MILLICENT TODD BINGHAM: HUMAN GEOGRAPHER AND LITERARY SCHOLAR

Millicent Todd Bingham was the first and only woman to earn a Ph.D. in the Department of Geology and Geography at Harvard. A talented linguist, she published in the classic tradition of the French school of human geography. Her professional geographic career came to a halt when she elected to edit the poems and letters of Emily Dickinson, work originally begun by her mother, Mabel Loomis Todd. Bingham's efforts resulted in the publication of several books and articles fundamental to the Dickinson scholarship. She credits her geographic training for much of her literary success.     

Elizabeth Eiselen 1910-1990

Abstract

Dr. Eiselen was born in Evanston, Illinois, on August 22, 1910; she died on January 27,1990, in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Although she had taught in Kentucky and Massachusetts and was a frequent traveller, she studied, lived, and worked in the Chicago Metropolitan Area most of her life.     

Gendered spaces - socio-spatial relations of self-employed women in craft production,Orissa, India

The present article concerns female self-employment in craft production in Orissa, India. Although industrial policies in India have attempted to address some of the socio-economic problems in local craft production through cooperative societies and subsidies, issues of the division of labour, factors of production and the processes of constructing individual gender identity are embedded in the gender structure and remain invisible to the new social order. Socio-spatial relations of gendered spaces are also deeply embedded in the traditional Brahmanical social order. The analysis is based on the individual story of one female businesswoman. The significance of the individual narrative is discussed with reference to feminist geographies and the self-reflexivity of the researchers. The story of Mami is about her struggle to become a successful businesswoman, and highlights the interrelationship between her actions, her perceptions of work and the socio-economic spaces that she has to relate to. Her story reveals that self-employed women can act as role models for other women and contribute to increasing their power in local and place-bound situations.     

Geographic j Materials Received

Abstract

Paul F. Griffin, editor. GEOGRAPHY OF POPULATION. A TEACHER'S MANUAL. The 1970 Yearbook of The National Council for Geographic Education. Palo Alto, Calif.: Fearon Publishers, 1969. xiv + 370 pages, maps and charts. $9.50.

George W. Goddard (with DeWitt S. Copp). OVERVIEW, A LIFELONG ADVENTURE IN AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Garden City, New York: Doubleday &; Company, 1969. Photographs, index. 402 pages. $8.95.

Ronald U. Cooke and James H. Johnson, editors. TRENDS IN GEOGRAPHY, AN INTRODUCTORY SURVEY. Oxford and New York. The Pergamon Press, Ltd., 1969. xi + 287 pages. $6.25; flexicover, $4.00.

Robert E. Dickinson. THE MAKERS OF MODERN GEOGRAPHY. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Publishers, 1969. Preface, indexes, photographs. 305 pages. $7.50.     

Books,Places, Regions—A Natural Blend

Abstract

Children love books, and through carefully chosen ones geographic concepts can be conveyed. Books are good resources—great background material for describing a place, emphasizing the culture of a region, highlighting a geographical issue, or clarifying where a place is in the world. This article explains how literature encourages geographic thinking, builds geographic skills, and develops lasting mental maps of places and regions.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

The Council at Work

Abstract

Through analysis of census data, these lessons cover geographic concepts dealing with migration and population change in the United States. Students discuss the historical push and pull factors of immigration to the United States. By focusing on the recent influx of Hispanic immigrants, students look at the geographic concepts of assimilation, discrimination, and time-decay. Students also create graphs and maps to examine the recent increase in the United States Hispanic population and geographic patterns of Hispanic settlement.     

Concept Learning through Writing for Learning: Using Journals in an Introductory Geography Course

Abstract

To effectively use journals and other writing for learning tasks as critical thinking and learning tools, geographic educators need to draw from the education literature on concept learning. Using the literature on concept learning and critical thinking, geographic educators can construct different kinds of journal assignments that give students opportunities to personalize and understand concepts. I demonstrate that students, regardless of their sex, level of education, or previous coursework in geography, found journal assignments helpful in understanding human geographic concepts.     

BELGIAN COASTAL EROSION

This is one of a series of geest articles written on invitation by senior memgers of the geographic profession     

Making the Connections: Infusing the National Geography Standards into the Classroom

Abstract

How will the National Geography Standards change the way teachers teach? The Standards will provide teachers with a geographic perspective that will enable them to teach improved geography content while building geographic skills and knowledge that will benefit their students for the rest of their lives. By taking a fresh look at the content in the curriculum from a geographic perspective, teachers can make connections between the Geography Standards and our own classrooms. The Standards provide information and strategies for teaching geography. They can be used to create lessons which offer opportunities for students to “do” geography and apply the skills they are learning.     

Dora the Explorer: Preschool Geographic Educator

Abstract

Dora the Explorer is a twenty-three-minute television program for preschoolers viewed by millions every day in many countries. These programs are also marketed as videotapes and DVDs. This seven-year-old Latina, bilingual cartoon character teaches many things by interacting with the young viewers. On every program Dora and friends have to go someplace to solve a problem. Map is a cartoon character who helps viewers read the map and tells Dora where to go next. Some episodes are particularly geographic. Geographers need to evaluate the contributions of Dora the Explorer to geographic education for preschool children, a little-studied subject.     

How the States Got Their Shapes

Abstract

A baseline geography test was administered to over 3,000 Indiana college students enrolled in introductory geography courses. The National Council for Geographic Education Competency-Based Geography Test, Secondary Level, Form II, was used to measure the 1987 level of geographic ability in the areas of map skills, place-name location, physical geography, and human geography. Personal information gathered from each respondent included age, sex, travel experience, and level of geographic education. Older students scored better while geographically immobile groups scored lower. A strong correlation was found between travel and geographic knowledge. Findings show low overall geographic ability and that factors of age, travel experience and gender are correlated with certain aspects of geographic knowledge and skills.     

ON THE LETTERING OF MAPS

This is one of a series of guest articles written on invitation by senior members of the geographic profession.     

From Geographic Holism to Geographic Information System

Substantial changes in a core idea of geography, integration, have occurred since Alexander von Humboldt published Kosmos (1845-1862). These changes are part of a larger shift in Western civilization to mechanistic reasoning. This shift led to the strengthening of system-based analysis, central to the development of geographic information systems (GIS). The duality of holism and the systems approach has led to an apparent contradiction in geography. R. Hartshorne in The Nature of Geography described this contradiction, but as did Alfred Hettner and Emil Wisotzki before, moved to partial systems as the core concept of geographic integration. Hartshorne's concept of vertical integration is the antecedent for the ubiquitous GIS layer model. The reduction of geographic relationships and processes to mechanistic components (layers) aids the systematic approach, but may lessen geographic understanding of a place's interrelationships. Although the partiality of the system approach was already acknowledged by Finch and Hartshorne in the 1930s, the tension between holistic and system approaches in geography remains. Holism and system-based approaches are indeed complementary methods for developing geographic understanding. Using holistic approaches to understand geographic phenomena, before we teleologically (following a purpose) analyze phenomena as a system, extends GIS to include broader interrelationships of geography in specific locations.     

EMINENCE AMONG GEOGRAPHERS

This is one of a series of guest articles written on invitation by senior members of the geographic profession.     

ASSESSING DAILY MINIMUM TEMPERATURE PROBABILITIES FROM ABBREVIATED WEATHER RECORDS

This is one of a series of guest articles written on invitation by senior members of the geographic profession.     

A Manifesto on Mobile Computing in Geographic Education*

Abstract

Mobile, location-aware computing technology is widely available. In this article we sketch out a manifesto on mobile computing in geographic education (MoGeo) for consideration and debate within the geographic community. At the core of our argument is the idea that emerging mobile computing technologies will allow teachers to bring the classroom and pedagogic materials into the field, and that the resulting in situ educational experience will enhance learning by contextualizing the complex and abstract concepts that we teach. We provide a set of key principles that can guide the development of field experiences for students using these new technologies.     

Intervention: Simulating the War on Global Terrorism

Abstract

Students analyze a contemporary geopolitical event from a comprehensive geographic perspective using role play simulation, discussion, and decision-making. The three-day activity provides teachers with a realistic, ready-made classroom lesson that combines powerful conceptual learning with drama and surprise. The task of the teacher is to transform the map into a transparency and review the teacher background and student background information sections. During the capstone socratic seminar, students generate their own geographic concepts and principles inductively.