Self-perceived Roles in Life and Achieving Sustainability on Family Farms in North-eastern Australia

Rural production landscapes in Australia are experiencing a rapid rate of change as a result of, among other factors, climate change, biodiversity loss and changing societal values. Consequently, there is increasing pressure on producers to increase their sustainability. Understanding how producers perceive themselves in the context of this changing landscape is limited but important for the design of policy effective for achieving sustainability. This paper is based on a case study in the north-eastern Australian rangelands that included face-to-face interviews with 28 beef producers and a telephone survey with another 91 producers. The study investigated male and female beef producers' self-perceived roles in life through a lens of different farming discourses and the relationship between these roles and beliefs aligned with sustainability. Results revealed that although producers' self-percieved roles in life were being constructed through a mix of more or less ‘traditional’ discourses, tradition was still a strong influence. Producers who strongly identified with roles linked to ‘less traditional’ discourses were more likely than those who strongly identified with production-orientated roles to agree with beliefs that favoured nature conservation, learning and adapting to change. Increased opportunities for producers to participate in alternative discourses would appear important for fostering a self-identity that is open to learning, difference and change.     

The Utility and Organization of a College Field Course: Examining National Park Management

Abstract

This article reviews the benefits of field-based instruction, particularly as it complements traditional classroom learning. It suggests that direct observation and hands-on learning associated with field-based instruction raise students' interest level and improve their understanding and long-term retention of targeted concepts. In addition, planning, implementation, and evaluation strategies are provided and recommendations are outlined for instructors interested in organizing or improving a field course at their learning institution. The park management field course offered between spring and summer semesters at Oklahoma State University provides an example of the major components of a successful field course.     

Lesson Plans in Geography

Abstract

This article advocates that geography teachers undertake field studies of human systems with their students. A field trip process is described that helps teachers to guide students to explore and analyze a real human system with the expressed goal of building skills that can transfer to and complement a wide range of geographic learning tasks identified in Geography for Life: National Geography Standards 1994. Students are taken to a human system, such as a supermarket or a hotel. In groups, students interview as well as tour with a representative of a key department of the human system. Using teacher-supplied materials, groups create models or visual schematics of the whole human system they studied. The model must show the complex as a collection of interdependent elements with distinct functions. The learning outcomes achieved by students are a collection of geographic skills ideal for transfer to subsequent geographic investigations of urban places and or regions.     

A Landscape Guide in Environmental Education

Abstract

The interpretation of landscapes is an important way to learn about geography in environmental education. A Landscape Guide to the Bachelor Reserve applies geographic/historical and biological/ecological perspectives to the interpretation of ten landscape scenes along a three-mile walking tour. For each scene, the guide describes the environmental setting, the composition and structure of the vegetation, and the history of human influences. Questionnaire and field assessments document a well-received interpretive tool, and the need to guide participants across land transitions and interpret land use history clearly. Landscape guides can be used in school/community land labs and contribute to holistic learning and multidisci-plinary exercises in formal and informal environmental education programs.     

Using Information Technologies for Interactive Learning

Abstract

Experiences in designing, offering, and evaluating joint senior undergraduate course assignments in resource and environmental management on two different occasions, which connected students in two universities in British Columbia and Ontario, are documented. The shared assignments provided students with experience in group work and consensual decision making, and allowed them to use a mix of information technologies (e-mail, chat rooms, the Web, video conferencing). The undergraduate students rated very highly the experience with information technology but found some aspects of a collaborative learning approach to be challenging. The course was less successful than had been anticipated in highlighting different regional perceptions and perspectives regarding resource and environmental problems and solutions. Clarification of objectives and expectations, more attention to allocation of time, and consideration of computer access and assistance would improve the effectiveness of the courses.     

Wireless Mapping,GIS, and Learning about the Digital Divide: A Classroom Experience

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe a capstone course in undergraduate student geographical research in which GIS and other geospatial tools were used to teach undergraduate students basic geographical principles. The course uses the “cooperative learning” pedagogical approach to address one of a number of client-supplied research projects, chosen on the basis of logistical difficulty, time, student ability, and project importance. In the connection of primary data with existing data, students confronted a number of important research issues such as mapping ethics, database design and management, time management, group dynamics, and research limitations.     

Field Work in the Classroom

To make sense of spatial data, information and concepts strong geographic literacy skills are a prerequisite, yet existing studies suggest a global decline in these skills. Current geographic tools predominantly focus on mapping tasks that do not necessarily lead to an understanding of the broader geographic relevance of location. This article argues that in order to improve geographic literacy exercises should test an understanding of location and employ techniques to correct deficiencies. To support this argument this study offers evidence on the effectiveness of online quizzes in improving geographic literacy skills of first-year undergraduate geography students.     

Transportation—Part V

Abstract

This article presents a case study that highlights the benefits and limitations of Web-based video in lab sections of The Geographer’s Craft, an upper-level undergraduate course in which students apply digital geographic methods. Over three years (2010–2013), the authors experimented with different teaching strategies utilizing Web-based video for lab lectures and software demonstrations. This article presents three different approaches for its application, from inside and outside the classroom, to a ”flipped classroom” setting. The authors argue that Web-based video is a valuable tool for teaching digital geographic research methods and techniques while allowing for greater focus on theory and application.     

Validation of the effects of temperature simulated by multi-model ensemble and prediction of mean temperature changes for the next three decades in China

Using series of daily average temperature observations over the period of 1961–1999 of 701 meteorological stations in China, and simulated results of 20 global climate models (such as BCCR_BCM2.0, CGCM3T47) during the same period as the observation, we validate and analyze the simulated results of the models by using three factor statistical method, achieve the results of multi- model ensemble, test and verify the results of multi-model ensemble by using the observation data during the period of 1991–1999. Finally, we analyze changes of the annual mean temperature result of multi-mode ensemble prediction for the period of 2011–2040 under the emission scenarios A2, A1B and B1. Analyzed results show that: (1) Global climate models can reproduce Chinese regional spatial distribution of annual mean temperature, especially in low latitudes and eastern China. (2) With the factor of the trend of annual mean temperature changes in reference period, there is an obvious bias between the model and the observation. (3) Testing the result of multi-model ensemble during the period of 1991–1999, we can simulate the trend of temperature increase. Compared to observation, the result of different weighing multi-model ensemble prediction is better than the same weighing ensemble. (4) For the period of 2011–2040, the growth of the annual mean temperature in China, which results from multi-mode ensemble prediction, is above 1 °C. In the spatial distribution of annual mean temperature, under the emission scenarios of A2, A1B and B1, the trend of growth in South China region is the smallest, the increment is less than or equals to 0.8 °C; the trends in the northwestern region and south of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are the largest, the increment is more than 1 °C.     

Freshwater geographies: Experimenting with knowing and doing geography differently

The fair and effective governance of freshwater is an increasingly prominent issue in New Zealand. Emerging from a complex of cultural, economic and biophysical narratives, freshwater geographies are multiple, varied and increasingly acknowledged as worthy of interdisciplinary scrutiny. In this commentary, we reflect on a series of generative spaces that we – as group of postgraduate geographers (plus supporting staff) – created to engage with the multiplicity of freshwater meanings both within and beyond the academy. Through this evolving epistemic‐political project, we significantly reframed our own understandings about what freshwater ‘is’ and how it ought to be governed. By pursuing a deeper understanding of how the world gets made, we expand our ability to know and make it differently.