Benchmarks of Geographic Thinking

My sister planting trees in the Bowron Clearcut, 1986. Many geographic relationships and themes overlap in this image

In what seems to be a regular occurrence, a Social Studies colleague from Ft. St. James has challenged me with some powerful questions. This time it is about what is at the heart of geography education, something she is working through with her students. She likes to set the bar high; not just content to teach curriculum and provide a friendly learning atmosphere (which is as high as I reach on most days), she want her students to really get somewhere, to express and invest and stretch their thinking. Adapting the questions a bit, here is what I'd like to know more about:

When students encounter a geographic issue or phenomenon, what guiding themes or inspirations will help them make sense of of it? What themes, skills, or approaches are of most use for engaging students in geographic problem-solving?

Please leave a comment or email/tweet if you have ideas to add to this. I will edit the post as ideas arrive. I suppose one place to start is with some existing standards to apply to thinking and inquiry in Social Studies:

Benchmarks of Historical Thinking (Seixas)
ref: http://www.histori.ca/benchmarks/

• Establish Historical Significance 
• Use Primary Source Evidence 
• Identify Continuity and Change (Patterns of Change) 
• Analyze Cause and Consequence 
• Take Historical Perspectives 
• Understand Moral Dimensions of History (Judgement) 

Benchmarks (American Historical Assoc.)
ref: http://www.historians.org/teaching/policy/benchmarks.htm

• Analysis of primary and secondary sources 
• Understanding of historical debate and controversy 
• Historiography/how historians develop interpretations 
• Analysis of how historians use evidence 
• Understanding of bias and points of view 
• Formulations of questions and determining their importance 
• Determination of the significance of historical change 
• Examination of how causation relates to continuity and change 
• Interrelationship among themes, regions, periodization 
• Perceiving the past through values of the past 

Five Themes of Geography
ref: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/resources/ngo/education/themes.html

• Location 
• Place 
• Human-Environment Interaction 
• Movement 
• Region 

Six Elements of Geography (American Association Geog National Standards)
ref: http://edmall.gsfc.nasa.gov/inv99Project.Site/Pages/geo.stand.html

• The World in Spatial Terms 
• Places and Regions 
• Physical Systems 
• Human Systems 
• Environment and Society 
• The Uses of Geography 

Benchmarks exist in other disciplines, too
Science 9-12 Content Benchmarks (compiled from various American sources)
e.g., ref: http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/BEG/BEG_Standards_Science_Part1.html

• Use scientific method to investigate and gather/analyze evidence 
• Understand that scientific processes produce evolving knowledge 
• Use appropriate math to solve problems 
• Understand properties, structures, and reactions of matter 
• Understand role of biodiversity and genetics in nature 
• Understand earth systems, origins, and interactions of the spheres 
• Understand energy and how it interacts with matter 
• Understand the motion of objects and waves, and the forces that cause them 

So, what might benchmarks for critical thinking look like in geographic education?
Geographic Inquiry (my synthesis):

• Structure of place - form & function of human and/or physical systems 
• Use of Evidence - human and physical features, selection & interpretation of phenomenon 
• Causality and Change - evolution of systems, function of space & time 
• Human-Environment Interaction - mutual impacts and dependencies, modes of adaptation 
• Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives - role of history, sociology, biology, economics, geology, etc. 
• Responsibility and Sustainability - resource ethics, connected issues, planning & management

What are they for? I think themes guide inquiry in the same way that principles guide decisions or values guide behaviour. They don't always look the same, depend on the individual perhaps, nor are they consistently applied (My "principle" says eat local, eat organic, and yet I just ate a Big Mac). The themes or benchmarks can be studied, challenged, adapted, and can remain present as reminders that just thinking about what we observe isn't enough, we need to put internal (identity connections) and external (scholarly approaches) on the line and be prepared to be stretched in order for deep learning to take place. That's the big challenge. The 5 themes of geography has been around for along time, by themselves they don't make geography fun. A friend of mine recently had his Social Studies 10 class explore the PGSS school and grounds with cameras to locate evidence of the 5 themes in play. They shared their photo observations together and spent some time explaining connections to the 5 themes, defending photo choices, and discussing the use of space at their school. Critical thinking (using themes and benchmarks), engaged identity (their choices, their photos), smart use of technology, physically active/hands-on, focus on "how to think and learn" built on top of the "what," multiple roles for teacher... great lesson, eh?

What is the intended outcome of the use of themes or benchmarks? Sometimes in Geography we construct "geographies." (srsly!). We move from the general (the skills and processes and observations), to the personal (the reconstruction of what is happening in a specific landscape), filtered through the knowledge and agenda of the individual geographer. In other words, "Geography" (as a subject) is the study of place, an analysis of physical and/or cultural characteristics related to a phenomenon or location.  A "geography" (as an inquiry) is a construction of significance -- what is happening in a particular place, often related to an issue (e.g. environmental crisis in a watershed, changing climate as it relates to forestry, a town recovering from a recession, etc.). The "Study of Geography" is the set of lenses we develop with out students -- what's going on here, what are the relevant terms and underlying factors that help make sense of this landscape or phenomenon or issue.  The "building of geographies" is the application of these skills, attended to by the themes and benchmarks that ensure rigorous thinking. The hinge, the key piece that links skills, knowledge, and ability to analyze case studies, is the role of identity and the "topophilia" or the deep connections to place that guide so many of our conscious and unconscious understandings of geographic phenomenon and experiences. Occasionally, students connect to different parts of my geography 12 course because they simply find the material interesting or I've put on a great lesson. Sometimes their engagement depends on a cool project they design and do. More often, though, it is when the material (or lessons) and their response (e.g. project) resonate with some deep need they have to "become" -- they want to make connections between issues, places, ideas, patterns of thought and their own bodies. Learning, especially in the K-12 scene, is as much about becoming as it is about what one ends of knowing. It is for this reason I've abandoned most written or powerpoint project options in Geography and encourage more "Embodied Geography" from students (e.g. see Poutine Glaciation or Waffle Tectonics).

Here are some examples of "geographies" that combine observation with different degrees of bias (identity can't be engaged without also evoking agendas) and the use of standard reference points (e.g. derived from benchmarks or fitting into themes):

• A Geography of Poverty http://www.economist.com/node/21561878
• Maps & Dreams http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/lawdemo/webread/dreams.htm (excerpt) http://www.dmpibooks.com/book/maps-and-dreams (review)
• The rise of megacities - interactive http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2012/oct/04/rise-of-megacities-interactive
• Remember there's no such thing as a natural disaster http://www.disinfo.com/2012/10/remembering-theres-no-such-thing-as-a-natural-disaster/
• Creating a Personal Geography http://prosimian.com.au/constructed-histories/
• The Tourist Gaze http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/geography/undergraduate/fieldwork/crete/restourist.htm

This list could be endless -- any careful deconstruction of a set of relationships happening in a particular space and time (sometimes applicable to the larger world, sometime not), and careful reconstruction of what it all means and where we might go with what we learn -- this is a geography. It is the rich boundary-zone between benchmarks of geographic thinking, relevant cases studies, and the passion emerging from students' ongoing identity work. It is also the place where students can get fires up about  issues and begin to understand how direct experience, power, agency, consciousness, and intimacy are all at play in landscapes, just as they are in their lives. Building a "geography" is both a phenomenological and ontological effort. Don't worry, I don't punish kids with those words, not unless they ask, anyways. We do talk about topophilia, though.

I think one of the best things to do with a Geography class is be to build geographies and then find a physical way (something built or something performed) to express them, ideally for the whole class so we can follow their thinking and ask lots of questions.

Poutine Glaciation

The end of a "geomorphology" unit in Geography 12 means one thing... the students have pulled out the stops and are unleashing their creative, intelligent projects for our mutual enjoyment. Time enough for the factual details on the unit test, this is about celebration and individual discoveries. Here are some highlights:

A glacial landscape made from poutine (video). A literal mountain of fries, shaped to show a wall of pyramidal peaks, a cirque (alpine bowl) surrounded by aretes (ridges) with a glacial valley below. Chunks of cheese represented the frost-shattered rocks that would be plucked up to become moraine or erratics. Finally, a huge bowl of hot gravy was poured on the mountains, becoming gathering ice that filled the cirque and showed the characteristic plastic flow associated with glacial advance. The boys stirred it all together and the class dove in with forks and spoons. Very tasty, very popular with the hungry kids. Hayden and Brenden were the most excited; their creation went over as they hoped, and they got to mop up the leftovers. As Nic C. put it "what could be more Canadian, a guy in a cowboy hat pouring gravy over a mountain range to make poutine."

Hydraulic Erosion (video). Kelly and Natasha worked with water and sand to show us a few things, including rill erosion and alluvial fans.

Plastic Flow (video). Caitlin and Rhianne mixed flour, water, and ? to create something that would flow like a glacier. They followed it up with basal slipping using a big chunk of ice cream, with smarties playing the part of glacial till.

Puffed Wheat Seashore. Nic C. and Milan built a blue-jello ocean with chocolatey puffed wheat seacliffs. The shoreline was broken by wave action, revealing caves, arches, and stacks. Longshore drift had carried the eroded material away to form a spit and tombolo. A couple of stick puppets guided us through this edible landscape, one of which was named Nelson Mohorovicic (an inside joke).

The Informed Traveller. Anna and Anda narrated a slideshow made up of various family trips they had been on (like Anna's trip to the Grand Canyon, her picture of a desert arch shown above), and now had the knowledge to interpret the kind of geomorphological processes that shaped the landforms in the photos. Like Blake's Innocence and Experience, the travellers will forever be affected by what they have learned, and perhaps never able to simply gaze at a vista without asking questions. Landscapes will still be filled with wonder, but also with a discerning understanding of origins and change over time. Just to make sure we got the point, A&A made us a cake in the form of a u-shaped glacial valley with a ribbon lake, truncated spurs, and aretes.

Speaking of poetry, Tegan wrote some "seapoems" for this unit, and brought out some older poetry on the same topic. Like the tide, her words ebb and flow from the reflective to the technical, and I'd be curious to see how geography tempers or challenges her poetry in the future. Nature's Choice, like Nature's Voice. You can read her verse here (pdf), or hear her read it here (audio).

Oh ya, and some cave thingy.... video to come

Freerunning and well-spent youth

My very dear friend Derk and I used to run around jumping off of things in university. UBC endowment lands circa 1989 -- tree stumps and the sand banks behind the Museum of Anthropology mostly. I was never particularly good at it, jump up and down kind of thing, but still remember that time period as the "best shape of my life" and something lost that might one day be found. So, it is with some vicarious joy that I watch Derk's son Justin perfecting the art of freerunning. Here he is with his friend and parkour conspirator Liam tearing it up in the Kootenays.

routes trailer from blackspruce films

Routes Trailer on pinkbike.com
Top shelf film from two former students Josh Patterson and Jared Urich, premiering at the PG Playhouse Nov 12.. Glad to see they are putting their film studies classes with Ms. Riches to great use. We were always glad to see Josh's video creations in Geog 12.

Waffle Tectonics

What a great way to wrap up our unit on earth structure, geology, plate tectonics, faults/folds, earthquakes, and volcanoes. Nick and Nick served up waffles for the class, using each one to demonstrate some kind of plate boundary or fault type before their classmates devoured them. We didn't learn anything new about tectonics, really, didn't need to as this was explored in depth elsewhere, but we did congratulate ourselves for hard work with some great waffles -- crisp golden outside, fluffy and light inside... I skipped the syrup and choc chips with no regrets. It couldn't have tasted better if the gauffre iron were crushed on thorns of fire (I think of this reference to Pattern Language every time I have waffles). After all of the lessons, slideshows, reading, videos, quizzes, and demos in our unit, we've had some fantastic presentations that fulfilled three criteria: deepen our understanding of selected learning outcomes from the unit, reflect the interest & talents of the student as applied to meaningful inquiry, and embody learning in some way -- voice, performance, demonstration, physical construction, etc. Today was a small feast, a celebration of the interesting things we've done over the last 3 weeks, but is was also a celebration of how GOOD students are... I hear a lot of complaints about how students are tuned out and need a contstant barrage of technology to be entertained. This was a nice, slow, quiet... and tasty.

A New Home

Social Studies 10, early Canadian history... yesterday and today we used a simulation/role-play to explore what life in Upper Canada might have been like in the early 1800s. Most of this activity I borrowed from other teachers (like Rob) and an old print resource -- on paper it looks corny and old school, but for some reason the students buy in immediately and will keep it up for hours. After figuring out who was rich and who was poor, they were scheming how to raise funds for building a school, how to set up a shipping system for exporting goods, wealthy folks offering land in exchange for monopolizing skills of the poor (e.g. exclusive rights to the cobbler's services), lots of marrying and deals. One of the students whose role card said "judge" has built a courthouse and is now granting land on behalf of the colony in exchange for promising contracts to improve life for the colonists. Of course, he ended up with controlling interest in two sawmills and share of the profits from a railway project. Others were arguing over horses and what a broadaxe could do, defining "clergy reserve" and "grist mill." Churches were built ("hey what's a presbyterian?"), docks and bridges were stretched across the river, and roads cleared. Gender and race came up, as did wealth, distribution service to community, and representation. Somewhat surprisingly, environmental issues did not come up much -- almost all were content use every scrap of resource, to log off their land grants and mill the wood ASAP. I was really quite something to see two classes of teens being very excited to imagine and act out a different time and place for two hours -- no props, not prep, no fixed rules. This is a nice little shared learning experience that helps gel a class and anticipate the big questions and learning outcomes of the course. It gives them a phenomenological foundation and embodied empathy for the challenges of pioneer culture, setting the stage for their own heritage inquiry further into the course. Many asked if they could "keep the game going" tomorrow -- one girl thought we had switched into these roles for the whole course and would make our way through the curriculum in the first person. What an intriguing idea! I asked if she thought she could handle being in character for 4 months and she said "why not, its a great way to learn." Needless to say I'm thinking of the next opportunity to (re)introduce a role-play.

My plan is to have them synthesize in a narrative what they learned/did in the last two days with what they have been studying from text/teacher/library sources about British North America in the 1820s. I've done this activity and follow-up for a few years, trying to add to the simplicity and joy of the role-play with a little bit of relevant/elegant technology. Now if we had a wireless network or working computers I could get them to video-journal their experience and send it to me as an assignment and self-assessment. Too much to ask, I suppose -- what was accessible, easy, functional, and progressive from 2003-2009 is now out of reach... can someone explain to me how that is moving forward? The mac I had set up for video-journalling has been removed, as have the computers at the back of my class, but have not been replaced. We have a secured wirelesss network that we're not allowed to use, and the public wireless has not yet arrived. Cellphones and email are still blocked (in terms of policy), and virtually every one of the district-level supports for innovative use of technology has been undermined or axed. I suppose the kids with smartphones can work around the deficit of technology, but there are many that will have to wait out the "21st Century Learning" possibilities of this activity until our school gets its act together.

I'm not frustrated, though. This activity was about movement and problem-solving and creative engagement, and most of the students will be happy to write up their stories on paper or a computer and submit them to me and the class. The video option is powerful, though, so I may try to figure out a Plan C for getting the students in front of a webcam to talk about life at their "New Home."