Geographic Resources & Ideas: Pre Christmas Missive

Time for a Pre –Christmas Missive

Hi All; Well the new curriculum in Ontario is being rolled out with a great deal of enthusiasm and anticipation of how we can all start to really focus on DOING Geography. The new revised curriculum allows for lots of critical and thoughtful Inquiry and why we as geography teachers and students do Care !

“It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel world. It's our job to raise children who will make the world less cruel.”

unknown

There is even a Rob Ford Spatial Journal

https://www.google.ca/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=200087121908795839231.0004e8f3be5fb75ffe8aa

Here are a range of resources, strategies, and /or topics to help get us through to the break. I have grouped these for some cursory organization but many of these items may fit into various categories.

· General Geographic and Spatial stuff

· Geographic and Spatial careers info

· ArcGIS Online & Story maps

· Useful APPs

· Minds On

· Student & Teacher strategies

· Our escapes (we need them also)

General Geographic & Spatial Stuff

NASA | The Bedrock Beneath

Our understanding of what lies beneath the world's biggest ice sheet has taken another leap forward. In this video we strip away Antarctic ice to reveal a new, and much more detailed map of the bedrock below. This map, called Bedmap2, was compiled by the British Antarctic Survey and incorporates millions of new measurements, including substantial data sets from NASA's ICESat satellite and an airborne mission called Operation IceBridge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usDzh7l5HZw&feature=youtu.be

Eglinton Connects !

A short video of a new, LRT "green trackway" in Paris, created as part of @CityPlanTO's

http://vimeo.com/55106530

Kiribati island: Sinking into the sea?

Lying just two metres above sea level at its highest points, the island nation of Kiribati is the poster child for climate change, with predictions that many of the 32 islands in the group could be lost to the sea in the next 50 years.

But what is it really like? Julian Siddle from BBC Science reports from South Tarawa, Kiribati's main island.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25086963

A Developing World” wall map

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society and Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada proudly present the soon to be released updated version of the acclaimed educator resource, Canadian Geographic’s “A Developing World.”

This colourful, bilingual wall map features the latest United Nation’s Human Development Index (HDI) data.

To Order

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/educational_products/products_cida_maps.asp

Mapping redheads: which country has the most?

Ever wondered which country tops the ginger charts? And where can you find the highest concentration of blondes?

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/25/mapping-redheads-which-country-has-the-most?CMP=twt_gu

'Un-mappable' Great Barrier Reef finally mapped

German and Australian scientists launched a set of groundbreaking, high resolution, shallow water topography maps for the entire Great Barrier Reef. These world-first digital maps of the coral reefs, using satellite derived depth (bathymetry) techniques, are a critical step towards identifying, managing and essentially preserving and protecting what lies within the waters of this global icon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYLooIU5Cnw

Most Dangerous Cities In The World

http://24facts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/most-dangerous-cities-in-world.html

Ring of Darhad: Mongolia Wolverine Expedition An Inquiry-Based, Hands-On STEM Unit

I think there should be a G in stem- this entire unit is based on the Where (location)

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/media/ring-darhad/?ar_a=1

Population- interactive

This resource pack describes and explains what are the global patterns of population change through:

interpretation of world population distribution

interpretation of the demographic transition model

interpretation of differing population structures

https://hwb.wales.gov.uk/cms/hwbcontent/Shared%20Documents/vtc/demographic_trans/eng/Introduction/default.htm

Geography Careers and Education

Category: Canadian GIS Education

Great resource for students who are wondering what is where in Geographic and Geo-spatial education in Canada

http://canadiangis.com/www/gis-education

GIS – What do I ACTUALLY do?

What do YOU do?

We’ve all laughed at the joke, what my mum thinks I do, what my friends think I do…..and so on;

A good Blog on what a GIS professional really does.

http://dragons8mycat.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/gis-what-do-i-actually-do/

And thanks to Ewan Geddes and Canadian Geographic here is another :

Jobs in Geography (Canadian Geographic)

http://www.cgeducation.ca/resources/faces-of-geography/

In a tough job climate, what is it about those with geography degrees that makes them so employable?

Interesting Article for Geography careers

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/a-world-of-opportunity-2148648.html

and one from Britain – uses their terminology and course coding but the thought process is similar

Here are five easy things you can do now to make sure your future options stay as wide as possible

http://university.which.co.uk/advice/gcses-choices-careers-work-experience

The No. 1 factor that young adults ages 21 to 31 wanted in a successful career was a sense of meaning."- thanks for this reference from Josh Fullan

Millennial Searchers

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/opinion/sunday/millennial-searchers.html?hpw&rref=opinion&_r=0

Resources to use and play with over the Holidays

ArcGIS Online and ESRI Story maps

As it use it more and more I am finding it to be an informative and user friendly resource to use both with students and a way to create our own teacher resources

Here is a list of activities, tutorial, and storymaps to use

The Story maps video series

Check out the first one which gives a great overview

http://video.arcgis.com/series/161/story-maps

For the deeper thinkers Here Jack Dangermond(president of ESRI) discusses the future of GIS with ArcGIS Online

http://canadiangis.com/the-future-of-gis-and-arcgis-online.php

Esri publishes story maps with three goals: To showcase interesting and important topics; to explore techniques and best practices for map-based storytelling; and to help enable people to make their own story maps

http://storymaps.esri.com/home/

Make a Map Tour Story Map

Download the Storytelling Map Tour Template and Get Started

http://www.esri.com/esri-news/arcwatch/0513/make-a-map-tour-story-map

Explore the Growing World of Story Maps

A community of storytellers is producing story maps about a variety of locations and topics. You can help us populate this map! Use our templates to tell the story of your special place

Each of the symbols on this map links to a story map. Some have been produced by Esri, others by a community of users.

Visit Esri's Story Maps site to learn how to build and share your own stories.

http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2013/storylocator/

Story map templates

Templates provide an easy way to publish your own story map (without having to write code). Each template uses a distinct story-telling technique. You supply the web map and the words. File downloads include the web files you will need, plus a readme file explaining configuration.

Some specific Story Maps

These will give us all great ideas on how to infuse the concept of a spatial journal (Story Map )

Santas Around the World

In the US he's known as Santa Claus, but how is this traditional Christmas character evolved and transformed over time and around the world?

http://esripm.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=eaa0878861784ebf9fea9e8505904cd0&webmap=3e746185d2de462eb7fd3b3ff54d5175

and then not to be outdone there are the Great resource’s from Google

Mapping the History of Global Slavery

http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.ca/2013/12/mapping-history-of-global-slavery.html?spref=tw

Check out their other great maps and resources at this blog

Series of tutorials about getting started and working with ArcGIS Online for Organisations.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNEAh2_Rnsi9LVd0pxu3lSXoRVhWPCLk

Some useful IPAD apps

NASA iPad App Shows Earth Changing Before Your Eyes

Human activities, a changing climate and natural disasters are rapidly altering the face of our planet. Now, with NASA’s Images of Change iPad application, users can get an interactive before-and-after view of these changes.

http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/news/earth-ipad-app-20131203.html#.Up-FdNJDt2C

197 Educational YouTube Channels You Should Know About

http://teacherswithapps.com/197-educational-youtube-channels-know/

150 Geography iPad Apps:

http://www.pearltrees.com/#/N-fa=9079043&N-s=1_9086454&N-u=1_1479563&N-p=88174380&N-f=1_9086454&N-play=0

Zoom into Maps _-Very America centric but interesting and interactive

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/maps/introduction.html

Real Life (stranger than fiction ) great Minds on

Arden Hayes

Not much to say just check it out .

http://vimeo.com/79917188

Harrison Odjegba Okene survived 3 days in air bubble under water

Nigerian cook rescued after 72 hours at bottom of Atlantic after his boat sank

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/harrison-odjegba-okene-survived-3-days-in-air-bubble-under-water-1.2449565

Glowing Mushrooms Photographed in Quirk of Fate

Taylor Lockwood is a mushroom hunter and photographer who has presented his work at shows throughout the world for over twenty-five years and has archived his photographs on the site Mushroom.Pro. Lockwood contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

http://www.livescience.com/41660-glowing-mushrooms.html

Property for Sale

Great discussion starter for “what is Where/, Why there? And Why Care’ Especially for the aspiring Curlers and Ron Burgundy in your classes.

http://search.knightfrank.com/edn100158

Layers of the Earth

This is a collage of video clips set to the song, "Layers of the Earth", by Rhythm, Rhyme and Results.

Just the facts but they are fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9j1xGaxYzY#t=35

All the facts needed to understand the disaster of Typhoon Haiyan

http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/PHIL.Haiyan.27Nov.v1.pdf

Plastic not Fantastic – resource kit from Global Oceans

GLOBALOCEAN.org.uk

TIME Picks the Top 10 Photos of 2013

Here is your world issue course in 10 photos. I challenge someone to make a story map or spatial journal from this info

http://lightbox.time.com/2013/12/02/time-picks-the-top-10-photos-of-2013/#1

Thanks to Juli Mori and others Great NPR video on the cost of Making a tee shirt Very well done for both Grade 8 and senior classes

PLANET MONEY MAKES A T-SHIRT

The world behind a simple shirt, in five chapters.

http://apps.npr.org/tshirt/#/title

Putting Distance , and Location into perspective

http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/put-into-perspective/

http://overlapmaps.com/

The map projections you use in your classroom affect your students perceptions

The True size of Africa

https://twitter.com/JohnRentoul/status/407175595865292800/photo/1/large

Hans Rosling: How much do you know about the world?

The world may have many problems, from climate change to armed conflict, natural disasters, poverty and the oppression of women and minorities - but where does population growth fit into this catalogue of woes?

Take a version of the test in this quiz, compare your results with the British respondents', then read Hans Rosling's five reasons the world is in better shape than we think.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24836917

Some quick and dirty teacher resources in the form of JPGS and various media forms

Questioning approaches

chrome-extension://hbdpomandigafcibbmofojjchbcdagbl/web/templates/default.html

A Questioning Toolkit

http://www.fno.org/nov97/toolkit.html

Inquiry Process Starter

And then resource catalogues & compendiums

All Geog Tweets( David Drake )

Since 2010, I have been cataloguing all my #geography related tweets and Facebook posts, posted via two of my twiter accounts: @_DavidDrake and @AbbGeography and Facebook page, so they can be referred back to easily in the future when planning lessons, creating revision materials etc.

You can view my All my Geography tweets and fb catalogue here:

http://humanitiesastwiltshire.blogspot.co.uk/p/geog-tweets.html

Primary (but good for all) Ideas and resource’s

http://www.3x3links.com/pi

Google Maps: 100+ Best Tools and Mashups

Most people think of Google Maps in terms of finding a place or business, or getting directions from one point to another. Others use the satellite images and terrain mapping features. But there are tons of other uses out there for Google maps. Dated but still some great Maps

http://mashable.com/2009/01/08/google-maps-mashups-tools/

#GIS & #Mapping News

Geographic information news from around the world-Useful Blog

http://paper.li/AlcisGeo/1357143959

Some Cocktail conversation starters for those times when your Friends are maligning Canadian Education

Education in Finland: Pisa isn't the full story

Despite Finnish education's strong performance in Pisa, it isn't all perfect – science and maths standards are declining and top-performing students aren't being pushed enough

Jared Diamond: How societies can grow old better ted Talk

http://wwJared Diamond: How societies can grow old betterw.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/dec/04/education-finland-pisa

An just for those times when we need to mentally escape

THE 25 BEST FILMS OF 2013: A VIDEO COUNTDOWN

One Persons opinion (not mine ) but well done

http://vimeo.com/80862133

10 quirky things you might not know about City Hall

http://www.blogto.com/city/2013/12/10_quirky_things_you_might_not_know_about_city_hall/

Rob Ford squeeze toy worthy of our frustrating mayor

http://www.blogto.com/arts/2013/12/rob_ford_squeeze_toy_worthy_of_our_frustrating_mayor/

Happy Holidays