My Big List of Activities and Resources for Geography Awareness Week
This week is Geography Awareness Week. It’s one of my favourite weeks of the 12 months! Every 12 months presently I publish an up to date listing of some of my favourite video games, actions, instruments, and classes to advertise geography consciousness. Here’s my up to date listing for 2021.
The first place to start a search for geography consciousness week sources must be National Geographic. On their Geography Awareness Week page you may discover heaps of concepts together with this one for hosting a geography quiz night (link opens a PDF).
WorldCover Viewer
WorldCover Viewer is an interactive land use map produced by the European Space Agency. The map lets guests see how land is used worldwide and in particular locations. Visitors can pan and zoom to see land use for an space or use the statistics explorer instruments constructed into the map to see land use statistics for a rustic, state, or province. Views of the map and related information might be downloaded from the WorldCover Viewer. As you may see in my video overview of WorldCover Viewer, it embrace a software for measuring areas of land use. In my video overview I additionally show tips on how to allow completely different layers on the map.
I’m Feeling Lucky!
From voyages to video games to easy measuring instruments, the online model of Google Earth has quite a bit of neat options that may assist college students study in regards to the world. One of these neat options is the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button that’s discovered on the left hand toolbar in Google Earth. Clicking that button will take college students to a randomly-selected place on the planet.
On its personal the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button supplies a great way for college students to find new locations. That mentioned, college students study extra by means of the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button for those who give them a bit extra path than simply “click the button and look around.” That’s why I created a bit query sheet to immediate college students to do some analysis in regards to the locations they uncover in Google Earth through “I’m Feeling Lucky.” My query sheet might be found here as a Google Doc.
This short video demonstrates how college students can discover Google Earth in additional element after clicking “I’m Feeling Lucky.”
City Guesser 3.0
City Guesser 3.0 presents twenty-one video games based mostly on nations. There are additionally greater than two dozen video games based mostly on main cities around the globe. And there’s a recreation based mostly on monuments of the world. In addition to the brand new video games, City Guesser 3.0 has two new recreation play modes. There is a “streaks” mode by which you attempt to make as many consecutive correct guesses as doable. There are additionally two new “challenge” modes. There is a problem mode by which you can not transfer the imagery and should guess from only one view. The different problem mode is a timed mode by which you need to guess earlier than time runs out. Watch this video for an summary of City Guesser 3.0.
MapField Studio
With a free Mapbox Studio account you may create a customized define map of any metropolis, city, or neighborhood of your selecting. You can select how a lot or how little element you wish to embrace within the map. Once you have made your choices it can save you your map as a PNG or JPG file to print and distribute to your college students.In this short video I show tips on how to use Mapbox Studio to create your personal customized coloring maps.
Mult Dev
Mult Dev is a free software that allows you to shortly create animated maps. In the time since I wrote about Mult Dev a pair of updates had been made to it. The most notable of these being that you just now must signal into the service with a Google account or a GitHub account. In this short video I show tips on how to create an animated map with Mult Dev.
Roadside America
The Library of Congress homes the John Margolies Roadside America Photograph Archive. That archive incorporates almost 12,000 images of fascinating roadside sights all around the United States and jap Canada. The assortment contains footage of issues like gasoline stations formed like a dinosaur, windmills that function ice cream stands, funky miniature golf programs, and heaps of neon indicators for motels and eating places.
The Library of Congress revealed an ESRI Story Map of images within the John Margolies Roadside America Photograph Archive. The map is titled Roadside America. You can view the pictures on an interactive map or just scroll by means of some curated collections of pictures from the gathering. I discovered it enjoyable to click on on the markers on the map to find some roadside sights in my residence state in addition to others across the nation. But earlier than you head out on the street to look for them I ought to level out that many of the pictures are of issues which might be now not out on the roadside.
Roadside America supplies a pleasant method for college students to find some items of Americana previous and present. I’d use the map as a solution to spark college students’ curiosity to conduct some research about some of these fascinating roadside sights. I may additionally use the map as a mannequin for having college students create their very own roadside sights maps of locations of their residence states that they could have seen and or taken footage of.
Drawing on Digital Maps
Creating layers and excursions in Google Earth and Google My Maps might be a good way for college students to assemble collections of geolocated data to summarize analysis, create a e-book tour, and even develop safe walking and biking routes. But typically you simply must shortly draw or pin issues to a digital map. In these circumstances, launching Google Earth or My Maps is a little more than you want. That’s when Scribble Maps, Google Drawings, or Google Jamboard are helpful.
Scribble Maps is a digital mapping software that lets anybody make free-hand drawings on prime of a range of base maps. To use it merely head to ScribbleMaps.com/create/ and choose one of the drawing instruments. Registration is just not required so as to use it though there are some pop-ups that can attempt to promote you on upgrades from the free model. Here’s a short overview of Scribble Maps.
Google Drawings and Google Jamboard each allow you to import pictures you can then draw on prime of. To try this simply open a brand new Google Drawing or new Google Jamboard then use the built-in picture search to discover a map. Once you have chosen a map you should use the drawing instruments to mark on it. Here’s a demonstration of how that course of can work in Google Drawings.
The course of that I described above for utilizing Google Drawings and Google Jamboard may also be accomplished with the web model of PowerPoint. To try this, create a brand new slide then use the built-in Bing Images search to discover a map. One of the good issues in regards to the Bing Images integration in PowerPoint is that it’ll mechanically search for Creative Commons licensed works and mechanically insert an attribution link. Once the picture has been added to the slide you should use the built-in drawing instruments to mark on the map.
Strange Borders
Earlier this 12 months I learn an fascinating article titled Belgian Farmer Accidentally Moves French Border. The entire story is sort of precisely what the title says. A farmer moved a stone that was in his method when plowing a subject. It simply occurred that the stone he moved is a marker for the border between two small cities in Belgium and France. The border itself is just not in dispute and the border is a comparatively regular one between two pleasant neighbors. Still, studying the story jogged my memory of a pair of movies that I’ve bookmarked about irregular nation borders.
Countries Inside Countries (Bizarre Borders, Part 1) was produced by CGP Grey seven years in the past for example the place some of the landlocked nations of the world are and how they grew to become landlocked. The video additionally highlights nations which have just one neighbor.
Canada & The United States (Bizarre Borders, Part 2) explains why border between the United States and Canada may appear like a protracted straight line in lots of locations, however is just not a straight line. The video additionally delves into some border quirks and disputes. The Google Earth file utilized in video is on the market to obtain here on CGP Grey’s website.
Tom Scott has additionally produced a pair of fascinating movies about fascinating borders between nations. In The Most Complex Borders in Europe: Why Do We Have Nations? he explains the sophisticated border between Baarle-Nassau within the Netherlands and Baarle-Hertog in Belgium.
GeoQuiz
GeoQuiz is a web-based geography recreation that simply asks you to attempt to title as many nations as you may in fifteen minutes. As quickly as you enter a rustic’s title the globe on the display spins to middle on that nation. If you misspell a rustic the globe does not spin and your entry does not rely. You can play GeoQuiz by yourself or you may compete towards different gamers in on-line rooms. Either method, you needn’t register or enter any private data so as to play GeoQuiz. To play towards others you may be part of an present room or create your personal and invite individuals to affix it. To have others be part of your room all you need to do is decide a reputation for your room and inform individuals to affix it within the “online mode” on the GeoQuiz homepage.
The Mind Blowing Map Quiz
The Mind-Blowing Map Quiz is designed to assist college students perceive how Mercator projection maps distort our view of the world. It does this by asking relational questions like “how much bigger is Australia than Alaska?” and “how close are Russia and the United States?” A couple of enjoyable information are thrown into the reasons of every reply.
Can You Make an Accurate Map? is an effective video to point out after college students have performed The Mind-Blowing Map Quiz. The video supplies a concise clarification of why Mercator projection maps do not precisely signify the scale of issues close to the poles however are none-the-less utilized in many purposes.
What is a Map?
By watching What is a Map? college students can learn the way maps advanced over time, the political implications of maps, and how maps are used to signify information in addition to areas.
City Walks
City Walks is a neat web site that you should use to go for a digital stroll in additional than a dozen cities around the globe. You can expertise the cities with or with out sound. You can go for digital walks within the daytime or at evening. At the start of every stroll you may see some fast information in regards to the metropolis which may assist you to perceive a bit extra about what you are seeing throughout the stroll.City Walks is actually a very nice show of street-level YouTube movies with some extra menu choices overlaid on them. That’s not meant as a knock on the positioning as it’s a good web site. That does imply that there is no interactivity constructed into digital walks such as you may expertise in a digital actuality expertise. The video sources for City Walks are clearly labeled within the lower-right nook of every display.
Quizzity!
Quizzity is a web-based geography recreation that makes use of an idea present in heaps of map-based video games. That idea is to point out you the title of a spot and then have you ever guess its location by clicking on a map. Quizzity quizzes you on cities all around the world. To enhance the accuracy of your guesses it is best to zoom-in on a area earlier than clicking the map. Each spherical of Quizzity presents you with six metropolis names. Points are awarded for accuracy and velocity.
Seterra
Seterra presents lots of of geography video games in 39 languages. You can play the video games on-line in your internet browser or obtain the apps to play on a cellphone or pill. In the next video I show 4 methods you can play the web model of Seterra’s geography video games.
Go Geocaching!
Geocaching is a superb exercise to get youngsters exterior for hands-on studying experiences. Last summer time I outlined a handful of concepts for utilizing geocaching to show classes on geospatial consciousness, Earth science, and digital citizenship. Read extra about these concepts right here. If you may get dad and mom to put in the Geocaching app on their telephones, geocaching might make for an awesome “at-home” geography lesson for dad and mom to do with their youngsters.
Find the Towns of the Same Name
This is a modification of an exercise that I did as a sixth-grader in Mrs. Carlson’s class in Manchester, Connecticut. She had us use atlases to see what number of different Manchesters there are on the planet and the place they’re. Then we needed to write a brief blurb about every Manchester. The trendy model of this exercise is to have college students select a typical city title like Manchester and use Google Maps to learn how many cities on the planet have that title. Then on their Google Maps or Scribble Maps college students can add placemarks by which they write about fascinating issues about these cities. Students can add movies and pictures to their placemarks too.
Make a Group Map of Stories
Find Out What Geographers Do
Make Your Own Compass
Make Your Own Compass explains to youngsters what a compass is, the way it works, and how they will make their very own with widespread family merchandise.
Mathigon Maps Lessons
In Surface Area of a Sphere Mathigon contains an interactive diagram that illustrates the issue that cartographers have when making an attempt to create maps of the world. The interactive diagram reveals 4 map projections and the areas of the map which might be distorted by every projection. Students can click on on every of the map projections to see a comparability of an space on the 2D map to the identical space on a globe. Overall, it is a great way for college students to see how two dimensional world maps can distort the scale and scale of an space.
Mathigon’s Map Coloring Challenge asks college students to make use of as few colours as doable to paint in all 50 U.S. states with out having the identical coloration touching two states on the similar time. For instance, if I coloration New Hampshire purple, I am unable to use purple on Vermont, Maine, New York, or Massachusetts however I might use purple on Pennsylvania.
On a associated notice the USGS presents a free map projections poster (link opens a PDF). You may additionally need to try Projection Wizard as one other software for exhibiting college students how numerous projections distort the areas of the world.
Timelapse Imagery in Google Earth
In this short video I show tips on how to view timelapse imagery within the internet model and within the desktop model of Google Earth.
In the video above I confirmed some of the timelapse imagery of city sprawl round some cities within the United States. That imagery may very well be used because the immediate for a analysis project for college students to analyze the causes of the expansion of these cities.
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