt. Finds that the form-based approach is more popular among educators because it eliminates the danger of indoctrination. An exemplar unit, "Apartheid in South…

Presents a geographic inquiry lesson designed to supplement a unit on the Vietnam War. Students work in a cooperative learning situation which emphasizes critical thinking skills. Provides background information and lists references and sources from which a variety of visual activities can be derived. Reports a high degree of satisfaction among…

Oral history can be used to motivate English-as-Second-Language and bilingual students to study geography and history. The rationale for oral history approaches is described, ways to get started are offered, and excerpts from sample interviews are provided. (Contains 10 references.) (LB)

Presents activities from an interdisciplinary project studying local watersheds that incorporate a broad spectrum of disciplines including science, math, geography, English, computer science, and political science. Enables students to understand how precipitation changes chemically as it interacts with the soils and human-altered landscape as it…

Compares expert-/novice-based problem-solving behaviors with a Geographic Information Systems program. Uses naturalistic methods to analyze problem-solving strategies for occurrence of thematic elements. Reports that experts relied on logical formulations to query the database while novices used trial-and-error methods and midlevel cognitive…

Asserts that how people respond to risk is determined by how they perceive risk. Four-hundred and seven secondary school students answered questions concerning different dimensions of natural hazards (most likely to occur, loss of life, and others). Although the students possessed a high level of awareness much of their information was inaccurate.…

Presents activities to familiarize junior high school students with the processes behind and reasons for volcanism, which is generally a planet's way of releasing excessive internal heat and pressure. Students participate in the creation of four important volcano-related simulations: a lava flow, a shield volcano, a cinder-cone volcano, and a…

Discusses a project developed using HyperCard to teach geography and history. Describes research of weather patterns and corresponding historical accounts; HyperCard's capabilities for producing animated maps to display information; and the effectiveness of HyperCard as a teaching tool, including its flexible use as a lecture display tool or in a…

Uses central place theory and a trade center hierarchy to examine changes in size and function of communities in Saskatchewan, 1961-90. Finds shift of population to larger centers and pronounced decline in hierarchical level of smaller trade centers, leading to questions of smaller communities' feasibility, Suggests possibility of coordination…