Tag: mental geography

0

Push & Pull Factors Assignment, Spring 2011

Every semester, I give students a basic assignments asking them to "Rate the States." After they do that, we work through some simple analyses as a bridge into discussing push and pull factors. Here are the results from my Spring 2011 courses at the University of Akron. Read more

4

Geographic Literacy: Our Job Isn't Finished

Of course, we all know that maps are not the end-all, be-all of geography; far from it, maps are only a small part of what geographers do.  At the same time, though, maps are useful tools that are crucial, especially to beginning students, in helping represent the world and provide a basis for understanding the more interesting aspects of our field.  With all of this in mind, I'm bringing forth an activity that I do on the first day of every World Regional Geography course I teach.  After we go over the syllabus, I hand each student a blank piece of Hammermill copy paper and give them the following instructions: Draw a map of the world, label what's important. Here are the results. Read more

14

Impressionist Geography: 50 States, 50 Words

I am purposely not providing any further explanation to the words as they are chosen.  Why?  Because if you look at this map, even if you don't know me and don't know a thing about me, you're going to see these words and begin connecting the dots. You're going to have your own perception of why I chose the words I chose, and you're going to come up with other possibilities for your own map. It's inevitable, because maps draw us in, and make us think.  You're going to know me a little better than you did before, and whatever ideas you scratch from this map about me will be absolutely 100% true; "knowing" someone is only a compilation of impressions and perceptions about that person, because we can never truly be in their heads or walk in their shoes. Read more