In urban geography courses, knowledge of a local area is especially useful for demonstrating geographic principles. These classroom examples are further enhanced when students conduct their own field observations, with direction from the instructor. This paper describes a field study of the metropolitan Atlanta area that is used in an intermediate…

Do cities have an optimal size? In seeking to answer this question, various theories, including Optimal City Size Theory, the supply-oriented dynamic approach and the city network paradigm, have been forwarded that considered a city's population size as a determinant of location costs and benefits. However, the generalised growth in wealth that…

Aboard a train heading out of Minneapolis toward frontier North Dakota, Era Bell Thompson in her autobiography "American Daughter" (1946) describes a landscape that grows steadily bleaker with each mile farther west: "Suddenly there was snow--miles and miles of dull, white snow, stretching out to meet the heavy, gray sky; deep banks…

In this policy brief, the author contends that there are four other principal causes of the collective poor showing on reaching state equity goals in the United States. These are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the school finance world. The first horseman rides an economic horse, the second a sociological horse, the third a political horse,…

This study evaluates the overall social policy system of Hungary and proposes reforms aimed at strengthening its role as a defense against poverty, raising the quality and equity of social programs, ensuring financial sustainability of the system, and restoring incentives (in particular relating to demand and supply for labor) suitable to a market…

China's herculean efforts to slow the increase of its giant population appear to have worked: the annual birth rate fell from about 35 births per 1,000 in the 1950s to 20 per 1,000 in the 1990s. This bulletin examines the development and consequences of the strict population planning control measures introduced in the 1970s, and strengthened in…

This document is a guide to provide teachers and curriculum consultants with an up to date overview of the histories, cultures, and current issues concerning the region of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It is not intended as an in depth study of the area or people. The guide is divided into two parts. The first discusses the Soviet…

Intended for geography professors, students, and researchers, this publication explores some topics in the area of alcohol use and abuse that are potentially suited for geographical research. There are four chapters. Chapter 1 introduces some of the more familiar arguments for and against alcohol consumption. The second chapter deals with the…

Both the teaching of the free enterprise system and the teaching of geography are an integral part of the guidelines for elementary school social studies in most states. The two have been combined into a resource unit for studying localities so that students may understand that U.S. citizens, the environment, and the economy are interdependent.…

A collection of reproducible black and white maps, charts, and graphs for classroom use profiles Africa today. Individual country maps were originally produced by the United Nations, U.S. Department of State, and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The material depicts the continent's (1) size, (2) population, (3) resources, (4) commodities, (5)…

By 1985, fertility rates in Europe were below the replacement level of 2.1 births per woman in all but Albania, Ireland, Malta, Poland, and Turkey, following a steady decline from a 1965 postwar peak well above 2.5 in Northern, Western, and Southern Europe and an erratic trend from a lower level in Eastern Europe. Natural decrease (fewer births…

The development and initial standardization of a two-part geography assessment test designed to measure student knowledge and understanding at the secondary level is the focus of this study. Intended to provide information about groups of students rather than to assess individual students, Part 1 of the test measures geographic skills and a…

Examples of computer programs illustrate how instructors can introduce students to geographic concepts and models while creating a thinking environment in the classroom. The programs are designed to assist students in computational tasks and to provide both graphic and numeric output which will be stimulating. A population pyramid program…

By focusing on social and cultural backgrounds of the five U.S.-affiliated Micronesian states, this document highlight issues that pertain to education in this region. The first sections deal with the political history of the region, emphasizing the period of U.S. administration from the 1940's to the 1970's. The history of instititonalized…

The study of density and crowding has expanded rapidly, due in part to concern about the impact of high density on the quality of life. In this paper results of a study which focused upon the intervening role of neighborhood variables in the experience of urban density are reported. Residents of moderately dense urban areas were surveyed and…