the geographic advantage: supporting online investigations in the classroom susan gallagher heffron...

The Geographic Advantage: Supporting Online Investigations in the Classroom

Susan Gallagher Heffron and Michael Solem, Project Directors

The Geographic AdvantageAn AAG Companion Website for Understanding the Changing Planet


• Developed with the support of the AAG Geography Education Materials Development Fund

• Online instructional resource supporting the recent NRC report, Understanding the Changing Planet: Strategic Directions for the Geographical Sciences

• 11 classroom “Geographic Investigations” in four core areas based on the research questions identified in the report



• The Geographic Advantage: • Susan Hanson's (2004) work identified "the

geographic advantage" which "communicates the truth that geographers have something to offer that others do not."

• Geographers consider 1) relationships between people and the environment, 2) the importance of spatial variability (the place-dependence of processes), 3) processes operating at multiple and interlocking geographic scales, and 4) the integration of spatial and temporal analysis.



How to Understand and Respond to Environmental Change:

•Physical Environment: How are we changing the physical environment of Earth?

•Preservation: How can we best preserve biological diversity and protect endangered ecosystems?

•Vulnerabilities: How are climate and other environmental changes affecting the vulnerabilities of coupled human-environment systems?



How to Promote Sustainability:•Settlement: How and where will 10 billion

people live?•Food: How will we sustainably feed

everyone in the coming decade and beyond?

•Health: How does where we live affect our health?



How to Recognize and Cope with Rapid Spatial Reorganization of Economy and Society:

•Movement: How is the movement of people, goods, and ideas changing the world?

•Globalization: How is economic globalization affecting inequality?

•Geopolitical Shifts: How are geopolitical shifts influencing peace and stability?



How to Leverage Technological Change for the Betterment of Society and Environment:•Observation: How might we better observe,

analyze, and visualize a changing world?•Social Implications: What are the societal

implications of citizen mapping and mapping citizens?



• Each module is a geographic investigation that illustrates a geographic question in the theme– Geographic Question– Geographic Investigation

• Online Lessons/Activities in the investigation

– Next Steps – For the Teacher

• Goal: Engage students in geographic investigations of important questions and issues



Please send any questions to:

[email protected] or [email protected]

Public launch set for May:www.aag.org/geographicadvantage


mailto:[email protected]

the geographic advantage: supporting online investigations in the classroom susan gallagher heffron...

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