Arkansas 7th grade Geography Course Resources
natgeoed.org/arkansas
A web site developed just for Arkansas middle school social studies teachers covering the
new frameworks and content standards for 7th grade, World Geography. This site was
developed in conjunction with the National Geographic Society and should help our
teachers get started in this course.
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/
The National Geographic Society’s education web site containing lots of materials, videos,
ideas for K-12 teachers.
http://arkansasgeographicalliance.com/
The Arkansas Geographic Alliance is working with the National Geographic Society to
develop a website just for Arkansas teachers. Nat. Geo. has an education division with
almost 100 teachers and educators that produce some fantastic materials and resources.
We’ve asked them to put together all the online and free materials they have into one
site for our teachers to search and use. It’s still a work in progress, but it should be up
and running by mid-July and accessible through the Arkansas Geographic Alliance
website. Please go to the AGA website, (also a work in progress!), click on the upper right
Contact Us tab, click on the AGA Newsletter tab in the drop down box, and enter your
email. We’ll let you know when future workshops are planned and send out information
on the Nat. Geo. website as it becomes available.
All-day Geography Workshops primarily for 7th grade World Geography teachers
Content, Ideas, Pacing, Curriculum, Resources, Materials, just about everything a teacher
needs to cover 7th grade World Geography in a semester or a year. Any middle school teacher
that will be teaching 7th grade World Geography in the coming years should attend one of
these workshops if at all possible. Each session will be run by two or three middle school
teachers that have had years of experience teaching geography, infusing it into the social
studies curriculum, and connecting it to other disciplines. Most have attended national
conferences on teaching geography and worked with the National Geographic Society to
become master geography teachers. They will share a lot of ideas, materials and experience
that will be very valuable to teachers new to geography. Contact the Co-Op to reserve a place
or call Jeff at 501-450-5636. PD credits are available.
July 21st Dawson Education Co-Op, Arkadelphia
July 28th Ozarks Unlimited Resources Co-Op, Harrison
Arkansas Curriculum Conference, Geography Sessions; Little Rock, November 5th & 6th
Scheduled are eight different sessions covering curriculum, teaching ideas, content,
materials, using online and free materials, pacing guides and other resources and
information. Presenters include Paul Gray, 2008 Arkansas Teacher of the Year and
National Geographic Research Fellow, Dr. Jeff Allender, Chair, UCA Department of
Geography, and Julie Hill, Marcie Starkey and Linda Gardner, experienced middle school
geography teachers with years of experience. Anyone teaching the new 7th grade World
Geography course or AP Human Geography should try to attend.
EPIC Geography Workshop, (Environment, People, Interaction, Change over time)
July 12th, 13th & 14th, 2016, UCA
We’re in the planning stages for a three-day, intensive workshop for geography teachers
throughout Arkansas. It will include several content/materials sessions based upon topics and
regions, lesson plans and tested teaching strategies for the 7th grade World Geography and the
high school AP Human Geography, introductory and intermediate GIS/Storymap field
methods, and more. There will be two or three concurrent sessions each day, tailored to the
needs of teachers at different grade levels and different interests. There will be physical and
cultural field trips to the local region and discussions of how we can get our students out into
the field, observing and gathering data.
Please contact me if you have any questions; jeffa@uca.edu or (501) 450-5636.
Jeff Allender, Chair, UCA Department of Geography,
& Arkansas Geographic Alliance Coordinator