The Partners Network* Workshop is time dedicated to collaboration and collective impact. Everyone invested in geography education is welcome to attend, whether or not you represent an organization. Please come prepared to discuss common challenges and opportunities, share best practices, celebrate your accomplishments, and plan future strategies. The agenda will include time for sharing as […]
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 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 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 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 […]
Summary Imagine a free, comprehensive digital atlas designed specifically for K–12 educators — one that connects geography, history, science, ELA, and math in a single resource. The Virginia Geographic Alliance has built exactly that with An Atlas of Virginia, offering 40 full-page maps, interactive online resources, nonfiction text, charts, and a teacher guide aligned to […]
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 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 In 2024, I was part of an educational group run by GEEO that toured northern India and parts of central Nepal. This trip focused on visiting multiple religious sites associated with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. As well as other Significant locations related to ancient Indian History. This presentation will explore the historical religious geography […]
Summary This session is geared toward teachers and teacher educators who want to think more strategically about improving teachers’ abilities to plan a critically-oriented geography curriculum. With the goal of exploring and advancing notions of geographic consciousness, the session offers examples and insights from a Miller-funded geography education research project. The project sought to understand […]