Jun

28

Maps, maps and more maps

Filed Under Geography | Leave a Comment

It’s been a busy week what with the end of the school year and grad and all, but I’ve found a little time for blogging. Here goes…

I came across a cool little blog at The Map Room. This blog, not too surprisingly, blogs about maps. The topics can be about using Google map tools, geocaching, or the latest and weirdest maps that you can find. (If you don’t believe me, check out this story on a giant Lego map of the USA.)

While this site is not aimed specifically at teachers, it provides enough cool resources (six posts on Wednesday alone) that a creative geography teacher should be able to get a lot of great ideas.

Jun

26

Everything there is to map about Europe

Filed Under Geography, History | Leave a Comment

Euratlas is a fantastic historical atlas that focuses entirely on Europe.  It includes images, political and geographical maps, and, of course, historical maps. It’s a great tool for both geography and history teachers (especially those focussed on Western Civ).  There are downloadable maps and pictures, as well, if you become a member of the site. This appears to be free to do, they simply send you their e-mail newsletter a few times per year.

Jun

25

Photos of America

Filed Under History, Social Studies | Leave a Comment

As a history teacher I’m always fascinated by original source material. If you can get your students to use it, there’s nothing better than primary source documents.

The US government is reputed to have a vast collection of documents that are yours for the asking. The problem is, most of them are stored in archives that the average teacher just doesn’t have the time to get to.

All is not lost. Uncle Sam’s Photos is here to help. This cool site not only has great photos from all periods of American history but even includes some scans of important documents. One example I came across is the purchase of Manhattan Island from its original inhabitants by the Dutch. While most of the site is well organized and there’s lots of valuable material, this particular item was found under “Old Maps” and then “Political History.” While I understand the political history classification, I’m at a loss to explain why a handwritten document (with no map) was classified under old maps.

That one example seems to be the exception, so jump in and enjoy. This looks like a very promising collection of primary source material.

Jun

23

Representation by population

Filed Under Social Studies | 1 Comment

Every Social Studies teacher knows that the US (and Canada and a whole lot of other places) profess to have representation by population. That means that, at least in theory, all the electoral districts have about the same number of represenatives for about the same population so that a vote in one riding or district is just as valuable as a vote in another.

In practice it’s often a little bit different. A few years ago when I worked for Elections Canada during a federal election, we sent out close to (if I remember right) 96,000 voter registration cards for that riding. To contrast with that riding, one of the biggest, Nunavut, one of the smallest, had about 12,000 eligible voters.

So how do you deal with disparities like that? Well, the online Redistricting Game helps you understand why ridings and districts end up the way they do, sometimes incredibly irregularly shaped. It also helps you understand some of the political forces that go into the decision and further contort what should be a relatively simple process of reorganizing ridings.

This is a fairly simple and interactive explanation of a complex process, and the designers of this game have done a really good job. For Social Studies and Civics teachers this game is a must.

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