Many students enter classes with a very Orientalist mental map of the region usually called the "Middle East." This is understandable considering the information and images of the region that pervade our media landscape. In an effort to teach student how to critically examine media sources themselves, the author utilizes a blog format…

Even as service-learning has become more prevalent in higher education as a high-impact teaching methodology, barriers still exist to its implementation by some instructors. One concern is the perception of these types of activities infringing upon course content. This article outlines an example of an introductory service-learning project for an…

The primary objectives of this article are: (1) to conceptualize teacher dispositions related to teaching spatial thinking in geography classrooms; and (2) to propose an exemplar assessment that can be used to prepare teachers who are disposed toward teaching spatial thinking through geography. A detailed description of the construction procedures…

William Pattison's seminal 1964 article outlining geography's four core traditions provided an informative overview of distinct strands of research and teaching in geography. His article enhanced appreciation of the discipline's intellectual diversity, but it did not address why the identified traditions should be grouped together…

A goal of geography education is fostering geographic literacy for all and building significant expertise for some. How much time and practice do students need to become literate or expert in geography? There is not an answer to this question. Using two concepts from cognitive psychology--the ideas of ten thousand hours and deliberate…

The introductory level course Geography of the U.S. and Canada requires students to grasp large amounts of complex material, oftentimes using a lecture-based pedagogical approach. This article outlines two ways that popular music can be successfully used in the geography classroom. First, songs are used to review key concepts and characteristics…

The understanding of maps drawn or significantly influenced by American Indians fosters critical thinking, cultural diversity, and awareness of a much-neglected topic in cartography. Line styles, scale depiction, and the sizing of individual entities are discussed in the context of applying principles from mental maps to American Indian maps and…

Fictional film provides an opportunity to breathe life into the application of academic concepts by capturing the attention and imagination of students. Using the 2009 hit movie "Avatar", it is argued that popular fiction has the potential to help students grasp the dynamics of imperial/indigenous relationships in part because it removes…

Field-based undergraduate geography courses provide numerous pedagogical benefits including an opportunity for students to acquire employable skills in an applied context. This article presents one unique approach to teaching geographic field methods using paleoecological research. The goals of this course are to teach students key geographic…

In this media-saturated society, students need to think more critically about the media they encounter and that they are producing. Through filmmaking, students can link geographic theory and the real world, bridging the distance from readings/lectures/discussions to the geography on the ground, making the abstract concrete. But constructing films…

Storm disasters are amplified in the coastal environment due to population pressures and the power of the sea. The upper-division/graduate university course "Coastal Storms" was designed to equip future practitioners with the skills necessary to understand, respond to, and mitigate for these natural disasters. To accomplish this, "Coastal Storms"…

Growing student interest in sports provides geography teachers with a special opportunity to make connections between it and fundamental concepts in the discipline. This article examines the structure, arrangement, relationships, and distinctions among minor league baseball franchise locations, stadia, and team names, and presents examples of…

This symposium explores and examines the challenges and opportunities of building community-university collaborations in marginalized urban areas. The selection of short essays highlights different experiences of building and sustaining community-university partnerships in a variety of cities as vehicles for enhancing experiential learning in…

The Gilbert M. Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education, in partnership with the Agency for Instructional Technology, and the National Geographic Education Foundation have embarked on the production of a twenty-two-program, Web-based professional development series for teachers of geography, social studies, and environmental science, titled…

This article offers a pedagogical module that explores the geography of blues culture across the Mississippi Delta. By focusing on blues culture, rather than simply blues music itself, this project provides a forum for understanding the broader geographical conditions from which this musical form emerged. This module utilizes place-based…