I am spending July in New Brunswick, the large Maritime Province just over the US border. In an earlier post I talked about how Grand Manan Island, which is part of New Brunswick, goes unnoticed by Americans, even Americans who live very close to it. The entire province of New Brunswick suffers the same fate.
I guess I can understand this - looking at these photographs, why would anyone want to come here?
Recently I did a workshop for pre-service and classroom teachers. Our main activity that day was trying out the new table-top map kits from National Geographic. These are the smaller version of the huge tile maps NGS intoduced a few years ago, some of which needed a gymnasium wall to display their full glory. All of these tile maps are now called Nat Geo Mapmaker Kits, and are available in the large wall version or the new table-top version. What is great about the small maps is that they require photocopying only eight pages (tiles) while the big maps could be 120 to 180 tiles in size.
Here are some teachers working with the Water Planet and World Political map kits:
The detail on these maps is superb and the possibilities are endless for grades 3 to 12. Check them out on the National Geographic website. You'll find them under "Geography Awareness Week" in the LEARN ABOUT FRESHWATER section.
Every year, here in Rhode Island, when Geography Awareness Week is on the horizon, the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance (RIGEA) tries to come up with something motivating and fun to involve kids and adults in the year’s theme. One year we had a cooking contest, another time we held a dinner with the menu coordinating with the GAW theme. This year we decided to focus on the creative arts, so in October we announced a “Rhody Freshwater and YOU” contest. Entrants were asked to create something which represented a form of Rhode Island freshwater and then explain what that particular freshwater meant to them.
We were excited to receive quite a few entries, and although the contest was open to any Rhode Islander, all the entries came from either elementary or middle school students. The elementary students sent in projects which seemed to emphasize freshwater conservation, while the middle school students reflected more on specific rivers or lakes or ponds that had provided them with fond memories.
We are pleased to see so many Rhode Island kids learning about freshwater and growing up to be careful consumers of this limited resource.
Here are the winners and their projects:
1st Prize:
Miranda Peloquin “Memories of My Lake” V. J. Gallagher Middle School , Smithfield, RI
Honorable Mention:
Joshua Hersey “Water, Water…..Boy I Wish I Had Some” Winsor Hill Elementary School, Johnston, RI
Madalyn Moore “Ahhh! Refeshing” Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School, Johnston, RI
Ashley Shilko “Stump Pond” V. J. Gallagher Middle School, Smithfield, RI
Alison Izzi “The Brook in My Backyard” V. J. Gallagher Middle School, Smithfield, RI
Here is Miranda’s prize-winning entry, a great poem superimposed over an artistic background. Included in her comments about what this lake meant to her is the following: ”I have so many memories here it’s way too many to count but I know one thing is that I love this lake and all the people who enjoy it. I would love for other people to come enjoy this lake just like I do”.
The honorable mention winners made conservation posters, created artwork and poetry:
Ashley writes: “The sparkling of the water as the sunlight shines, Is the most beautiful thing, I could watch it all the time”.
Alison says: In everyone else’s view it is just a brook, but I look at the small stream of water in my backyard as a part of my home”.
Madalyn reminds us on her poster to “save water while you can, don’t waste it”.
And Joshua includes information about estuaries (of particular importance here in Rhode Island because we live on Narragansett Bay, a huge estuary) in his entry.
In examining who entered this Geography Awareness Week contest, something interesting is afoot here. And something that should not surprise any of us. All the children who entered are students who work with educators who are active in promoting geography education.
The V. J. Gallagher Middle School kids have Cathy Pleau (cpleau@smithfield-ps.org), as their assistant principal. Cathy and I were roommates back in 1993 when we trained for two weeks during the summer to become Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance Teacher Consultants. Cathy has conducted countless geography initiatives and events for kids, parents and colleagues over the years and is presently a member of our alliance strategic planning team.
The Sarah Dyer Barnes Elementary School winner is the student of Deb Ramm (rid21594@ride.ri.net), another long-time Rhode Island Geography Alliance teacher consultant. She, too, has spent her career infusing her classroom days with connections to geography. She told me this year her 4th grade class will focus on water all year. Her kids will be testing pond water quality and studying watersheds, pollution tolerant animals and water treatment. She’s also planning on an Electronic Field Trip with the National Park Service during this year’s water study.
Rayna Ciano (rid26156@ride.ri.net), teaches at Winsor Hill Elementary School, where another winner goes to school. I see Rayna at almost every event RIGEA puts on, and she always comes up afterward to talk, sign up for something or ask questions. In September at our annual Kick-Off meeting for the year I was telling the audience about a terrific Japanese international friendship project involving an ambassador doll traveling around the world, stopping to stay with hosts three weeks at a time. Rayna not only had signed up for the program but she had her Japanese ambassador doll with her to so she could take photographs with the little fellow and our members.
The effort these educators put in every day is working to produce geographically literate people here in Rhode Island. And that is exactly what is supposed to be happening.
Congratulations to all our winners!
I’ll be joining bloggers around the Web for the 2009 Geography Awareness Week Blog-a-thon, hosted by National Geographic’s My Wonderful World Campaign. Tune in to the My Wonderful World Blog November 15-21 for a daily dose of geographic news and jottings, photos, calls to action, a mystery location quiz, and more…
My posting on the island of Grand Manan in Canada will be featured as part of the Blog-a-thon.
This past summer we vacationed on Grand Manan Island, a day's drive from our home in New England. As we were making our preparations to take off on vacation I had occasion to be asked where we were going. When I answered "Grand Manan Island", off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, the reply every time was "Where is THAT?" After what I thought was a great geographic description just about everyone said, "Oh yeah. You mean Prince Edward Island".
In one sense this is fine with me - next to nobody will discover this beautiful place and we can enjoy its uncrowded charms at will. On the other hand it drives me crazy that such nearby geography apparently is completely unnoticed.
So here is a short primer on how to find your way to Grand Manan Island from the New England area:
1. Have a look at a map of eastern Canada. You will notice three provinces that either border the ocean or are surrounded by it. These are the Maritime Provinces. They are: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
2. Zero in on New Brunswick. It borders the state of Maine. Travel to eastern Maine through Bangor; continue east and cross into Canada at Calais/St. Stephen.
3. Continue east on the Trans Canada Highway a short distance, exiting at Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick.
4. Board the Grand Manan ferry and enjoy the crossing which takes about 1 1/2 hours. During the trip look for whales, porpoises and a wide variety of sea birds.
5. You have arrived! If you like stunning scenery, incredible birdwatching, hiking, photography, rock hunting and whale and puffin watches you are going to be very happy here.
The east side of the island is filled with beautiful coves and cottages that face the sea.
The west side is dominated by sheer cliffs - good for hiking trails but less so for inhabitants.
For a small island it has everything needed for a great vacation. Including few people. Hope I haven't blown that in my attempt to improve the geography education of New Englanders.
I attended a summer institute on China some years ago and during that experience was introduced to the idea of making "big maps" with students. Educationally there are so many benefits for kids of any age in creating these and it is a fun process as well.
The basic idea is to project a map outline onto large paper on a wall and trace it. You can make almost any size map you would like doing this depending on the size of your paper and where you position your projector.
I recently came up with a neat modification of this method by cutting out the projected map outline and tracing it onto a foam 3-sided presentation board (the kind kids use at science fairs). This then gives you a rigid, foldable map that is easy to store and transport, and is perfect for adding 3-D map features.
Here's a big table map project just finished this week by the French classes at my old school. The school is celebrating their 50th anniversary and my good friend Phyllis, the French teacher, had her students create a "France in the 1950s" map for the occasion:
In the geography education world the week of November 16-22 was a big one - it was Geography Awareness Week (GAW) which this year celebrated the Americas from Greenland south through South America.
This year the National Geographic Society produced a terrific toolkit for teachers - a theme map of "extremes" found in the Americas, a booklet of lesson ideas for K-12 and a CD with (among many other resources) a file which produces a 20 ft.x 10 ft. map of the Americas.
I went out to a middle school to see one of these completed huge maps - wow, was it something! The whole social studies department of this 600-student school , teachers and kids, had worked on it for three weeks. See a photograph of this great effort below.
Another aspect of this year's Americas theme has been the chance for students to become involved in some cultural expressions of countries new to them. I spent a morning working with a fifth grade on crafts from the Americas - fun and educational for both the students and me! (photos below)
Also, our state alliance, the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance (RIGEA), came up with some inventive ways to spread the word about the GAW theme and recruit new members at the same time. Early in November we held an Americas Dinner for teachers new to our organization. The dinner featured an outstanding menu from North, Central and South America and was preceded by a social hour during which RIGEA members were on hand to share information about our organization. Today, we have scheduled the first in a series of lectures by Brown University professors on topics relating to the Americas - registration for both events has exceeded our expectations!
By happenstance a few years ago I discovered the most wonderful online educational resource called Journey North. It is designed for teachers and their K-12 students but anyone would enjoy participating in its many interesting projects.
Here is their own description of what they offer:
"Journey North engages students in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. K-12 students share their own field observations with classmates across North America. They track the coming of spring through the migration patterns of monarch butterflies, robins, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, gray whales, bald eagles - and other birds and mammals; the budding of plants; changing sunlight; and other natural events. Find migration maps, pictures, standards-based lesson plans, activities and information to help students make local observations and fit them into a global context. Widely considered a best practices model for education, Journey North is the nation's premiere "citizen science" project for children. The general public is welcome to participate."
For the last few weeks I have been working with a local second grade class on the Journey North project called "Symbolic Monarch Butterfly Migration". The kids designed and colored paper butterflies and we put labels on the back of each one with the child's name, school information and the following greeting: "gracias por cuidar a las mariposas monarcas este invierno, de parte de sus vecinos del norte", which means "thank you for taking care of the monarchs this winter, from your northern neighbors". These were packaged up and sent off, eventually to reside in a Mexican classroom located close to one of the winter monarch butterfly sanctuaries. In the spring this Rhode Island second grade will receive paper butterflies back from Mexican children. In the meantime they can read weekly updates on monarch migration and see the butterflies' progress on an online map and on another map look at all the classrooms in the U.S. and Canada (including themselves) that have sent symbolic butterflies to Mexico.
I can't recommend Journey North highly enough -it's one of the best educational initiatives I have ever seen.
Here are the Rhode Island butterflies and a booklet in Spanish which we printed out on the Journey North website as a gift to the Mexican class receiving our butterflies.
Northeastern Minnesota is quite a place - beautiful scenery, abundant wildlife, amazing geology and the Iron Range mining region! I was fortunate, indeed, to have a spot in the Building America: Minnesota's Iron Range, U.S. Industrialization and the Creation of a World Power workshop which just concluded August 1st. This was a National Endowment for the Humanities Landmarks of History and Culture Workshop, one of many offered each year. Most of the participants told me they had been part of several other NEH workshops (one person had done eight!) and they have all been great. This was the first time the Iron Range topic had been offered. The role this area has played in American history is largely unknown yet it is a significant one: its iron ore was a major factor in the successful outcome of WWII, the immigrants who came to work in the mines reflected a diversity matched only by New York City (their political and cultural imprint remains to this day) and new technologies and mining processes are creating a hopeful future for this intriguing area of Minnesota.
