Geography on the Fall Line Form a spatial cluster with educators, researchers, and leaders in the discipline to network, learn about new trends in educational practice and research, and explore a place and region with historical roots and a dynamic modern environment. Learn More!
Summary This strategy is especially powerful in Human and Cultural Geography because it mirrors the way geographers analyze patterns, relationships, and spatial organization. In human geography, students are constantly asked to categorize economic activities, compare demographic trends, evaluate political boundaries, and interpret cultural diffusion. “Sorts” make these abstract processes tangible. When students physically group migration […]
Summary Death Valley National Park, CA may be the most diverse geographically in the country. Death Valley is the hottest place on earth, the driest and lowest place in North America and the largest NP outside of Alaska. From -282 Badwater, the lowest place in the Western Hemisphere, one can see the often snow-capped 11,049' […]
Summary U.S. history meets Human and Environmental Geography in this hands-on workshop that examines 250 years of America demography, land and natural resource use, and ecological milestones. After a brief introduction to the trends we’ll explore, participants will spend most of the workshop engaging in collaborative classroom activities. One activity is a full-group role-play that’s […]
Summary This workshop is designed to bring a lesson to a larger, teaching professional, audience. The Family Geography Project transforms the well-worn family tree into a more critical and more research aligned document that has served to enhance student understanding of the complex socioeconomic situations that create a each family's geography. The essence of the […]
Summary Examining the Holocaust spatially positions students to think about genocide in new ways. In documenting the Holocaust following World War II, war crimes investigators from the state and the Jewish community asked eyewitnesses to create mental maps of Treblinka. For human geographers, mental mapping represents an opportunity to understand how people perceive a particular […]
Summary In this session, we will discuss how to use laboratory assignments to teach population geography. Population geography connects diverse topics including sustainability, economics, politics, and culture. Using labs to teach this topic allows students to use real world data to deepen their understanding of population geography concepts. In this session, we will begin with […]
Summary As instructional time for social studies continues to shrink in many K–12 settings, geography educators face increasing pressure to demonstrate the relevance, rigor, and interdisciplinary potential of the discipline. This session invites participants into a discussion of current trends in geography education, including effective teaching, data-visualization, geospatial technologies, and STEM aligned inquiry that positions […]
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 […]
