“Thanksgiving has some fascinating spatial components to it.  My wife and I prepared an article for the Geography News Network on Maps101.com that shows the historical and geographic context of the first Thanksgiving and in the memorialization of Thanksgiving as a national holiday (if you don’t subscribe to Maps 101, it is also freely available as a podcast on Stitcher Radio or iTunes).”

One of my favorite combinations of maps for Thanksgiving involves the geography of food production and food consumption.  When we start looking at the regional dishes on Thanksgiving plates we can see some great patterns.  This ESRI storymap asks the simple question, where did your Thanksgiving Dinner come From?

This StoryMap is a great resource to combine with this New York Times article that shows the regional preferences for the most popular Thanksgiving recipes.  Where are sweet potatoes grown?  Where do people make sweet potato pie for Thanksgiving? 

Plymouth County, MA is at the heart of only 3 cranberry producing regions and is was also home to the first Thanksgiving.  How has this New England local ecology and traditional food patterns influenced national traditions? 

For these and more Thanksgiving resources on scoop.it, click here.

See on geographyeducation.org

Thank you to all participants, teachers and parents who helped to promote this mapping challenge and geo-literacy.  We are pleased to announce the top two winners in our 2013 Map Challenge Contest in conjunction with Geography Awareness Week 2013 here in Rhode Island. 

• Mrs. Lepre’s 7th Grade Geography Class (Mount Saint Charles Academy, Woonsocket) Winter Olympics 2014 MegaMap

• Ms. Taglione’s 6th Grade Social Studies Student Team (Barrington Middle School) Eytan Goldstein, Amit Bhatia and Nikhil Pareek–Revolutionary War Map of RI’s Struggle for Freedom

Honorable Mention

• Sophia and Benjamin Lepre–Walt Disney Map of Favorite Characters.

See on rigea.org

Geography Awareness Week is right around the corner (Nov. 18-22)!  The Theme is GEOGRAPHY AND THE NEW AGE OF EXPLORATION.  Here are some resources that you can use in your own classroom, in your home or anywhere with eager geo-enthusiasts. 

• Monday-Friday GAWeek Activities (2013).
• Teacher Parent Page for GAW 2013.
• Quiz Night–How to plan one.
• GIS Day Activity.
• Geo-Scavenger Hunt.

Here are some additional resources and worksheets that might be helpful.

• Geography Word Search.
• Trace and color Rhode Island.
• Road trip map.
• Design your own flag worksheet.
• Free rice lesson plans.
• 10 Ways to Give Your Student the World.

RIGEA hopes that you use Geography Awareness week to promote spatial thinking and global awareness (something we like to call geo-literacy) in the Ocean State.  At Rhode Island College, there will be a GIS Day event on Wednesday, November 20th in Gaige Hall (10am-2pm).

See on rigea.org

Did you miss our Oct. 26th event Online Mapping for Educators?

Here are the documents to supplement the Oct. 26th professional development activity.  

• Create an AGOL map.  
• Fabulous Interactive Maps.
  
• 5 mapping activities in 5 minutes AGO 5×5.
• Creating a StoryMap. 

For AFTER the event: 

• Guidance for using ArcGIS Online.
• Making a quick Story Map (More complete instructions from start to finish).  

See on rigea.org

This is last minute but there are two lectures in Providence this week that RIGEA members should consider.  One, at Rhode Island College on Tuesday, Nov. 5th is entitled “Mapping North Africa: A Cartographic History, 16th-19th Centuries”  presented by Dr. Richard Lobban.  The other on Nov. 6th, is Signifying Geographies, Mapping Violent Contestations: The Making of Symbolic Landscapes by Dr. Kevin DeJesus.  

See on watson.brown.edu

Geography and the ELA Common Core State Standards are not enemies…this presentation is designed to show how they both can support each other and offer students a richer educational experience. Presentation given by Seth Dixon at Bridgewater State University Nov. 2, 2013.

See on www.slideshare.net