Reports on an undergraduate geography course that attempted to improve students' essay writing skills. A prepatory workshop familiarized students with essay writing, developed trust in their writing ability, generated criteria for writing and assessment, and explored good/bad essay techniques. Later assignments utilized peer and self-assessment.…

Describes and evaluates an unusual and innovative assessment procedure used in an undergraduate hydrology and oceanography class. Working in teams, English students produce research articles published by an in-house, though refereed, academic journal. Professors and students agree that the process stimulates students to perform at their highest…

Explores the intersection of geography and politics in U.S. public policy development and connects this to several of the National Geography Standards. Discusses contemporary issues including economic interdependence, the impact of migration, resource competition, cultural values, and environmental issues. Offers suggested student activities. (MJP)

Describes the somewhat contradictory movements towards political and economic integration and political decentralization in the European Union (EU). Discusses the implications of those trends for the future of the sovereign state, specifically for Spain, France, and the United Kingdom. Maintains that political power is being wrested away from core…

Describes a college-level class that studies the geography of poverty in Illinois and uses these findings as a basis for classroom discussions and exercises concerning poverty. Empirical evidence suggest that poverty levels are higher in rural areas rather than in urban areas. Discusses possible reasons and implications. (MJP)

Presents project designed to teach eighth grade gifted and talented students about geographic themes and locational skills. Describes the lesson plan, applying the 5 fundamental geography themes to learning about 11 African countries. Explains the culminating project: organizing a bike-a-thon ("Ride for Wildlife") that raised $2784.00…

Argues that female students remain disproportionately quiet in geography classes because of male bias forms of instruction. Maintains that girls' interest and responses increased when examples and issues involving women were introduced. Includes tabulation and classification of responses by gender, and comments from female students. (MJP)

Geoscience topics are playing an increasingly important role with regard to the future of our planet. Consequently, they have been moving into the educational foreground because of their societal relevance. The question is, however: Are pupils interested in these topics? This is important didactically, for interest is both a prerequisite and a…

In this article, the author describes how teachers, students, and other community members collaborated in the planning and preparation of World Bazaar, a project aimed to immerse elementary students into modern and ancient cultures through reading, writing, researching, using maps, and seeing videos. On the day of the World Bazaar, the courtyard…

Focusing on the debate around women's membership of the Royal Geographical Society (UK) 1892-1893, a role play was written using archive and secondary sources and is reproduced here as a resource. In the first instance the role play makes women visible in the late nineteenth-century geographical discourse. It also shows how institutional…

Two experiments investigating the benefit of computer-based applications in geography education are presented. The computer-based methods employ concepts of visualization, including animation and interactivity, to facilitate active learning. These computer-based methods are compared with physical (i.e. tangible) models, which themselves can be…

Latin America is a popularly accepted world region. A systematic review of geographic interpretations of Latin America reveals that the origin of the term goes back to the mid-nineteenth century and that the region's boundaries have shifted over time. This article argues that four basic principles operate in the formation of world regions such as…

Considerable activity has occurred in the recent past regarding policy-making around Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in the school curriculum. Teaching about sustainable development involves complex and contested ethical and political issues. This case study research investigates how four student teachers taking part in a one-year…

This volume gathers all the information necessary to understand how maps depict the world. The book is a concise, but comprehensive guide to maps and mapmaking and includes photographs, drawings, maps, graphics, artifacts, and cartoons that make the articles accessible and entertaining. More than 350 entries, arranged alphabetically and thoroughly…

Utilizing an anthropological approach, this paper provides an intense and unified description of the dominant geographic, economic, political, historic, and social trends prevalent in Cape Verde. It serves as a quasi-explicit and exceptionally objective emphasis of the island's background, and the outgrowths evident in the status quo. The…