GEOBYTES-Notes
from the Oregon Geographic Alliance
Volume 3, Number 4, September 2001
“The facts ma’am
just the facts”
Dragnet
Alliance Network Suffers Major Loss
The impact of the September 11 bombing became magnified for all
members of the National Geographic Society Alliance Network. Eight of the victims of American Airlines
Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, were travelling as part of an
NGS-sponsored educational trip. Long-time and much-loved employees Ann Judge
and Joe Ferguson were escorting three Washington DC middle and elementary
school teachers and three of their students to the Sustainable Seas Expedition
in California. Joe joined the Society in 1987 as one of the first full-time
employees of the then brand-new Geography Education Program. He became the
personification of the Society’s commitment to teachers for thousands of
teachers nationwide. He was, in many ways, the lynchnpin of the alliance
movement and was passionate in his commitment to enhancing geography education
in America’s classrooms. Ann was the Director of the NGS Travel Office committed
to getting anyone and anything anywhere at any time for the Society. She was a
vivacious personality, upbeat, funny, and good company. Most recently, two OGA TCs, Tony Crawford
and Bryan Forbes, spent two weeks with Joe and Ann in Alaska as part of the
JASON Workshop. Ann and Joe will be sorely missed. If you would like to send
messages to Joe’s mother, Barbara Harrell and Ann’s husband, Geoffrey James
Judge, you may send them in care of the Society by addressing them to:
c/o Barbara Chow
National Geographic Society
Geography Education
1145 17th Street, NW
Washington DC 20036-4688.
"Geography
Action!"Leads up to GAW, November 11-17
“Geography Action !” 2001 is a year-long initiative encompassing
key educational achievements such as GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week. Each
year this initiative will have a different focus; this year's focus is
geography and the health of our nation's rivers. Last year, NGS provided most
of their GAW materials on the Internet. The NGS web site will again be the
"nerve center" of the Geography Action! Program with links to such activities as the on-line Watershed
Game, the Isaak Walton League of America and the "Stream Doctor"
Project, part of its "Save our Streams" Program. Jeff Gentile, from
Gregory Heights Middle School will be working with the GAW Committee to
spearhead OGA’s efforts. www.nationalgeographic.com/geographyaction.
“Geography Action!” and OGA
The GAW Committee (Jeff Gentile, Jere
Fitterman, Tess Cawthra-Cornelius, and Maureen Barnhart) have been
very busy and have many ideas to share.
• The Teacher Feature on the
NGS Education site features the Riverscape Mural Project at Gregory Heights MS
in Portland, Oregon.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education/teacher_community/index.html Check it out!
• The OGA web site is undergoing changes. Check the Gregory
Heights Riverscape site <http://ghms.pps.k12.or.us/rivers cape.html> for
information on GAW until the OGA web page is ready.The site will feature links,
lesson plans, bibliographies, The Oregonian GAW Insert, and an essay contest.
• A GAW poster is available from the OGA office and includes
general information about “Geography Action!”with pointers to the web site, and
lesson plans. Look out for more information about “Geography Action!” in subsequent
issues of GEOBYTES, our listserv, and our web page.
GIS Day, November 14, 2001
GIS, Geographic Information Systems, refers to making maps with
the computer.We are fortunate in Oregon to have the very dedicated group,
“Women in GIS”, whose members are are
prepared to come to your schools. At
your request, they will send a professional cartographer and GIS mapmaker to your
classroom. Kelly Neumeier coordinates these visits. If you are interested,
e-mail or phone Kelly as soon as possible. She and her group need time to find
a professional near you.
Tel: (503) 723-4815 - FAX:(503) 655-8255
E-mail: kellyneu@co.clackamas.or.us
http://www.gisday.com/
Check out what some schools did for GIS Day 2000.
Oregon Council for the Social Studies Fall Conference
This year’s OCSS Fall conference will be held on Friday, October
12 at North Salem High School. The conference theme is " Integrating
Social Studies Across the K-12 Curriculum". Several OGA TCs will be
presenting at the conference including sessions on Geography Action Week,
Mission Geography, and the JASON Project. This is a good opportunity for TCs to
meet, renew acquaintances, and learn new ideas. A registration form is included
in this mailing. Please note that the deadline for early registration is
October 3rd. On-site registration is considerably more expensive.
Congratulations
· Tony Crawford (Canby), Jill
Semlick (Portland), Gail VanderHeide (Lebanon), and Pam Wilson (Philomath) are
recipients of the 2001 National Geographic Society Teacher Grants. Arizona and
Oregon received the largest number of Teacher Grants.
· Dixie Seibel (McMinnville),
Maureen Barnhart (Beaverton), Liz Gordon (Cove), and Pat Van Nice (Cove) are
recipients of the 2001 OGA Incentive Grants.
• Maureen Barnhart was awarded the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE)
Distinguished Teacher Award at the recent annual meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
· Sheri Reugsegger’s geography
students at Perrydale High School are pioneers. They were successful in their
AP Human Geography course. This is the first time that AP geography has been
offered in the US. We hope to see more Oregon high schools offering AP Human
Geography in the future.
We Need Information!!!!
Each fall, Carolyn Perry updates the OGA
Directory. It is very important that you inform her of changes in
your address, telephones number, and e-mail address. We also want to know if
you have changed schools or if you have retired. We are particularly interested in getting your e-mail addresses
for our listserv. In an effort to cut mailing costs and be more timely with
announcements, we are sending out more information via our listserv or putting
it on our web site. If you are no longer interested in being a member of OGA
and wish to be taken off the membership list, please inform Carolyn Perry.
Steering Committee Change
Donna Weins has resigned from the Steering Committee. She and her
husband are moving to Illinois to teach. At the last election, there was a tie
vote for Pam Wilson and Dawn Wildfang. The initial decision was to have each of
these individuals serve for a year.
Now, each will serve a full two-year term. We wish Donna and her husband
well in their new adventure.
Mission Geography Addresses Real-world Problems
Jan Franke (Woodburn) and
Caryn Connelly (Coquille) recently attended the Mission Geography Workshop at
Texas A&M University to receive training in the program and materials. They
will be disseminating these materials to teachers across the state including a
workshop at the OCSS Fall conference. Mission Geography is the product of collaboration
between NASA and the Geography Education National Implementation Project (GENIP)
and its constituent organizations. The goal is to produce three publications
linking the skills and content of
Geography for Life: National Geography Standards with NASA’s mission and
results. These publications will contain curriculum support materials including
remote sensing and map/image interpretation using existing NASA data and images
to engage students inactive, "hands-on" inquiry approaches. The final
product is a CD ROM containing pdf files of the lessons with live links to the
Mission Geography Web site. Teachers will be able to use the CD-ROM as a
stand-alone product or capitalize on the Internet connections. The project
addresses the critical need to improve the quality of both science and
geography education and literacy. For more information, visit the Mission
Geography web site <http://missiongeography.org> or better still,
come and hear Jan and Caryn present at the OCSS Fall conference!
Wales Advanced Institute a Great Success!
Fifteen TCs received a warm Welsh welcome as they visited schools,
taught mini lessons to Welsh students, made connections with their teacher
counterparts, listened to lectures from faculty at the University of Wales,
Bangor, and conducted fieldwork in such varied settings as Snowdonia, the slate
quarries of Blaenau Ffestiniog , and Liverpool. The two weeks, which produced
some excellent weather, also included visits to castles, Chester, the
International Eisteddfod in Llangollen, pub lunches, and a magnificent view of
Snowdonia and the Menai Straits from the 6th floor of the university dorms,
known affectionately as "Café Six"! We are hoping that some of the
Welsh teachers will be able to visit Oregon next Easter. In the meantime, some
students in Oregon and Bangor-area classrooms will be communicating by e-mail.
Census 2000 Teaching Materials
We have received a large shipment of Spanish language materials
from the US Census Bureau.
We have a Head Start Book, "Everyone Counts..." and
Hispanic posters. If you would like a
supply of these, please contact Carolyn by e-mail < carolyn@geog.pdx.edu
> or by mail. You can order a
single copy for review or multiple copies for classroom use.
Free school teaching kits, "Making Sense of Census 2000"
are now available from the Census Bureau and include a 24-page teaching guide
and a 4’x6’ U.S. 2000 Population Map (Limit – I teaching kit per teacher).
Please call 1-800-396-1167 or e-mail CIS@census.gov.
JASON XIII – Frozen Worlds
Brian Forbes (Beaverton) and Tony Crawford (Canby) joined TCs from
eleven states to spend two weeks in Juneau, Alaska attending the JASONXIII-
Frozen Worlds Institute. Field experiences included a hike and climb to Mendenhall
Glacier, an Inland Passage cruise featuring close-up viewing of whales, glacial
calving, and a meeting with Tlingit Tribal elders. The focus of the institute
was training in the JASON Curriculum, an interdisciplinary, standards-based
curriculum connecting science and geography. In addition, Brad Thorud
(Clatskanie) and Dixie Seibel (McMinnville) joined teacher consultants from ten
alliances at similar institute at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. All
four TCs are committed to in-service training activities that will promote the
JASON Project to other alliance teachers. They will be providing numerous
in-service training workshops, including the OCSS Fall Conference (Salem),
OGA’s Spring Conference (Eugene) and the SSPOC Spring Conference (Salishan).
For more information visit the NGS web site and click on the JASON XIII link.
TCs Attend Vancouver, Canada N.C.G.E. Meeting
Maureen Barnhart, Tess Cawthra-Cornelius, Judy Mar-Zaleski, Nancy
McDade, Jere Fitterman, and Judy Lowery attended NCGE’s annual meeting in
Vancouver B.C. They attended sessions, field trips, and presented workshops.
The highlight of the conference was the banquet where the Oregon delgation
cheered loudly for Maureen Barnhart and Alex Murphy (University of Oregon),
recipients of NCGE’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Next year’s annual meeting
will be in downtown Philadelphia (October
16-19) and planning for several
exciting field trips is already underway.
GEOBYTES will keep you posted.
Revised Social Studies Content Standards
The State Board of Education recently approved revised content
standards for Science and Social Sciences. Students will first be accountable
for the Social Science standards in the Spring 2004 state assessments. Thanks
to all the TCs who worked on the revision of the geography standards. There is
now a much better alignment with the National Geography Standards. Copies of the content standards, including
the revisions, are available in newspaper form from Barbara Slimak (ODE) at
503-378-3500x 4498 or by e-mail <barbara.slimak@state.or.us>
NGS Launches Educator Letter
Recently, National Geographic society launched their new Educator
E- Newsletter. Information is sent to you via e-mail. To subscribe, e-mail <educationa@nationalgeographic.com>
2001-2002 OGA CALENDAR
October
9
OCSS
Fall Conference, North Salem H.S.
5:00PM OGA Steering Committee – Red Lion Inn,
Salem
15 School registration deadline for
National Geographic Bee
November
11-17
Geography Action Week
14
G.I.S.
Day
15-17 National
Council for the Social Studies Annual Meeting, Washington D.C.
26 (Until January 11) School level National Geographic Bee
December
31
Deadline
for OGA Incentive and Family
Geography Night Grants
January
5
OGA
Steering Committee (TBA)
March
2-3
SSPOC
Spring Conference – Salishan, Gleneden
Beach
19-23
Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting,
Los Angeles, CA.
April
5
State
Level National Geographic Bee, WOU,
Monmouth
5
5:00PM
OGA Steering Committee, WOU,
Monmouth
6 OGA Spring Conference, Eugene
May
7
Association
of Oregon Geographers Geography
Fair, U of O, Eugene
21-22 National Geographic Bee, Washington D.C.
June
30 Deadline for OGA Incentive and Family
Geography Night Grants
October
16-19 National Council for Geographic Education
(NCGE) Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.