The Trade and Industries of Western South America

Abstract

This research was based on an instructional module developed and used to investigate whether GIS can be used to enhance fourth grade students' geographic knowledge and map skills. Another goal was to identify challenges the teachers and the students face using GIS.

Findings from the study suggest that using GIS in the classroom helps students improve their geographic knowledge and maps skills. In addition, this study found that the students' geographic content knowledge tended to improve gradually and the knowledge transferred to the subsequent lessons, while certain map skills tended to develop in a more specific manner.     

Improvement of GIS graphics for analysis and decision-making

Abstract

Current geographical information systems (GIS) include functions to create cartographic output interactively or automatically. However, none of the systems presently incorporates mechanisms to ensure correct application of graphic functions. Many of today's users of GIS are not trained in the design and production of graphics and may create maps that confuse or mislead map users. Poorly-designed maps may obliterate the patterns in displayed information.

This article investigates ways to improve the quality of GIS graphical displays and increase their effectiveness for decision-making. Alternatives are presented for improving map design in GIS, ranging from non-technical efforts to enhancement of software functionality. Suggestions propose augmenting users' abilities to create maps in an automated environment, using an approach termed amplified intelligence: key decisions default explicitly to users, whose knowledge is amplified by a range of high-level tools to carry out map design operations automatically.     

A Proposal for Assessment in Geography Education

Abstract

The geographic skills, as outlined in Geography for Life, provide an avenue for assessing students' work in geography. If used across the scope and sequence of the curriculum, a common scoring guide based on these skills offers opportunities for students to demonstrate their ability to use inquiry approaches to study geography and to improve those abilities over time and over different geographic questions. If used consistently, a geographic skills scoring guide can also help to communicate to a broader audience of parents, administration, and the public as to what the discipline of geography encompasses.     

Newsprint Manufacturing in the Southeast

Abstract

This paper is a response to the two-fold thesis of Bartz; namely, that (1) maps are not really important in our society today, and (2) educators say that they value maps and mapping, but the evidence of children's performance in using maps is contradictory. In exploring problems related to Bartz's contention, the author arrives at four tentative conclusions :

1. A child can and does learn many but not all of the map concepts and skills at an earlier age when taught them developmentally, systematically, functionally, and effectively.

2. Mere manipulation of materials does not constitute a concrete experience for a child.

3. Map-related concepts must be taught prior to, and continued concurrently with, map skills.

4. The commercially prepared map tends to appear near the highest level of abstract mapping and is therefore not necessarily the most effective means of map instruction for the elementary teacher.

A most significant implication from the conclusions is the need to re-examine the preparation of the elementary teacher. If the focus of the education of a teacher moves in the direction outlined in this paper, Bartz's premise could be reversed.     

Field Work in the Elementary School

Abstract

This research examines the effects of culture on a child's perceptions of his or her neighborhood by comparing the neighborhood sketch maps of a group of Amish and non-Amish children from the same rural Pennsylvania neighborhood. The results of this study lend credence to the belief that early and intensive acculturation helps define our sense of “neighborhood” very early in life. There are possible applications to multicultural education in this study. As we discover what is important to students from other subcultures and backgrounds, we can customize our instruction to make it more meaningful and effective.     

Editorials

Abstract

Instruction at the primary grade level should be designed to give attention to a child's developmental level and to utilize a child's experience. This article describes how the geographic themes of location, movement, and region can be taught in the primary grades. Students move from concrete to semiconcrete to abstract tasks while learning geographical skills incorporated with math, science, reading, and writing.     

Using Road Maps in the Junior High School

Abstract

The activities described in this paper were developed to familiarize junior high school students with the variety of information available on road maps and to provide a means for practice of map skills. At Legg Junior High School in Coldwater, Michigan, students were presented with an introduction to road maps, followed by a series of worksheets to use in conjunction with Michigan and Ontario highway maps. After completing the worksheets, students participated in road rally games which required them to use maps and follow instructions and clues to find a specific location. The activities can be adapted for elementary school classes or for students with different levels of ability. Teachers might also want to increase the number of worksheets or road rallies to give students additional practice in skills in which they particularly need improvement.     

Land Classification Maps of Areas Basic to Agricultural Production

Abstract

Einevoll, O. 1968. Land Classification Maps of Areas Basic to Agricultural Production. Norsk geogr. Tidsskr. 22, 264–270.

In Norway, a detailed land survey, based on photogrammetry, is now proceeding for land classification maps of the scale 1:5,000 (for certain minor areas 1:10,000) covering agricultural areas and including forest land. The areas to be mapped are classified according to land capability and general conditions of management. Containing a great deal of additional information as well, these maps will serve as a valuable aid in land use planning. The survey is designed to be completed in 12–15 year's time.

More roughly designed maps for the entire country on the scale 1:100,000 and 1:250,000, printed in colour, will be produced within two years' time. Intermediate maps of 1:20,000, containing an extended number of land types, will be undertaken gradually, after the appearance of the large scale map series. Property boundaries recorded in connexion with the surveying for the large scale maps will serve as the basis for a complete land register containing exact information about size and land properties of individual holdings.     

Map Use by Adults with Visual Impairments

In this paper we summarize five experiments that were designed to investigate how tactile maps contribute to the cognitive maps of people with visual impairments. In two experiments we demonstrated that tactile maps can contribute to peoples' ability to learn a route through an unfamiliar area. From the results of two further studies, we argue that compared to people with sight, people with visual impairments have greater difficulty encoding information from a map. We considered this directly in a fifth experiment by investigating how people with visual impairments search and learn a map. We found that they used less efficient strategies than people with sight. We conclude that tactile maps are an important source of geographical information when people need to learn about new environments, but we also point out that to benefit most from tactile maps people need to encode the map information as effectively as possible. As people with visual impairments do not always use the most appropriate encoding strategies we suggest that tactile map users might benefit from greater experience and training in map encoding strategies.     

Going beyond location: Thematic maps in the early elementary grades

Abstract

Cartographic research has long suggested that preschool and early elementary children possess advanced mapping behaviors in terms of interpreting, making, and using locational and wayfinding maps. To improve instruction in geographic concepts, it is necessary to see if these advanced mapping behaviors apply to thematic or special purpose maps as well, as an understanding of these types of maps is integral to the five fundamental themes of geography. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the thematic mapping abilities of second-grade students. Students viewed maps at the neighborhood, city, and national scales displaying different types of symbolization and presented in a random order. Results indicated that the map tasks were appropriate for this age level, and a statistical test of reaction times did not identify a best symbol type or scale, as all were appropriate for this age level. Responses to discussion questions indicated the students also have the ability to describe spatial patterns. The interpretation of quantitative information on maps is within the ability level of second grade students, and materials currently used in second grade should be revised to include these maps.     

Paper versus Pixel: Effectiveness of Paper versus Electronic Maps To Teach Map Reading Skills in an Introductory Physical Geography Course

Abstract

This article addresses the lack of outcome-based research on the integration of technology into pedagogy at the undergraduate college level. It describes a study performed at a Midwestern university, testing the relative effectiveness of paper and electronic topographic maps for teaching map-reading skills, and considers the relationship between learning styles and paper or digital map preference. Results indicate that, although student map skill performance did not differ significantly with the use of paper or electronic maps, students preferred paper maps. Neither their performance nor their preferences were related to learning style. The article discusses the significance of these findings.     

Editorials: New Associate Editors

Abstract

The Earth and How it Works: A Lab Manual and Workbook with Teaching Ideas, Projects, and Activities in Environmental Science by Philip R. Holzinger Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1985. x and 150 pp., figs., illus., photos, maps, app., biblio., and index. $12.95 paper.

Wild Horses and Sacred Cows by Richard Symanski Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press, 1985. xv and 223 pp., photos, and map. $14.95 cloth; $9.95 paper.

The Making of the Dutch Landscape: An Historical Geography of the Netherlands, 2d ed. by Audrey M. Lambert Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1985. xiii and 372 pp., figs., tables, photos, maps, refs., and index. $55.00 cloth.

Rating Places: A Geographer's View on Quality of Life by Susan L. Cutter Resource Publications in Geography. Washington, DC: Association of American Geographers, 1985. vi and 76 pp., figs., tables, maps, and biblio. $5.00 paper.

A Strategic Atlas: A Comparative Geopolitics of the World's Powers, 2d Rev. ed. by Gerard Chaliand and Jean-Pierre Rageau Trans. Tony Berrett. New York: Harper &; Row, 1985. 224 pp., graphs, tables, maps, and biblio. $26.95 cloth; $14.95 paper.

The Surveillant Science: Remote Sensing of the Environment, 2d ed. by Robert K. Holz New York: John Wiley, 1985. xvi and 413 pp., figs., illus., tables, photos, maps, refs., and index. $21.95 paper.     

MAPS,METAPHORS AND MUDDLES

The idea of a cognitive or mental map has been a source of confusion in the geographical literature for some time. Downs suggests that the confusion can be removed if we give consideration to the role of maps in metaphors and analogies. This raises important questions, but treating the map as a double metaphor does nothing to clarify these issues. Cartographic skills are not the result of introspection and hypothesizing such maps-in-the-head can only impede our understanding of spatial behavior.     

How Textbooks Influence the Curriculum in Geography

Abstract

In this study, pairs of students in fifth and seventh grade generated and answered questions based on maps. More than 90 percent of the questions they generated made sense with reference to the map on which they were based. Each of these questions was coded in terms of both its informational content (symbols, latitude and longitude, and scale) and the process by which a map user obtains the information from the map (map reading, map interpreting, map inferring). Results indicated that students most often generated three types of questions, which together accounted for more than 80 percent of all the questions: 1) read symbol, 2) infer latitude and longitude, and 3) interpret scale. Qualitatively, the questions were analyzed for what they revealed about student confusion about map content. Problems with all three aspects of map content were common among both fifth- and seventh-grade students. The problem-posing technique proved useful for evaluating student's knowledge.     

Developing Skills in a Physical Geography Laboratory

Abstract

The ability to solve problems and to make decisions is an important intellectual attribute. Judging from existing laboratory manuals, very little attention appears to have been directed in introductory physical geography towards developing the skills related to this attribute. This paper describes an attempt to define and develop skills in the setting of an introductory physical geography course, and gives example of the activities used in the laboratory. The skills defined are categorized as those which are geographic and those which generally intellectual. Some comment is also made on the teaching styles which appear appropriate to foster such skill development.     

Early Instruction in Geography: An Exploration in the Ecology of Kindergarten and First-Grade Geography Education

Abstract

Student drawn maps have been relatively neglected as an evaluation tool, despite their potential utility for assessing geographic knowledge. Comparison of students' sketch maps at the beginning and end of the year can inform the teacher about how students' representations of the world change over the course of instruction. Used as a pretest, they can be used to diagnose areas of strength and weakness within a class; as a posttest they can be used to assess students' achievement and the effectiveness of instruction. In this paper we provide an easy method for sorting and summarizing sketch map data, which is illustrated using maps collected from two sixth grade classes. We also outline a framework to guide teachers in generating questions to ask about their own students' maps.     

Personalizing map content to improve task completion efficiency

Significant interaction challenges arise in both developing and using interactive map applications. Users encounter problems of information overload in using interactive maps to complete tasks. This is further exacerbated by device limitations and interaction constraints in increasingly popular mobile platforms. Application developers must then address restrictions related to screen size and limited bandwidth in order to effectively display maps on mobile devices. In order to address issues of user information overload and application efficiency in interactive map applications, we have developed a novel approach for delivering personalized vector maps. Ongoing task interactions between users and maps are monitored and captured implicitly in order to infer individual and group preferences related to specific map feature content. Personalized interactive maps that contain spatial feature content tailored specifically to users' individual preferences are then generated. Our approach addresses spatial information overload by providing only the map information necessary and sufficient to suit user interaction preferences, thus simplifying the completion of tasks performed with interactive maps. In turn, tailoring map content to specific user preferences considerably reduces the size of vector data sets necessary to transmit and render maps on mobile devices. We have developed a geographic information system prototype, MAPPER (MAP PERsonalization), that implements our approach. Experimental evaluations show that the use of personalized maps helps users complete their tasks more efficiently and can reduce information overload.     

The Elementary Social Studies: Sense and Nonsense in Integration

Abstract

The ultimate goal of all geographic education is to have our students think geographically for life. To this end, the five geographic skills sets allow teachers to use the inquiry approach to more accurately observe whether or not geographic thinking is actually taking place. As essential components of these geographic skills, fieldwork, journaling, and stories based on the field experience have proven to be effective tools of inquiry. This article demonstrates how a journal, kept by the author while on an advanced alliance summer institute to Russia in 1996, was used to write an original short story based on the author's fieldwork there. The author's experiences model the five geographic skills sets in developing lesson plans for the original short story, The Dragon and the Anchor. These activities allow the students to sharpen their geographic skills and develop a sense of place by studying the changes that have occurred in Russia since the fall of communism in 1991.     

Minnesota—A Sketch

Abstract

This article reports the results of an exploratory project to determine the abilities of Grade 6 children to work with digital data. The research questions dealt with understanding what is digital data, understanding what is a pixel, and how digital data can be used, making a digital map, and using pixels to determine area on maps. The results of the project showed that the children in this study were able to work with digital data, and that there is potential for using digital data on the Grade 6 level in geography instruction.     

INSPIRATIONS FROM THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW: JEAN GOTTMANN'S “WHY THE SKYSCRAPER?”

Editors' note: Larry lost his battle against pancreatic cancer in September 2009. When we invited him, some months before his death, to prepare this essay he eagerly agreed, despite his worsening health. We acknowledge with gratitude his longtime service as a member of the Geographical Review Editorial Board, as a Councilor of the American Geographical Society, and as a professor of geography at San Diego State University. In many ways he was himself an inspiration.