A resource geographer, a cartographer, and an educator collaborated to make an atlas of a local watershed as a tool for geographic education. This project addresses declining geographic literacy and the homogenization of geographic products and school curricula. The fifteen maps help illustrate key terms of geographic literacy and prompt discussion of compelling dilemmas of managing resources and human needs in the complex dynamic of culture, environment, and physical systems. The companion narratives promote critical thinking about local issues. Written at grade 10 literacy level, the atlas is meant to function as both a geographic education tool in secondary education venues, but also to provide basic watershed-scale geographic information that is accessible to citizens, local government and resource managers within the watershed. Of interest to educators and civic groups is the template to generate similar products for place-based education in other locations.
Higher Education | Place-based | Literacy/STEM
Colonnade
Gina Bloodsworth and Naomi Petersen, Professor, Central Washington University
