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Vernacular Region of "Up North," Wisconsin

This "Up North" area is important to Wisconsin's tourist economy and cultural identity. Many Wisconsin residents own property in the region, specifically to support their recreational pursuits. But where is "Up North"? As my GEO 106 students were becoming familiar with Google Earth this fall, I had them create a simple KMZ shape in the program to outline where they thought "Up North" was in the state. Read more

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Paying Nobel Forward: Lesson Plans to Teach Oceans

The seminar course covered a variety reading and discussion of ocean contemporary issues, which the conference supplemented with high-caliber research presentations. The goal of the capstone project was to encourage students to deeper engage with the content presented. The students decided to work in coordination with each other in designing lesson plans for a fully modular curriculum unit on ocean issues. The class decided on four specific ocean issues (carbon cycle, acidification, overfishing, loss of coral habitats) as most necessary to an overview of ocean issues, also noting the topics' sequential nature in building the content base. Read more

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GEO 106's Full Tree Inventory of UWFox

This fall, for the GEO 106 classwide project, we were asked by UWFox dean Dr. Martin Rudd to take an inventory of trees on campus in support of the TreeCampus USA initiative. We were happy to oblige. Read more

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Balloon Launch 01 - December 5, 2012

Originally planned to launch as part of GIS Day, and then having been three times delayed by weather, we finally launched the first balloon imaging mission on December 5, 2012. The original intended use for the data was to supplement GEO 106′s GEO 106's TreeCampus USA inventory, but it was not completed early enough for that application. Dr. Beth Johnson, as well as a handful of students, were very helpful in giving a hand for this launch. Read more

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WLDAAG / ELDAAG Presentation on Fatness

In October 2012, I gave this presentation, entitled "Using Autoethnographic Methods to Understand the Impact of Fatness on Space and Place" at the 2012 Joint Meeting of the West Lakes and East Lakes Division of the AAG at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. Read more

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Shawn's WLDAAG / ELDAAG Poster

Shawn Kargus, who's been working on adapting aquaponics as a low-cost way to solve food deserts, received a Student Scholars grant to support his presentation of this work at the 2012 West Lakes / East Lakes of the AAG Joint Meeting in DeKalb, Illinois. Read more

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Siri's Joey Votto Adventure

I've been a long-term admitted Apple fan as long as I can remember, literally. I've been using Apple products continuously since I started messing with my prized dad's Apple II at 18 months old, irritating him to no end. When I wouldn't leave it alone, he took up my mom's suggestion, and instead of barring me from it, taught me how to use it. Hence, a technophile was born. Read more

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My Geography of Obesity: Recreation & Vacation

Ah, summertime. Summer's a great season for having fun, being outside, traveling, and just generally recreating, especially when one's in an academic position that leaves most of that time relatively free. Of course, as with any profession, it's important that I take advantage of my time off by spending some of that time relaxing so that I can be productive and happy when I return to work. Unfortunately, vacation, recreation and fun aren't quite as relaxing for those of us who are obese. Indeed, my size presents a constant obstacle to achieving that ultimate goal of relaxation; not specifically from physical limitations (though I have those as well), but from the psychological stress that comes from being an obese person in a world designed for smaller folks. Read more

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NBC's Geographic Imagination, as Reflected in the Olympics Opening Ceremony

A lot has been said about the incredibly sub-par coverage provided by NBC during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Between their questionable decision to >tape-delay the ceremony to coincide with prime time to maximize ratings to >the many, many omissions from the rather bland, unsurprisingly free-of-colonialism ceremony on the U.S. broadcast -- including, quite offensively, a tribute to the 7/7 tube bombings that occurred the day after London's winning of the games was announced. Almost certainly, the slicing, dicing and discarding of key moments in the Opening Ceremony's first act was for the purpose of shoving in more commercials. Okay, fine, it's offensive, but whatever. As the second act, that Parade of Nations marched on, the same thing continued, but instead of omitting or glancing over parts of an entertainment production, NBC instead did the same to entire nations, making a mockery of their athletes' accomplishments. In other words, NBC sold out a number of nations and how they were represented to the American public (who, given the sad state of our country might never hear of some of these countries again), just to make more money on ads. Read more

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US That Could've Been: Creating Timeline X's Map with GIS

I've been dabbling around with an alternate historical geography of the United States that I've called "The United States That Could've Been." So far, I've laid out the initial concept map of the altered U.S., and I've drafted an alternate timeline of events, called "Timeline X," which is almost certain to be updated and improved upon a little later. I decided that I'd like to go a few more steps with this and create some bare basic demographic analyses in a GIS, and perhaps put together a little almanac with entries about each of the states. Read more