The registration form for the May 17, 2016 CT HS Geography Challenge will be going out to all CT high school social studies department chairmen in November. We’re excited to announce the theme for the 2016 statewide interscholastic academic team competition is AMERICA’S NATIONAL PARKS!

Source: ctgeoalliance.org

The Connecticut Geographic Alliance has expanded their annual High School Geography Challenge to include some other teams in southern New England.  Any RIGEA member that would like to enter their high school to have a team participate in this competition can register here (2016 CT Registration form).

“A geographic perspective is a way of looking at and understanding our world. When you view the world through the lens of geography, you are asking who, what, where, when, and how people, places, and things are distributed across the surface of the earth, and why/how they got there. In other words, it means that you are analyzing something with a geographic perspective. The understanding and use of a geographic perspective is critical for decision making skills in the 21st century. Using spatial concepts such as location, region, movement, and scale to help us understand:

• Interactions – How the world works
• Interconnections – How systems in our world are connected
• Implications – How to make well-reasoned decisions”

—@natgeo, Geography as a Primary Source

Source: www.instagram.com

This is a field guide designed by National Geographic to help students strengthen their geographic skills.   The front of the handout is pictured above, and the field guide component on the back is pictured below.

Tags: National Geographic, perspective.

“For the first time, scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have documented migratory movements of bird populations spanning the entire year for 118 species throughout the Western Hemisphere. The study finds broad similarity in the routes used by specific groups of species—vividly demonstrated by animated maps showing patterns of movement across the annual cycle. The results of these analyses were published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.“

Source: www.allaboutbirds.org

This still image above doesn’t do justice to this animated map of bird migrations (species key here).  While modern humans by and large are tied to particular plots of land, not all species have that same approach to gathering and using resources. 

Tags: physical, ecology, biogeography, environment, mapping, scale, location.

“For the first time, scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have documented migratory movements of bird populations spanning the entire year for 118 species throughout the Western Hemisphere. The study finds broad similarity in the routes used by specific groups of species—vividly demonstrated by animated maps showing patterns of movement across the annual cycle. The results of these analyses were published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.“

Source: www.allaboutbirds.org

This still image above doesn’t do justice to this animated map of bird migrations (species key here).  While modern humans by and large are tied to particular plots of land, not all species have that same approach to gathering and using resources. 

Tags: physical, ecology, biogeography, environment, mapping, scale, location.

“On why a Prussian scientific visionary should be studied afresh…In a superb biography, Andrea Wulf makes an inspired case for Alexander von Humboldt to be considered the greatest scientist of the 19th century. Certainly he was the last great polymath in a scientific world which, by the time he died in Berlin in 1859, aged 89, was fast hardening into the narrow specializations that typify science to this day. Yet in the English-speaking world, Humboldt is strangely little-known.”

Source: geographyeducation.org

Alexander von Humboldt has been described as the last great ancient geographer concerned with understanding an eclectic cosmography as well as the first modern geographer. He is honored far and wide throughout Europe and especially  Latin America for his explorations, but given that people are confused as how to categorize him and classify his contributions, today he is under-appreciated.  Geographers need to reclaim his memory and call his extensive, globetrotting work on a wide range of subjects ‘geography.’  Here is another article and TED-ED video on the most influential scientist that you might not have heard of (at least until today).

Tags:  historical, biogeography.

“The black and white  pictures, below, are taken from ‘Providence’, published for the Shepard Company, Providence, R.I. 1908.  The color pictures are from my early postcard collection. The Old State House between Benefit and North Main Street looks much the same now as it did 100 years ago.”

Source: onerhodeislandfamily.com