Summary Explore the profound social, historical, and political meanings behind the names attached to places. Far from simple labels, place names, or toponyms, are power-laden expressions of a community’s identity, values, and ongoing struggles for recognition. Session Focus All Grade Levels | Human and Cultural Geography | Inquiry Conference Room Cullen Meet the Presenter Brian Smith is […]
Summary In this session, we'll explore how Survey123 can be used to design authentic, student-generated content experiences across a range of subjects — from World Languages and Geography to History and Psychology — in both K–12 and higher education settings. Participants will walk away with concrete examples of classroom-ready Survey123 projects that challenge students to […]
Summary In the early 2000s, integrating geography and literacy at the elementary level garnered attention (Gandy, 2006; Holloway, 2015) in the wake of NCLB and the College and Career Readiness Standards. The need for such calls further intensified in the wake of recent nationwide science of reading initiatives and persistent standardized testing. Consequently, elementary teachers' […]
Summary National cemeteries are powerful geographic places, yet they are rarely used as instructional anchors in the classroom. This session presents a place based inquiry model that uses national cemeteries to help students explore space, movement, scale, and human impact through the study of Korean War veterans. Through the Korean War Legacy Foundation’s Veterans Legacy […]
Summary Explore the history and background of the Arab-Israeli conflict through primary source documents and teaching strategies that support critical analysis of texts. Major historical developments in the Arab-Israeli conflict will be discussed. Participants will develop content knowledge, experience student activities, and receive ready-to-use resources and links to digital resources with detailed lesson plans including […]
Summary The “Die Hard as a Christmas movie” debate offers an entry point for engaging students in learning about culture and its interpretation. As classroom practice shifts toward an emphasis on human geography and the use of geo-literacy skills, understanding how to engage students with complexity of geography is increasingly important. Because social studies teachers […]
Summary As the ongoing "gerrymandering wars" intensify, this session asserts redistricting's "place" in broader civics education. Mid-decade redistricting battles continue to erupt across the country, including right here in Virginia—but contrary to media narratives, these battles are not unprecedented. Exploring the history and mechanics of redistricting and gerrymandering through a nonpartisan and spatially-grounded lens, we […]
Summary This interactive workshop models how ArcGIS StoryMaps can be used to support geographic thinking and civic stewardship through narrative mapping in secondary classrooms. Participants will engage with a classroom-ready lesson centered on displacement in southwest Louisiana Indigenous communities, including Isle de Jean Charles and Pointe-au-Chien. Using curated photographs, community interviews, historical shoreline data, erosion […]
Summary Population dynamics have been in the news, especially related to falling birthrates and what that might portend for future generations, economics and the environment. This session engages participants with the latest data and projections from demographers and prognosticators but also puts the data into a historical context. The data is included in experiential activities […]
Summary This session examines some of the major environmental challenges in the Middle East, particularly around water resources, and the ways that Israelis, Jordanians, and Palestinians are cooperating to meet these challenges. Participants will develop pedagogic content knowledge about environmental challenges in the Middle East; regional cooperation among Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority to […]
Summary Human-led exploitation of our planet has resulted in an enormous environmental crisis. Anthropocentrism, the belief that the world was made for humans and everything in it is meant for human use, often goes unnamed in conversations about systemic issues. Yet, this pervasive worldview is at the root of our ecological crisis and is deeply […]
Summary Why do the Five Themes of Geography often feel like a flat checklist of definitions rather than a dynamic lens for understanding the world? Too often, geography instruction in the secondary classroom stops at memorization, leaving students disconnected from the human stories behind the maps. This hands-on workshop seeks to enliven the geographic experience […]