U.S. Foreign Policy and a Geographically Challenged U.S. Citizenry

Abstract

This article shows how the random walk drainage network simulation model might be used as a class teaching exercise. Practical instructions about running the model are given and the results discussed. A source of directional bias in the resulting simulated drainage patterns is identified and given an interpretation in the terms of the model. Three points of educational value concerning the model are emphasized in conclusion.     

SCALAR VARIATION AND NODAL ACCESSIBILITY IN THE CHINESE RAILROAD NETWORK

The effect of varying the scalar value in a powered connectivity matrix upon the measurement of nodal accessibilities is illustrated by reference to the railroad network in China. The degree of influence is demonstrated by estimating the effect of scalar variation on a model which is designed to predict the relative accessibility of thirty-nine cities within the network.     

Geography Education Across the Atlantic at the Geographical Association

Abstract

The Geographical Association (GA) is an international association of over 10,000 geography educators headquartered in Sheffield, England. The National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) and the GA have similar goals. The GA's annual conferences provide an excellent opportunity to begin geography education partnerships between the NCGE and the GA. Operating exhibits and teaching workshops on geographic information systems at the last three Geographical Association conferences at universities in England afforded the opportunity to network with teachers and pave the way for future collaboration.     

Communication from readers

Abstract

In geographic education, a scientific approach is typically acclaimed as the most appropriate approach to teach, model, and use in the schools. This approach, however, is more honored in the professional literature and meetings than in teaching. Admittedly, many practical problems provide opportunities and challenges for teachers to use the scientific approach. The recent trend toward “standards” in the profession, moreover, may also prove more a hindrance than a help in achieving scientific literacy.     

Experienced Teacher Participation in Preservice Programs: A Model in Geography at the University of Northern Colorado

Abstract

This paper discusses a model program for preparing secondary geography teachers in the Department of Geography at the University of Northern Colorado. The key feature of the program is the presence of an outstanding secondary teacher in residence throughout the year who team-teaches the Teaching Methods in Geography and World Geography courses with geography faculty, modeling effective ways of teaching the subject. Students are paired with Colorado Geographic Alliance teacher-consultants in summer institutes and for student teaching. Analysis of formative evaluation data collected through the third year provides some measure of the program's success. Students have responded favorably to the use of a variety of teaching strategies, the opportunity to discuss with faculty why certain strategies are utilized, and how their own constructed lessons have worked in their student teaching. They have also reported that their understanding of geography has improved from taking the team-taught courses.     

A Scoring Guide for Assessing Issues-based Geographic Inquiry on the World Wide Web

Abstract

Inquiry-based learning has a long tradition in geography education, and many faculty members are using inquiry to tap the constructivist potential of the World Wide Web. This paper reports on the development of a scoring guide that assesses the degree to which teaching materials support issues-based geographic inquiry. The scoring guide was tested in a content analysis of geographers⁷ Web-based teaching materials. The results of the preliminary analysis suggest that relatively few geography teaching materials on the Web bear the characteristics of inquiry. Additional research is needed to determine whether teaching materials on the Web are facilitating a shift toward constructivist practice in the discipline.     

Efficient methods for Isoline extraction from a TIN

Abstract

A data structure is presented to store a triangulated irregular network digital elevation model, from which isolines (contour lines) can be extracted very efficiently. If the network is based on n points, then for any elevation, the isolines can be obtained in O (logn + k) query time, where k is the number of line segments that form the isolines. This compares favourably with O(n) time by straightforward computation. When a structured representation of the isolines is needed, the same query time applies. For a fully topological representation (with adjacency), the query requires additional O(c log c) or O(c log logo) time, where c is the number of connected components of isolines. In all three cases, the required data structure has only linear size.     

Concept as A Teaching Device: The Example of Buffer Zones in Africa

Abstract

With the information explosion, it is more imperative than ever to seek continually for better organizational principles in teaching. Among many complementary and alternative schemata, the basic role of the concept as a teaching device should not be overlooked. By way of illustration, a simple physical model of a shatter belt, representing the concept of zonal resolution of stress, is shown to lend itself to five politico-economic transformations in Africa, each with a potential for amplification in the classroom: 1) indigenous polities, 2) colonial power-fields, 3) post-colonial dependencies, 4) inner territorial buffers, and 5) intra-societal caste buffers. Other concepts, of course, will have different applications. Importantly, since concepts help to illustrate systems relationships that aggregate rather than disaggregate phenomena, they are of great educational utility.     

Geographically neural network weighted regression for the accurate estimation of spatial non-stationarity

ABSTRACT

Geographically weighted regression (GWR) is a classic and widely used approach to model spatial non-stationarity. However, the approach makes no precise expressions of its weighting kernels and is insufficient to estimate complex geographical processes. To resolve these problems, we proposed a geographically neural network weighted regression (GNNWR) model that combines ordinary least squares (OLS) and neural networks to estimate spatial non-stationarity based on a concept similar to GWR. Specifically, we designed a spatially weighted neural network (SWNN) to represent the nonstationary weight matrix in GNNWR and developed two case studies to examine the effectiveness of GNNWR. The first case used simulated datasets, and the second case, environmental observations from the coastal areas of Zhejiang. The results showed that GNNWR achieved better fitting accuracy and more adequate prediction than OLS and GWR. In addition, GNNWR is applicable to addressing spatial non-stationarity in various domains with complex geographical processes.     

Applying Sequential Fieldwork Skills Across Two International Field Courses

Abstract

This article addresses the development of a conceptual model of fieldwork practice and the creation of an associated set of skills for the geosciences. The set of eight generic and seventeen specific skills is applied in two international field courses to demonstrate the utility of such a skills-centered model across a broad range of venues, curricula, and students. Both concept and practice from U.K. and U.S. universities have been welded as a means of internationalizing curriculum development. Further, it is suggested that there is merit in faculty viewing their field teaching within the framework of the whole subject curriculum such that field courses and sites are viewed as much for their contribution to the overall skill set as their support for the classroom topic.     

A novel residual graph convolution deep learning model for short-term network-based traffic forecasting

ABSTRACT

Short-term traffic forecasting on large street networks is significant in transportation and urban management, such as real-time route guidance and congestion alleviation. Nevertheless, it is very challenging to obtain high prediction accuracy with reasonable computational cost due to the complex spatial dependency on the traffic network and the time-varying traffic patterns. To address these issues, this paper develops a residual graph convolution long short-term memory (RGC-LSTM) model for spatial-temporal data forecasting considering the network topology. This model integrates a new graph convolution operator for spatial modelling on networks and a residual LSTM structure for temporal modelling considering multiple periodicities. The proposed model has few parameters, low computational complexity, and a fast convergence rate. The framework is evaluated on both the 10-min traffic speed data from Shanghai, China and the 5-min Caltrans Performance Measurement System (PeMS) traffic flow data. Experiments show the advantages of the proposed approach over various state-of-the-art baselines, as well as consistent performance across different datasets.     

渤海海洋悬浮泥沙二元特征参数MODIS遥感反演模型研究

This paper brought out a new idea on the retrieval of suspended sediment concentration, which uses both the water-leaving radiance from remote sensing data and the grain size of the suspended sediment. A principal component model and a neural network model based on those two parameters were constructed. The analyzing results indicate that testing errors of the models using the two parameters are 0.256 and 0.244, while the errors using only water-leaving radiance are 0,384 and 0.390. The stability of the models with grain size parameter is also better than the one without grain size. This research proved that it is necessary to introduce the grain size parameter into suspended sediment concentration retrieval models in order to improve the retrieval precision of these models.     

Curricular Changes in the Teaching of Geography in Swiss Upper Secondary Schools: An Attempt to Develop Skills for Lifelong Learning

Abstract

This article is an overview of the curriculum reform in Switzerland in the 1990s. It describes the grass-roots reform process in geography education in upper secondary schools and its impact on the development of new teaching materials. These ancillary materials are based on teaching methods and strategies, the effectiveness of which are empirically shown by results. The teaching units complement the thematic and methodological aims in the national curriculum and the federal regulations and were designed through a partnership of teachers, teacher educators and scientists. They can be translated directly into the practice of teaching and are available free to teachers through the World Wide Web.     

Understanding and Portraying the Global Atmospheric Circulation

Abstract

Atmospheric circulation and resultant surface pressure patterns are important discussion topics in many introductory geography, meteorology, and earth science courses. In the past, summary materials developed to aid in teaching these concepts have used a north-south oriented meridional cross-section of the troposphere (e.g., the three-cell model). We suggest that while the Hadley Cell model works well for the tropics, an alternative depiction incorporating two map views should be used to present a more meaningful view of the mean extratrop-ical circulation. The combination of a tropical cross-section map and an extra-tropical map will assist students in learning about first-order motions associated with the Earth's atmospheric circulation.     

Geopolitics and “The Courage to Teach”: Identity,Integrity and the Subject of Political Geography

Abstract

Previous literature discussing and exemplifying the teaching of political geography has emphasized the material to be disseminated. Building upon those contributions, this paper offers a means of connecting student, teacher, and subject matter. Using the perspective of Parker Palmer, as illustrated in his book The Courage to Teach, it is suggested that placing the subject at the center of the classroom will result in the effective teaching of political geography. Two classroom exercises are used to exemplify the argument.     

Establishing Preservice Partnerships: Geography and Social Studies

Abstract

Great strides have occurred in geographic education resulting in the development of new geographic teaching strategies and geography materials. Despite these developments, many social studies methods professors are still using outdated geographic materials, methods, and techniques. In 1992, the Missouri Geographic Alliance established a unique relationship with social studies methods professors in Missouri. This partnership was established at a four-day, intensive geography/social studies conference that used an innovative model for its development. The outcome of this conference was a strong partnership between social studies methods professors and geographers in Missouri. A result of this partnership has been an increase in the number of beginning teachers involved in the alliance movement, and ultimately, the use of up-to-date geographic teaching strategies, methods, and materials in their classrooms.     

Storyline-metoden,geografi og klassekameratene til 'Lille Marius'

During the last few years storyline as a teaching method has created considerable interest in many Norwegian primary schools. In storyline the teacher supplies some key concepts and the framework, and the pupils make the storyline. In this article I use a passage from Alexander Kielland's novel Gift to show how storyline can be a useful approach in geography teaching.     

Geographic Information Technologies + Project-Based Science: A Contextualized Professional Development Approach

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of using a long-duration, project-based science professional development model on the acquisition of declarative knowledge and basic terminology associated with the use of geographic information technologies (GIT), teachers' self-assessed confidence in using GIT skills, and the implementation of GIT in participants' classrooms. Results suggest that a long-duration, project-based science model was effective in teaching GIT declarative knowledge and raising teachers' self-confidence in using GIT tools. The academy was funded through a grant from the US Department of Education with additional support from Environmental Science Resources Institute (ESRI), Inc., and members of the New Mexico Geographic Information Council.     

Image Building in the Metro Centers: Some Implications

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that:

(1) High school and college teachers and their students are most likely to achieve success in the field when they are armed with a conceptual framework, a plan for discovering the framework and a body of instructional theory.

(2) There are distinct differences between field teaching or training and field experience.

(3) During a time when many students are dissatisfied with classroom instruction, field experience can revitalize geography teaching in colleges and high schools.

(4) Field experience can create concrete images which are likely to be meaningful for many years.     

Reading the World: Integrating Geography in an English Language Learner Literacy Program

Abstract

English language development classes focus on teaching students of other languages how to speak, read, and write English. They must also prepare students to meet the many standards and requirements that are prerequisites to content classes, such as geography, and high school graduation. This discussion focuses on the integration of literacy and geography in a classroom with English language learners. A common English language development model, the “Into, Through, Beyond” model of learning, sets a foundation that integrates components of English language acquisition with language arts and geography standards. In turn, this approach to learning prepares the learners for success in social and academic arenas.