Summary This presentation focuses on an upcoming book - International Perspectives on Geography Education (Edward Elgar, 2026) - that highlights the actions taken by geography educators who work to improve the teaching and learning of geographic content. Much that is published in geography education today is pessimistic and bemoans the status of the discipline compared […]
Summary The Geospatial Semester is a unique and innovative project that connects high school students and geospatial technologies to bolster their spatial problem solving and open them up to the myriad careers across the many industries that use these technologies. Students earn dual enrollment credit from JMU and are required to do an extensive project […]
Summary Stories of the Chesapeake offers a compelling glimpse into the cultures, communities, and environmental challenges of America’s estuary, the Chesapeake Bay. As one of the nation’s most important natural laboratories for geographic inquiry, the region provides a powerful example of how physical landscapes and human systems interact across space and time. Stretching across six […]
Summary In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, a “fall line” was created on the coastal plain of China when Special Economic Zones were created by government fiat. This presentation will examine the demographic and lifestyle changes that ensued. It will also look at similar changes that occurred during the same time period in […]
Summary Come explore how art, dance, theatre, and other creative methodologies can deepen student understanding of geography! In this session, participants will engage in hands-on activities that bring historical narratives, social movements, and global issues to life through tableau theatre, protest art, and cartographic storytelling. Attendees will walk away with ready-to-use lesson ideas, creative assessment […]
Summary Iceland’s dramatic landscapes are deeply intertwined with a rich tradition of storytelling, where myths and folklore once served to explain the “unexplainable” in the physical world. This presentation demonstrates how geography educators can leverage such narratives to help K–12 students make sense of core physical geography processes, from coastal erosion to volcanism and river […]
Summary In his book, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (2012), Jeff Speck offers ten planning steps for creating American downtowns that are useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting. While the ten steps emphasize walkability, they include improvements to land use, public transit, bicycle use, and traffic flow. In this […]
Summary Teaching political geography can be an especially complicated task as foreign relations issues are now flash points for cultural and academic debate. This session is designed to connect educators with high-quality non-partisan materials to help teach foreign relations, and how to connect to the content and practices of political geography. Using practice-based methodologies to […]
Summary The International Scholars Program is an innovative, student-centered initiative designed to extend geographic education beyond the traditional classroom. Grounded in inquiry-based and interdisciplinary learning, the program immerses students in the study of global geographies, cultures, governments, economies, and histories through sustained, experiential engagement. Participants engage in structured book studies, cultural analyses, collaborative inquiry sessions, […]
Summary With the support of an NSF IUSE: ITYC collaborative planning grant, the presenters are looking to invigorate the teaching of undergraduate introductory geography courses, which define the discipline for thousands of undergraduates. They can also be the spark to draw students to major in geography and related fields. We wonder whether the standard survey […]
Summary Revolutionary Crossroads is a poster session that shows how geography shaped key events of the American Revolution. Developed through the Revolutionary Crossroads field experience with the Virginia Geographic Alliance, the presentation focuses on how rivers, terrain, and transportation routes in the Hudson and Mohawk River Valleys influenced movement, settlement, and military strategy. The poster […]
Summary This case study investigates how a high school geography teacher implemented blended and personalized learning (BLPL) in a World Geography course to support student learning within a BLPL framework. The instructional design integrated structured classroom routines, flexible pacing, and digital supports, including a progress-monitoring tool, to create multiple pathways for student engagement with geographic […]
