Developing Geographical Minds
Lessons from World Regional and Vermont Geography
Cheryl Morse
University of Vermont
Geography Department
Center for Research on Vermont
Two Minute Writes
A.
Please make a list of “global issues”.
Two Minute Writes
B.
Please describe what comes to your mind when you think of
“Vermont Agriculture”.
Note: you are writing to a Martian, so be descriptive.
THE QUIZ
(from Geography Hell?)
• Please take this quiz
• You will not be asked to share your answers or
your score with anyone
• This is not challenge by choice!
Why Do I Ask My UVM
Students to Take This
Quiz?
Because I was clueless…
Total Number of Quiz
Responses: 626
Taken in 4 Semesters
Spring 2008-Fall 2010
About 1/3 of
students
went to HS in
Vermont
Quiz Results
Overall Quiz Average:
43.53
Quiz Average Did Not
Increase Over Time
Students are NOT
becoming more
geographically literate
over time
Student Scores Do Not Increase:
By year at
students)
UVM (eg., seniors do not score significantly higher than first-year
If the student took a Geography Course in High School
If the student took another Geography Course in College
According to where the student attended
What I Do Not Know, because I didn’t ask:
Results by gender
Results by travel experience
Results by race/ethnicity
high school (in VT or out-of-state)
What do students’ incorrect answers tell us?
Name the capital of Iraq:
Bangladesh, Qatar, Kuwait, “it’s not Baghdad”, “Televeve?”, Islamabad; Istanbul; Kuwait
Name one non-native or exotic species that has impacted Australia:
“British Prisoners”; Zebra Mussels (from VT student); Americans; Switchback Mountain
Goat; “huge mice things/rodents”; “Nemo/clownfish”
Name the capital of Canada:
“WHO CARES!!!”, “there isn’t one”, “doesn’t each province have its own capital”, “which
region of Canada?”, Ontario, Montreal, Calgary, Halifax, Vancouver, Quebec, Quebec City,
Edmonton, Toronto, “A friend of mine would know that…I’m not sure.”; “O…something
that starts with an ‘O’”; Vancouver; “Ottawa, eh?”
Latitude:
“are you joking?!”, “10,000,000”, 500 ft, 200 ft above sea level, 90 N, 100, 32 NW, 80, 70,
30, 23N, “200 feet above sea level”; 120, “up there”; 350 ft; “90 (a little south of)”
OPEC- Name one member country that is not in the Middle East:
Venezuela, George Bush, Texas, Exxon/Mobil, Russia, Britain, Chile, US, Egypt, Peru,
Congo, Bulgaria, Turkey, American, Canada, Morocco, Argentina
How do the UVM results compare to:
Indiana Tests, 1987 and 2002
National Geographic – Roper Survey, 2006
The Nation’s Report Card – Geography 2010 ?
Why Don’t Young Americans Know
More Geography?
And,
Does it Matter That They Don’t Know
Geography?
the importance of a
“geographical mind”
Doreen Massey
Developing Geographical Minds:
Vermont’s Agriculture and the Production of Place
Geographical Imagination
Our mental maps of places; and the ways we render
spaces and places
“a lot of geography is in the mind”
Doreen Massey
What we expect of a place, even before we experience
it for ourselves.
what we expect of other social groups within
specific spaces.
Some Thoughts About the Importance of
Descriptive Writing and Field Work
“The renaissance in Vermont agriculture…”
Governor Peter Shumlin, Inaugural Address, Jan 6, 2011
“…[VT’s] wonderful
marketshed from
Montreal to Boston to
Providence to Hartford to
NY and Philadelphia…”
“…Vermont's farmers,
right now, are in a
constant economic
struggle. Every year they
have to figure out ways
to work and survive so
that we can all benefit:
these are the folks who
maintain a great piece of
the landscape, jobs, and
culture that is part of the
fabric of what makes
Vermont, Vermont.”
[We need to] “maintain
this incredible landscape
that makes Vermont such
a special place" and “the
culture we create by
having working
landscapes of farmers
and foresters in our
communities"
Chuck Ross, Sec. of
Agriculture, Food and
Markets, VPR, Jan 24, 2011
Recent Comments
about Vermont
Agriculture
Dan Kirk, “My Turn” BFP
“We need to ensure that Vermont is the milk-bowl and
breadbasket of New England…” Working Landscape Partnership,
VT Council on Rural Development
The Endangered Working Landscapes of Vermont
“Place in the Country”
“Green pastures, bales of hay, and mountainous backdrop provide a pastoral
setting for this landscape photograph.”
Orwell, VT
photo: John David Geery http://johndavidgeery.com
A Brief Environmental History of Vermont’s Landscape (in Crisis)
‘great swarming time’, chartering of towns
sheep craze
dairy farming
outmigration
tourism and agriculture
work as leisure (Blake Harrison, 2006)
The Co-Dependence of Rurality
and Tourism in Vermont
photo and logo: VermontVacation.com
Sabra Field
Woody Jackson
Phyllis Chase
Contemporary Representations of Vermont Landscapes – How Media Reproduces Constructs
What Do These Maple Landscapes Produce, How, and For Whom?
Vermont Department of Tourism ad in Spring
2011 Vermont Life
What Do These Maple Landscapes Produce, How, and For Whom?
Jordan’s Sugaring Operation, Essex
Map: Jan Albers, 2002, Hands on the Land
Vermont’s physiographic
regions align closely with
its geologic regions.
Vermont County Population, 2010
Two Vermonts?
One of every four
Vermonters lives
in Chittenden
County
GRAND
ISLE
6,970
FRANKLIN
47,746
ORLEANS
ESSEX
6,306
LAMOILLE
24,575
CHITTENDEN
156,545
CALEDONIA
WASHINGTON
Chitt. County’s
population is 2.5
times larger than
the next most
populated county,
Rutland
ADDISON
36,821
ORANGE
WINDSOR
RUTLAND
61,642
POPULATION
6,000-7,000
24,000-62,000
BENNINGTON
156, 545
WINDHAM
loss of pop
since 2000
Data: US Census, 2010
Rural – Urban Differences in Vermont
Rural
Urban
Population (2009 est)
413,705 (66.5%)
205,055 (33.5%)
Per Capita Income
(2008)
$37,480
$41,139
Earnings per Job (2008)
$35,867
$46,043
Poverty Rate (2009 est)
12.0%
10.5%
Not completed High
School
14.5%
11.5%
Completed College
27.0%
34.8%
Data: USDA Economic
Research Service
Vermont Farms by Sales,
1997 and 2007
Vermont Farm Data
Number of farms (2009):
Dairy farms (2010):
Organic dairy farms :
Conventional dairy farms:
70
60
50
Percent of Farms
40
30
7,000
1,010
205
805
20
1997
10
2007
0
Farm Sales
Organic dairy farms make up 20%
of the state total;
They produce about 5-7% of the
state's milk
Top 5 Agricultural
Commodities
Percent of state total farm
receipts
Dairy Products
65.4
Cattle and calves
8.0
Maple products
6.2
Greenhouse/nursery
5.3
Apples
2.5
Data: National
Agricultural
Statistics Service
Vermont’s Top Five Counties in
Agricultural Sales, 2007
2
Together, Addison
and Franklin
counties constitute
nearly half of VT’s
agricultural
production
FRANKLIN
$160,619,000
3
ORLEANS
$82,348,000
1
4
ADDISON
$161,417,000
The county in third
place produces half
that of the counties
in first and second
place
ORANGE
$43,292,000
5
RUTLAND
$35,286,000
23.5-24
12.2
5.2-6.4
PERCENT OF VT’S STATE
AGRICULTURAL SALES
How Many
Agricultural
Vermonts?
Top 3 Agricultural Sales Counties
Farm Sales, 2007
60
50
40
Percent of Farms 30
20
Addison
10
Franklin
0
Orleans
Farm Sales
Addison County
Franklin County
Orleans County
Total number of farms: 773
Total number of farms: 740
Total number of farms: 635
# farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 79
# farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 80
# of farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 25
Milk is 78% of ag sales
Cattle and calves are 8% of sales
Milk is 81% of ag sales
Cattle and calves are 11% of sales
Milk is 85% of ag sales
Cattle and calves are 8% of sales
The Freestall Landscape
Smaller Farm Landscapes
Questions that Can be Pursued:
Now that we know something of the environmental history,
landscape change, and social dynamics of Vermont, what can we
predict its landscape in the future? What will the landscape look
like? Who will live here? How will people make a living?
How does your community compare to Vermont’s statistics? Is
your town the same or different? How and why?
Why are rural areas of Vermont “poorer” than urban areas and
why are some losing population?
What crops and agricultural products were produced in VT over
time, and which crops and products will support the state in the
future? Where do our agricultural products go? Can we map
them?
Which ‘global’ problems or issues can we study here in Vermont?
Data Sources
•
•
•
•
US Census data
Center for Rural Studies at UVM
VCGI maps of VT
State of Vermont Dept of Ag, Food and
Markets
• National Agricultural Statistics Service
• Landscape Change website, UVM Geology
Dept