AIDS to geographic research afforded by the office of naval research

The following is a preliminary program, with some positions as yet unfilled. The final and complete program will he distributed at the meetings.     

The Course in Geography in the State Normal School at Salem,Mass.

Abstract

During academic year 1999–2000, the Geography Department at Michigan State University (MSU) launched a program of online geography courses. Since then, four undergraduate online geography courses have been collectively developed and delivered to over 4,500 domestic and international students in association with MSU's Virtual University Design and Technology (vuDAT). The creation of each virtual course has taught valuable lessons concerning course development and administration; interactions with students have shed insight on course structure, content, and instruction. This article addresses development, management, and pedagogic concerns pertinent to the operation of online geography courses and offers suggestions to others who wish to develop online courses. Preliminary evidence on the effectiveness of these courses is also presented.     

Geographic Education and Careers in Geography

Abstract

Disciplinary concern with career options and opportunities has fluctuated over the years. Not surprisingly, geography continues to be incorrectly stereotyped as a field of study offering limited employment prospects. While geographic education has long focused on content, it must also embrace the importance of educating instructors, students, and career counselors concerning how the field opens doors to viable careers. This article presents a program that can be implemented by college and university departments to raise awareness and disseminate information about career opportunities in geography. The program emphasizes an integrated approach that includes partnerships with alumni, campus placement offices, and employers.     

Shrinking ‘Smart’?: Urban Redevelopment and Shrinkage in Youngstown,Ohio

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of the much-heralded Youngstown 2010 Plan and the enacting of a program of “controlled” or “managed” shrinkage. It is argued that while the program of redevelopment has had an impact on Youngstown and its national image, it represents an exclusionary project that has centered on redeveloping downtown areas and neglected many city neighborhoods which continue to experience high levels of unemployment, vacancy, and crime. The analysis is situated in relation to the contemporary literature on “shrinking cities.” Youngstown's experience raises critical questions regarding the nature of the challenges facing shrinking cities, the constraints on actions available to them due to state and federal funding, and the coherence of the concept of “smart shrinkage.”     

Individualized Learning in An Open Geography Classroom

Abstract

In the last few years a great deal of educational literature has been devoted to the concept of individualized learning in an open classroom, i This approach is based on the premise that students are capable of analytical and creative thought when given the opportunity to work on their own initiative and at their own rates. It is an alternative to the traditional teacher-centered classroom and is justified by the belief that the student learns more effectively when he is interested; that the student develops greater responsibility; that the slower, generally passive student is brought into a position of active participation in the learning process.

Little has been written about the applicability of such an approach to the field of geography. Interest in this method prompted the author to experiment with such a program in her own classes during her first year of teaching. This article describes the results of individualized learning in two ninth grade physical geography classes conducted at Western Illinois University's Laboratory School.     

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.     

THE IMPACT OF FEDERAL LOCAL PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ASSISTANCE UPON TRAVEL BEHAVIOR

Despite substantial amounts of federal assistance to local public transportation, ridership has declined considerably in the country as a whole since 1964, suggesting an ineffective government program. A city-by-city comparison of assistance received with changes in transit ridership shows that declines in transit usage were least in cities receiving the most federal aid, and greatest in cities receiving the least aid. This demonstrates that federal aid has had an impact upon travel behavior. Indeed, it is the single most important factor explaining differences between cities in travel behavior changes in the 1970's.     

Farewell to Bongo,Ahab and Iglook

Abstract

Hilltop Geography is a year-long integrated geography program that involves first and second graders in a hands-on laboratory approach to exploring their immediate environment while at the same time providing a stepping stone to their understanding of the world. This article will describe how teachers and students in a rural New Mexico school have been utilizing the semi-arid hills surrounding their building as an outdoor geography learning laboratory, involving parents and the local community in the process.     

PERIODIC MARKETS: COMMENTS ON SPATIAL-TEMPORAL RELATIONSHIPS

This work examines the use of an annually updated metropolitan data system as a tool for evaluating benign racial location policies during the first year of the Section 8 Existing Rent Supplement program. Case-study evidence shows that the rent supplement program (with benign locational policies) is ineffective in reducing the isolation faced by minority groups, and that the information used to monitor compliance of the program with benign locational policies lags badly behind the true state of affairs. As a result, new areas of racial concentration have been encouraged and augmented.     

Geography and Afro-America: The Anatomy of a Graduate Training and Curriculum Development Project

Abstract

This paper outlines the experimental programs of the Commission on Geography and Afro-America in its attempt to develop a multi-phased graduate training and assistance program leading toward the improvement of geography programs at predominantly black institutions of higher education. Comments on the status of geography at black colleges and universities are made as well as an assessment of the black college role in higher education. The commission's objectives, its varied activities and programs are also discussed. Throughout the paper, an attempt is made to informally evaluate progress to date and to speculate on the commission's future programs and directions.     

REPORT OF THE AAG DELEGATE TO THE CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF GEOGRAPHERS

Formal program evaluation is one of the most widely used tools for program termination decisions in universities. By understanding and anticipating program evaluation, a farsighted geography department can convert it from a threat into a strategy for survival in the 1980s. In the process, many departments will be renewed and improved.     

Teachers and University Faculty Cooperating to Improve Teacher Preparation

Abstract

The National Geography Standards provide an opportunity to forge close relationships with teacher-preparation programs. This article reports on strategies used by the Virginia Geographic Alliance to produce regional, crossdisciplinary teams of educators informed about the Standards. Each team will include a faculty member from every teacher preparation program in Virginia.     

Involvement Geography: The School Partnership Program In The Junior High School

Abstract

This article presents a family program that extends the materials and meeting times of the Michigan Model Family Geography Challenge, including suggestions on creating a successful family night program. The article focuses on developing positive school-community relationships by inviting local community members to participate in fun academic lessons. In addition to watching the news together nightly, families meet four times during an eight-week period to engage in hands-on geography related activities. One lesson is introduced during each session and families work together to complete assigned tasks. Following the activity, families join together to eat and socialize. The program enhances geographic knowledge (including current events), positive family interactions, and school outreach.     

Writing a Successful Fulbright Group Projects Abroad Grant: Voices from a Journey to South Africa

Abstract

The authors share a successful Fulbright Group Projects Abroad grant award. The purpose of the grant was to enhance American educators' experience and knowledge of South Africa, in particular, and sub-Saharan Africa more generally. Toward that end, participants experienced a multifaceted view of South Africa's geographical diversity, both physical and cultural, through visiting three provinces and four major cities. Participants experienced people and places associated with reconciliation, segregation, and creolization, making comparisons with the U.S. historical experience. The program required participants to attend an orientation, participate in predeparture readings and to develop curriculum units that were shared at a national conference.     

Medical Mapping: The Revolution in Teaching—and Using—Maps for the Analysis of Medical Issues

Abstract

As a result of advances in GIS, students from a range of disciplines (epidemiology, public health, medical sociology, and anthropology) are seeking to learn how to apply a mapped, spatial perspective to issues of disease and health. This paper describes a pilot program whose intent has been to develop an interdisciplinary, skills-based course in medical mapping using a case-based approach. The focus of its first module is the famous nineteenth-century case of a cholera epidemic in Soho, London. Here, however, that case–critical to a range of disciplines—is an opportunity to introduce modern GIS tools and their applicability to the issues surrounding the mapping of diseases in general.     

Defining Drought in Marginal Areas: The Role of Perception

Drought exacts a heavy toll of agricultural productivity, yet it has been largely defined as a one–dimensional natural hazard. This paper explores an understanding and defining of drought based on the perception of ranchers in the marginal physical enviornment of western South Dakota. Analysis of interview data reveals at least four separate dimensions of drought: (1) when a percentage of normal rainfall is recieved, (2) when ranch operation is affected, (3) when a definite amount of rainfall is recieved, and (4) the timeliness of rainfall. The incorporation of perception–based data with site–specific drought severity indices, such as the Palmer Index, can provide a more complete characterization of a hazard affecting the productivity and sustainability of semiarid enviornments worldwide.     

Teaching and Tragedy: Lessons from a Population and GIS workshop in Cambodia

Abstract

Long-term collection of soil temperature with depth is important when studying climate change. The international program GLOBE® provides an excellent opportunity to collect such data, although currently endorsed temperature collection protocols need to be refined. To enhance data quality, protocol-based methodology and automated data logging, along with other physical data, were used to collect soil temperature to a depth of one meter. Data show that diurnal and shallow variation ceases at around 50 cm depth. Therefore the need to incorporate deeper depths into the current protocols for heat flux calculations is warranted. The manual methodology was also found to give representative data.     

GEO-Teach: A Preservice Teacher Preparation Program in Geography

Abstract

GEO-Teach is a project funded by the Fund for the Improvement of Preservice Education (FIPSE). The project aims to develop a model preservice curriculum at the secondary level. It incorporates the newly published National Geography Standards and merges content with pedagogy through partnerships with faculty in education and other social and behavioral sciences to deliver the curriculum. School teachers act as mentors to students in the program.     

Some Aspects of the Boundaries and Frontiers of Israel

Abstract

An intensive and comprehensively planned program of mineral exploration and discovery is the most important single factor in maintaining an adequate supply of available minerals.

This program requires the services of a large staff of geologists and geophysicists adequately equipped with the essential instruments of exploration.

Exploration, even tho it results in substantial discoveries, will not be adequate without the aid of the miners, metallurgists, engineers, architects, and contributions from deposits in foreign countries.

Developments in mining—such as diamond drilling, block caving, and removal of overburden—have contributed toward making ore deposits of low grade economically exploitable, thereby increasing the supply of metal that can be made available.     

Maps the Blind Can See

Abstract

The Thrifty Geographer Like previous reviews in this series, the eighth Thrifty Geographer examines MS/PC-DOS software that costs less than $51.00. New programs reviewed below deal with one of the staples of geography, maps. We also give an update on an atlas program that was first reviewed in 1992. AUTOMAP EUROPE, Automap Inc., Building C-113, 9831 South 51st Street, Phoenix, AZ 85044. $49.50.

AUTOMAP EUROPE, Automap Inc., Building C-l13,9831 South 51st Street, Phoenix, AZ 85044. $49.50.

Water Resources Management: In Search of an Environmental Ethic by David Lewis Feldman Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991. 247 pp.

The Hispano Homeland by Richard L. Nostrand Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992. xiv and 281 pp., maps, illustrations, tables, appendixes, index, and bibliography. ISBN 0-8061-2414-8. $29.95.

Volcanoes by Rodman Snead Lincoln, Nebraska: National Council for Geographic Education/Great Plains National. 1993. 60 slides, annotations, bibliography. $70.00.