Running Head: GEOGRAPHY
Inquiry Project Resource Package: Geography
Kelly Chambers, Heath Galenzoski, Christine Martinuk & Christina Oberlin
ESST 310-030
Reila Bird
November 20, 2014
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GEOGRAPHY
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Inquiry Project Geography Resources
Our Top Ten Resources
1) The Five Themes of Geography: Geography Across the Curriculum
Knight divides geography into five main themes: location, place, relationships
among places, movement, and regions. Within the book she provides learning
activities organized first by grade and then into the five themes. The activities are
for not only social studies, but are scattered across all subject areas so students
have a well-rounded grasp of geographic concepts. The activities included in the
book are student-centered and can easily be incorporated into meaningful lessons
for each grade level. An additional component of this resource is that it includes
an appendix with additional teacher resources for geography. One consideration
for this book is that it is 20 years old meaning that borders and curriculum have
changed since it was written and activities may need to be adapted to fit our
current situations.
Citation:
Knight, C. (1994). The five themes of geography: Geography across the
curriculum : A teacher’s activity guide (grades K-5). Boone, N.C.:
Parkway.
2) The Geo-Educator Community Website
National Geographic has put out this educators portion for their website so that
teachers have free access to various geography related resources and supports
within the site. Some of the resources and supports include forums to talk to other
teachers, professional development opportunities, background information,
lessons and activities arranged by grade, as well as ways you can be involved in
global projects. National Geographic educator site approaches learning from an
ecologically conscious point of view, which is desperately needed in today’s
world as we are facing great social and climactic changes. The subject matter is
conveyed in multiple ways such as pictures, videos, and activities to help meet the
needs of different students and educators.
The educational tools on the national geographic website are broken into ideas,
activities, lessons, and units. There are articles that are helpful and full of great
ideas and one that we picked out is below. Has great mapping tools and ideas, but
is so much more than that with different aspects presented. It looks at the human
side of geography as well as the physical.
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One of the interesting sections of this website that we have been exploring is the
“Geography and Movies” section found at:
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/news/geography-goesmovies/?ar_a=1#
The Geography and the movies section look at movies and how to incorporate
them into the curriculum. The website breaks down the wizard of Oz and how it
can introduce and ask questions within our own society.
Citation:
The Geo-Educator Community. (1996-2014). Retrieved October 21, 2014, from
http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/geo-educatorcommunity/?ar_a=1
3) Geography in The Early Years 2nd Edition.
Geography in the Early Years is a book about practical teaching methods while it
does include a few activity ideas. The book focusses on the learner, the content,
and teaching methods for geography in the classroom. Each chapter includes
charts and other visuals to explain the topic and give teachers ideas to use in their
own practice . Additionally there is an entire chapter at the end of the book
dedicated to activities, books, and website links that can be used in geography
centered lessons across the curriculum. However, when consulting this resource it
is important to note that the authors use UK standards and objectives in their
activities, meaning that activities may need adapting or the grades indicated for
activities may not line up with the Saskatchewan grade level outcomes.
Citation:
Palmer, J., & Birch, J. (1994). Geography in the early years (2nd ed.). London:
Routledge.
4) KidZone Geography- Learning about Canada
This website is a great resource for younger students (under grade 5) to start to
learn about their country and their own province. There are printable worksheets
right on the website that split by grade level. The worksheets are very
informational by using fill in the blanks and word boxes. As you get to more
specific provinces, it talks about when they became a province, you can click to
take a photo tour and see the scenery, and it gives you the link to the provinces
website for further information. There is of course more worksheets, about the
provinces; flag, capital city, provincial bird and flower and reviews to see what
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the student has learned about the province. On the bottom of the page, there are
more links to find lesson plans, theme units and grade level.
Citation:
KidZone Geography Learning About Canada. (n.d.). Retrieved November 5,
2014, from http://www.kidzone.ws/geography/canada.htm
5) All Over the Map: 10 Ways to Teach About Geography
This is a great article that gives teachers 10 awesome activities to use while
teaching geography. It starts from playing geography bingo to designing maps to
analyzing border conflicts to how culture affects perceptions and stereotypes of
other places — and teachers can use the activities in any order, or as a road map
for tracking ongoing coverage of geography-related issues. The activities go on to
discuss about how geography isn’t just about places on a map but about the
people, culture, history and the landscapes of those places. The 10 activities are
laid out in a way that gives teachers ideas and gives links within them to show
examples of projects or examples of articles that should be read
Citation:
All Over the Map: 10 Ways to Teach About Geography. (2012, December 4).
Retrieved October 20, 2014, from
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/all-over-the-map-10-waysto-teach-about-geography/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=1
6) Canadian Geographic Education (http://www.cgeducation.ca/)
Canadian Geographic Education is a free teacher resource you can subscribe to. It
does not fill your email up with spam like some other sites will, but it will give
you access to the plethora of resources that you can access from this site. There
are many classroom ready lesson plans that were created and shared by current
educators. Canadian Geographic will continue to post new lesson plans yearly to
allow teachers to grow their tool kits. Within this site, teachers also gain access to
an online Canadian atlas accompanied by activities. Additionally, teachers can
find geographic activities to develop lesson plans around. One aspect of
particular interest is the foundation allows distribution of several different giant
floor maps for free.
Citation:
Canadian Geographic Education. (2014). Retrieved October 24, 2014, from
http://www.cgeducation.ca/
7) Teaching About Geographical Thinking
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Teachers wanting to engage students in geographical thinking through critical
inquiry will find this book a very welcome resource. It provides a solid
framework of concepts, examples, and questions that clearly develop what critical
inquiry means in geographical problem-solving. “Teaching about Geographical
Thinking” is organized around six interrelated concepts central to geographical
problem-solving: geographical importance, evidence and interpretation, patterns
and trends, interactions and associations, sense of place, and geographical value
judgments.
Each concept is discussed and illustrated with examples, questions, and criteria to
guide the interrogation and assessment of geographic problems. Most of the
examples draw upon current and pressing geographic problems in Canada. The
examples are followed by concise discussions of the portal concept’s key
dimensions, and suggestions for practical teaching applications across the
curriculum.
You can find this resource for $15.00 (in PDF form) from:
http://tc2.ca/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_114&products_i
d=27
Citation:
Bahbahani, K., & Case, R. (2008). Teaching about geographical thinking: A
professional resource to help teach six interrelated concepts central to
students' ability to think critically about geography. Vancouver: Critical
Thinking Consortium.
8) PBS Kids “Social Studies Games”
The PBS Kids website is a resource specifically for students. Many of the games
within the Social Studies portion of the website offer students a chance to practice
and use their geographic knowledge on maps, directions, physical, landforms,
along with many other areas. Unfortunately, most of these games are oriented
towards the United States of America, but there are still several games with
international and universal content. This resource will be great for the students
who are always done their work before others as well as maybe engaging the
students that struggle to learn through the more traditional methods.
Citation:
PBS KIDS. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2014, from
http://pbskids.org/games/social-studies/
9) Jumpstart
JumpStart is a great way to teach students interesting geography facts and trivia.
Within the site there is a collection of fun geography worksheets and activities, as
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well as Lesson plans and other curriculum subjects. The free, printable geography
lesson plans are geared to the younger grade levels, but most of the activities can
be adapted to fit any grade level. The site has a Resource tab that is full of
different types and subjects including some themed activities and many online
games for students to work on at school or home. Like some of the sites we found
this one is based off an American curriculum and does need to be adjusted to fit in
a Canadian school. There is also a teachers section where packages can be ordered
for the classroom. The site is easily navigated and is divided by subject and grade
level
JumpStart is also the resource that we were able to find the starting point for the
“Canada Tour” activity we demonstrated in our presentation.
Citation: Geography Activities. (n.d.). Retrieved November 14, 2014, from
http://www.jumpstart.com/parents/activities/geography-activities
10) Google Maps
Google maps a great resource to use as a visual aid in for learning about
geographic concepts in class. It seemed to us that it is underutilized for
educational purposes, but it has much to offer for those students who need a
picture to link with the knowledge they are learning. Many students will even
have experiences with Google Maps before ever entering school, which allows
them to make personal connections to its use. You can explore anywhere from
your local community, to the entire world in map view or in street view
depending on the lesson you wish to use it in. With the use of this resource,
children literally have the world at their fingertips.
Citation:
Google Maps. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2014, from
https://www.google.ca/maps/
Other Helpful Resources
1) Canada and You Workbook
Although in need of adaptation to bring it up to current standards, this workbook
offers a good place to start in teaching Canadian Geography and map skills.
Citation:
Davis, U. (1979). Canada and you: An introductory workbook of map and globe
skills. Toronto, Ont.: Gage
2) Wow Canada!
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Wow Canada! is a book that was put out by Canadian Geographic. It follows a
child’s roadtrip across Canada with their family with plently of visuals and
activities. It would be a great addition to a unit concerning Canadian provinces
and landforms.
Citation:
Bowers, V., & Hobbs, D. (1999). Wow, Canada!: Exploring this land from coast
to coast to coast. Toronto: Owl Books.
3) Geography and Social Justice in the Classroom
This book is great read for teachers who are striving for social justice within their
classrooms. It addresses different social justice issues surrounding the teaching of
geography to students.
Citation:
Kenreich, T. (Ed.). (2013). Geography and social justice in the classroom. New
York: Routledge.
4) Google Earth
Google Earth offers some unique features atop those offered by the Google Maps
resource. There are many interactive features with this resource. From being able
to see 3D models of buildings all over the world, to a section that allows you to
literally learn how to get to Sesame Street from all over the world Google Earth
has much to offer teachers and students.
Citation:
Google Earth. (n.d.). Retrieved October 28, 2014, from http://earth.google.com/
Activities for the Geographically Conscious Classroom
1) Professor Noggin’s Geography of Canada Card Game
This game is a fun, informative and educational resource that students will love to
play! This game has many different topics that include the provinces and
territories, agriculture, geology and bodies of water. Each wonderfully illustrated
card has two different skill levels of questions on it so children can learn more as
they get older. These games are great because they encourage reading (and even
struggling readers can work with a partner), they are quick games that can be
played (centers or rainy day indoor recesses), and they're affordable. It would also
be easy to use them to assess those students who have difficulty with regular tests.
Playing a game puts them at ease and they quickly forget that they're being tested
Citation:
Professor Noggin. (n.d.). Geography of Canada. [card game]. Canada:
Outset Media.
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2) School Map Treasure Hunt
Using a treasure hunt is a fun way to introduce to students the concept of map
reading – a critical skill for geographic knowledge. Students have to follow maps
of the school to find another map tapes to a wall in the indicated area of the
school. At the end of the activity, students should be lead to an area where they
have to locate a “treasure,” which can be whatever you would like to use as
treasure. This activity was created for a grade 2 class who was looking at their
school community, but could be adapted for topics in other grades as well.
3) Interactive SMART Board Activities
Using technology in the classroom is a great way to engage leaners and allows
students to receive immediate feedback. Geography being a largely visual subject,
is one such area that would benefit from the use of interactive technology such as
SMART board activities. The following two activities could be used as one
dimension of a class exploration.
a. Maps. (2010, December 23). Retrieved November 14, 2014, from
http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=51a648e0-d0f7-4e89-836d63779a56f840
b. Canada's provinces & capitals resources. (2011, September 22). Retrieved
November 14, 2014, from
http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=0a368817-6035-422e-90b105c6629ff46