Rediscovering Geography


Book Description

As political, economic, and environmental issues increasingly spread across the globe, the science of geography is being rediscovered by scientists, policymakers, and educators alike. Geography has been made a core subject in U.S. schools, and scientists from a variety of disciplines are using analytical tools originally developed by geographers. Rediscovering Geography presents a broad overview of geography's renewed importance in a changing world. Through discussions and highlighted case studies, this book illustrates geography's impact on international trade, environmental change, population growth, information infrastructure, the condition of cities, the spread of AIDS, and much more. The committee examines some of the more significant tools for data collection, storage, analysis, and display, with examples of major contributions made by geographers. Rediscovering Geography provides a blueprint for the future of the discipline, recommending how to strengthen its intellectual and institutional foundation and meet the demand for geographic expertise among professionals and the public.




Practicing Geography


Book Description

Overview: Whether you are just beginning as a major, taking classes toward a GIS certificate, working on an advanced degree, or considering a career change at a different point in your life, geography can lead to exceptional career opportunities. Practicing Geography: Careers for Enhancing Society and the Environment is a comprehensive new resource from the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and Pearson, designed to prepare students for careers in business, government, and non-profit organizations. Funded by the National Science Foundation, this project brings together members of the geography community to author different chapters that discuss workforce needs, expectations, and core competencies in professional geography, profiling the professional applications of and opportunities in geography today.




Fieldwork in Geography: Reflections, Perspectives and Actions


Book Description

Geographers regard fieldwork as a vital instrument for understanding our world through direct experience, for gathering basic data about this world, and as a fundamental method for enacting geographical education. The range of international geography and educational experts who contributed to this volume has demonstrated that the concept of fieldwork has a considerable history in the field of geography. They have demonstrated that the theoretical aspects of fieldwork have been interpreted differently in regions around the world, but the importance of fieldwork remains strong globally. A fresh look at the pedagogic implications for fieldwork in formal education offers ideas both for promoting it in geographical education and for maintaining its place in the geography curriculum. Audience: Forward-looking geographers and educators now recognise that alternative strategies, especially those involving the use of information technology, should be developed to reaffirm the centrality of fieldwork in geographical and wider education.




Teaching College Geography


Book Description

"Whether you are a graduate teaching assistant or the full instructor of a course, Teaching College Geography provides a starting point for becoming an effective geography teacher from the very first day of class." "Divided in two parts, the first set of chapters in Teaching College Geography address "nuts-and-bolts" issues of teaching in the context of new technologies, student demographics, and institutional expectations that are the hallmarks of higher education in the twenty-first century. In the second part, chapters explore other important issues: effective teaching in the field; supporting critical thinking with GIS and mapping technologies; engaging learners in large geography classes; and promoting awareness of international perspectives and geographic issues." "Teaching College Geography is based on the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), a broad-based, international movement to create more effective linkages between teaching and research in all disciplines. SoTL encourages all academics to become critically reflective teachers who constantly consider the effectiveness of their practices, keep abreast of research on teaching and learning, and contribute to the process of educational improvement by sharing innovations with peers and students." "The book's chapters include activities that can be completed in workshops, seminars, and informal gatherings of graduate students and faculty. Visitors to the book's companion website can find additional activities, participate in discussion forums, and share their own resources and tips with others." --Book Jacket.







Federal Career Directory


Book Description




Geography


Book Description

Ever since humans sketched primitive maps in the dirt, the quest to understand our surroundings has been fundamental to our survival. Studying geography revealed that the earth was round, showed our ancestors where to plant crops, and helped them appreciate the diversity of the planet. Today, the world is changing at an unprecedented pace, as a result of rising sea levels, deforestation, species extinction, rapid urbanization, and mass migration. Modern technologies have brought people from across the globe into contact with each other, with enormous political and cultural consequences. As a subject concerned with how people, environments, and places are organized and interconnected, geography provides a critical window into where things happen, why they happen where they do, and how geographical context influences environmental processes and human affairs. These perspectives make the study of geography more relevant than ever, yet it remains little understood. In this engrossing book, Alexander B. Murphy explains why geography is so important to the current moment.




Geography: Discipline, Profession and Subject since 1870


Book Description

This book is a comprehensive treatment of the professionalization and institutionalization of the academic discipline of geography in Europe and North America, with emphasis on the 20th century and the last quarter of the 19th. No other book has ever attempted coverage of this sort. It is relevant to geographers, practitioners of the social and earth sciences, and historians of science and education.