Contemporary global flows of people, ideas and capital have led to profound changes in transnational interactions, affinities, forms of sociality and understandings of citizenship. Traditional vocabularies of citizenship struggle to cope with this rescaling of dimensions of citizenship in an increasingly globalised world. In addition, educational…

This activity is part of a larger set of activities and presentations developed by the Michigan Geographic Alliance to help teachers meet the proposed Social Studies standards in 6th and 7th grade. The Michigan Geographic Alliance website also has explanatory presentations, supplementary maps, and readings. In this 10-20 minute intermediate…

A university instructor and master teacher describe the limited examples of practitioner research in elementary social studies found in traditional publications. They present a social studies practitioner research project that investigated the use of various technologies in 6th grade geography to improve student engagement, collaboration and…

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the possible impact of project-based learning on student learning perspective and achievement in a social studies classroom. American schools are in an era of standardized testing based on standards-driven curricula that only teaches basic recall and recognition. School curriculum should be focused on…

Place-name geography, as it is sometimes called, is merely the tip of the iceberg in a field that aims to understand people and places and their interactions with the environment. Geography is also the study of spatial distributions and interpreting what they mean. This review lays out the definition of the nature of science as it relates to…

Student engagement is an important issue in higher education, and is related to the quality of the student experience. Increasing student engagement is one way of enhancing quality at a higher education institution. An institution is able to influence student engagement in a number of ways, one being through curriculum design. The use of a…

Does geography have an American constituency? Setbacks for the discipline at all levels of education over the past 65 years would suggest that geography is universally unpopular in the United States, but is that really true? The American Geographical Society (AGS) polled adult US residents on their understanding of the discipline itself and…

Springs are an important hydrological concept because springs form an interface between underground and surface sub-systems of the hydrological cycle. Furthermore, springs are important suppliers of drinking water but are at risk today due to numerous anthropogenic interferences. The general knowledge of springs and their formation is usually…

Many students enter classes with a very Orientalist mental map of the region usually called the "Middle East." This is understandable considering the information and images of the region that pervade our media landscape. In an effort to teach student how to critically examine media sources themselves, the author utilizes a blog format…

Critical service learning is an approach that works toward social transformation and egalitarian partnerships. However, the ways in which space facilitates or undermines this approach has been largely unexplored. Drawing on a case study from an urban education course, we argue that a critical geography framework can develop students'…

Factors of Critical Spatial Thinking for a geography metacognition assessment are a moot point among experts and practitioners. This study aims to develop an understanding about such factors by using a structural equation model to generate a comprehensive and accurate assessment instrument for metacognition in geography. The study is a research…

K-12 geography education is often grouped with other subjects, limiting student exposure to geospatial technology and geographic inquiry. We explored the implementation of geospatial technology in North Carolina K-12 schools through a forty-four-question survey. Educators shared their teaching methods, geospatial technology integration, and…

What is known about places we have not been to before we learn from maps, geographical magazines, or maybe travel reports. Ordinarily, this information is for granted without reflecting on its origin and underlying theoretical premises. Usually, this lack of reflection does not appear as problematic. However, what can can be learned from the fact…

This small case study investigated the use of the Quality Talk framework to empower students to pool their knowledge in group discussions around a novel topic or event. The main goals of the Quality Talk approach were to provide teachers with a prescriptive framework for increasing their students' critical-analytical thinking by providing greater…

This article describes how one teacher introduced Earth science topics to a 10th-grade biology class using a 3D printer. The activities described give students opportunities to visit Earth's geologic landmarks through kinesthetic modeling. 3D-printed topographical maps function as a supplement to, or replacement of, two-dimensional drawings,…