Summary The creation of a dedicated student atlas for use in Nebraska elementary grade classrooms will be discussed. This teaching tool began with an initial 2016 limited edition and came to fruition with subsequent revised publications in 2017 and 2022. Mirroring efforts in recent years by several state geography organizations, the process of starting an […]

Summary This lecture will present the findings of two geographers who recently conducted field research in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in preparation for leading professional development in the region. The presentation will provide a foundation for deeper exploration and future engagement with the Balkans, a region shaped by a rich and complex history of […]

Summary The erasure of minority stories makes challenging the dominant reading of history important. The Green Book was an annual travel guide used by African American travelers from the 1930s to the mid-1960s to navigate a racially segregated America. A group of 9th graders, social studies teachers, and college students mapped Omaha’s 30 Green Book […]

Summary In this presentation, I will explore how geographic principles enhance Holocaust education, emphasizing spatial thinking, geographic inquiry, and geospatial technologies. Drawing from professional development courses and curricula, I will highlight three key themes: the varying scales of the Holocaust, the geographies of camps and ghettos, and the spatial ideologies behind Nazi policies. Maps, Geographic […]

Summary Building on Ed Ayers’ 2021 essay, “All History is Local,” freely accessible digital scholarship tools and resources will be explored, allowing participants to drill down to local historical data, and then widen the lens to see how their community is part of the story of our shared American past. Data visualizations and interactive mapping […]

Summary This session focuses on a chapter from the forthcoming book, Teaching Holocaust Geographies in Middle and Secondary Schools. The camp system was the heart of Nazi terror and control, and it played a dominant role in the systematic murder of millions of people. When war broke out in September 1939 and Nazi Germany began […]

Summary This professional development session will explore the power of case studies in enhancing student learning in world geography. Participants will learn how to select and develop compelling real-world case studies relevant to diverse global issues. We will delve into effective strategies for structuring case study discussions to foster critical thinking, problem-solving, and inquiry-based learning. […]

Summary Participants will hear an overview of the debate over the Zangezur Corridor. Then in small groups, participants will read different viewpoints of the situation. Group members will discuss the pros/cons of anticipated outcomes. As a whole group, we will discuss how the activity could be used with their classes. Session Focus Secondary/High School | […]

Summary As GIS education continues to expand, it is essential to re-evaluate how introductory GIS courses are sequenced. Historically, introductory GIS was one of the few GIS-related courses available, often positioned later in students' academic careers. However, with rising demand for GIS professionals and more specialized courses, this approach may be outdated. We examine how […]

Summary The audience will be presented with a short history of the pecan nut. A slide show will follow the history of the pecan, touching on the Native Americans who introduced the nut to the first Europeans exploring the Americas. The wonderful nutritious value and early farming techniques were used to enhance the plant and […]

Summary From ancient civilizations to religions, technology, and even disease, the geographic theme of “Movement” plays an integral role in our understanding of the world. Participants will investigate the geographic theme of movement utilizing the GeoHistoGram, using such topics as civilizations, religion, and disease. At the end of the session, participants will receive a packet […]

Summary Evidence has shown that some of the objectives of geography are hardly met. Research interests have been more on interventions especially on strategies to improve students’ learning outcomes in Geography than on evaluation of the context, input and implementation challenges. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate students’ perception, curriculum objectives, content, resources, […]