Co-Mingling Geographic Education with Social Studies Methods

Abstract

Most preservice teachers complete their social science course requirements in isolation from their social studies methods course. This paper reports the unique co-mingling of one interdisciplinary social science course (emphasizing geographic and environmental education) with the social studies methods for a cohort of undergraduate preservice teachers. Integrating parts of their curricula, instruction, assignments, and assessments through a co-mentoring process and action research project connected professors and preservice teachers with children and their environments. A review of the professors' process accompanied by a summary of preservice teachers' projects and reactions describes the classroom experiences and pedagogical outcomes experienced by each group.     

Geographic Influences in the Atlanta Campaign

Abstract

The growing importance of law in American society and the potential contribution that geographers can make in implementing America's legal system point to rewarding future linkages between law and geography. This paper suggests the need for a course on Law and Geography to cultivate these linkages. The proposed course outline draws examples from water law and criminal justice law and other legal bodies that suggest significant avenues for future geographical research.     

Fifteen Year Follow-Up Geography Skills Test Administered in Indiana, 1987 and 2002

Abstract

After fifteen years of geographic education efforts, a baseline geography skills test was repeated in Indiana. In 2002, 2,278 students in college freshman geography courses were tested with a revision of the National Council for Geographic Education Competency-Based Geography Test, Secondary Level Form II. The test measured geographic ability in map skills, place name location, physical geography, and human geography. As in 1987, the 2002 test gathered personal information from each student on age, gender, travel experience, and prior geographic education. Test scores were lower by two percent in 2002. Travel and lifetime experience are again the best teachers of geography as opposed to high school geography course work. Significant performance differences persist between gender and ethnic groups. Arts and science students perform significantly higher than students from education, business, and other schools. Test results underscore the need to emphasize more intentional classroom focus on state standards and preparation of classroom teachers.     

Overcoming Geographic Innocence in Geography Education

Abstract

This article deals with the issue of providing geographic training to prospective teachers from the perspective of a secondary school teacher who also teaches a social studies methods course. Research in educational journals provided a background for describing the lack of geographic training among social studies teachers. While the National Geographic Society's alliance network is addressing this issue among practicing teachers, there is still a need to include some geography training for preservice teachers. Suggestions are offered for including geography within the context of the social studies methods course. A plea is also made for geography professors to include the new National Geography Standards in their courses, especially in introductory courses.     

社会记忆的旅游开发分析——以淮南煤炭记忆为例

科技的发展和人们思维观念的转变,使得新形式的记忆承载物突破单一教育功能的限制,旅游开始介入社会记忆领域。运用社会记忆理论,使用质性分析软件NVivo8.0,对淮南煤炭记忆进行探析,指出淮南煤炭记忆实质上分为两部分,一是煤炭记忆之苦,二是忆苦思甜。最后,探讨了旅游和淮南煤炭记忆的关系,提出了具体的措施来建构煤炭记忆纪念物,包括加强煤炭记忆的档案建设、建设大型矿山公园、市井生活再塑造、多种业态并存。     

江苏省经济社会空间数据库建设

近年来,随着信息化技术的不断推进,传统的政府管理模式已经不能满足经济社会发展需求,经济社会数据与空间地理信息的结合应运而生.本文旨在建立基于基础空间数据、自然资源数据、社会资源数据和社会经济资源数据的江苏省经济社会空间数据库,以满足全省投资、人口、产业、社会事业、资源环境、基础设施建设等领域的信息化重现与分析需要,实现全省经济社会空间信息的智能查询和统计.     

Variations in grain‐size and sorting on two kaikoura beaches

Two exposed, high‐energy beaches on the Kaikoura coast of New Zealand are composed of sand and gravel derived from a greywacke terrain. Both beaches can be classified as mixed beaches although the sediment varies from dominantly gravel at the ends of the beach to dominantly sand at the centre, through transition zones in which sand and gravel are mixed. Sixty‐four surface samples were analysed for grain size; two sediment parameters, mean grain size (M_z) and sorting (σ_I), were calculated.

A striking feature of the cumulative frequency curves is that both unimodai and bimodal distributions include median sizes over the whole range of sampled material, even though bimodal samples display two strong modes in the sand and gravel grades. The general deficiency lof sediment dn the very coarse sand and granule classes (0 to — 2 _F ) noted by numerous authors in many parts of the world is apparent in the poorly‐sorted bimodal samples. However, the best‐sorted samples also occur in these two classes.

Mean grain size of samples ranges from medium sand (1.820) to medium pebbles (—4.7 _F ), and sorting ranges from very well sorted (0.250) to very poorly sorted (2.69 _F ). Mean erain size on the northern beach is significantly greater than on the southern beach, but values of sorting are comparable. The greater mean size on one beach compared with the other is thought to be a function of the grade of material supplied by local rivers; the similarity in sorting presumably reflects the similarity of the processes acting on the two beaches.

Mixed sand‐shingle beaches are relatively rare on a world scale but common in New Zealand. Sediment distributions along the Kaikoura beaches do not reveal a regular decrease in size away from the rivers which supply material to shore at present. Instead, the beaches are differentiated into a number of sediment zones composed of either sand, or mixed sand‐gravel, or gravel. On each beach a gravel zone is located furthest from the river outlets. Sorting generally improves toward the Kaikoura Peninsula. Explanations for these trends are not given. Variations in size and sorting across the two beaches do not show a well developed zonation because of the high level of wave energy which continually mixes the material across the beach.     

Development alternatives: practice, dilemmas and theory

This paper argues that much scholarly work on civil society and alternative development has three weaknesses: it understates the diversity among popular organizations and their ideas about development alternatives; it pays insufficient attention to the economic dimensions of alternatives; and it understates the potential importance of the local state. Drawing on experiences from highland Bolivia, we suggest that a closer engagement with the dilemmas encountered in practical attempts to pursue development alternatives can suggest ways forward in each of these areas. Linking scholarly and practical work is thus important for theoretical reasons as well as ones of relevance.     

草牧场防护林综合效益研究综述

草牧场防护林是为改善草牧场小气候、提高牧草产量和质量、增加草原生态经济系统的承载能力和提高整个草原生态系统的生产力和稳定性而营造的防护林。由于其具有多种功能和效益，愈来愈受到人们的重视。本文根据国内外学者发表的有关草牧场防护效益的大量文献，综合论述了草牧场防护林气象效益、改良土壤效益、生物效益以及经济效益和社会效益。在此基础上提出了草牧场防护林效益研究的发展趋势。