Describes Middle America (Central America) in terms of two geographical building blocks: location and place. Tables, maps, films, video resources, and a suggested instructional activity demonstrate the concepts of location, physical characteristics, and cultural characteristics in geographic education. (DH)

Describes Ptolemy's map of the world. Discusses the idea of mapping the ecumene or known world. Lists Ptolemy's map making conventions still in use today including location of north at the top, 90 degrees latitude between the equator and each pole, and style of representing physical features. Emphasizes Ptolemy's view of the world as dynamic. (DK)

Describes the second map printed in Europe which appeared in 1475. Provides background information that teachers to help students grasp the fundamental aspects of the map. Explores the map as a whole, its details and parts, and the significance of the map for studying the world view of Europeans preceding Columbus's discoveries. (DK)

Describes the first map to divide the globe into five symmetrical climatic zones. Discusses Ambrosius Macrobius's map as a statement of earthly limitations rather than physical reality. Suggests its significance for teaching world history is as an example of deductive cartography that influenced and challenged late medieval Christian thought. (DK)

Describes a woodcut of the earliest map printed in a vernacular language, circa 1480. Discusses the location and representation of paradise, the winds, rivers, the world sea and islands, countries, and cities. Emphasizes the map as a world view of the late Middle Ages representing the popular culture of the time. (DK)

Discusses the changes in geography and social science education in the former Soviet Union that followed the sweeping political changes there. Explains how the curriculum and teacher education changed under glasnost and perestroika. Examines prospects for the future. Includes maps and charts detailing some of the many changes in the former USSR.…

Presents a map indicating the path of the "Einsatzgruppen" (mobile killing units of the German SS) military assault through Poland into the Soviet Union in 1941. Provides a map of the six extermination camps in Poland. Offers two maps illustrating the Jewish population of Europe before and after World War II. (CFR)

Presents a map of Europe identifying the location of major concentration camps, extermination camps, and massacre sites during World War II. Maintains that only a few of the over 400 sites in the former Soviet Union where entire Jewish villages were exterminated are shown. (CFR)

Presents a set of four maps illustrating changing German political borders. Includes the time period from 1933, when Hitler came to power, until the division of Germany in 1945. Includes a map showing the Allied Powers against Germany, nations allied with Germany, and neutral nations. (CFR)