Notes from Round Table #1
1/26/08 (F. Kunze)

The notes here are  may not accurately reflect  the discussion. It is difficult to capture all of the points and sequential developments offered in this round table free ranging discussion. We hope what is offered will be useful.

Attendees:  David  Lanegran, Fred Kunze (Pam Hoff (Totem Town School), Linda Andrean (Center for Austrian Studies--U of M), Sarah Bjerke of Crosswinds School (EMID 6067), Jeff Lundy (Rochester), Sara Damon (Stillwater) .
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Sharon Shelerud started the Round Table by sharing some of the things she does in her classrom. She had about 10 handouts which she distributed to attendees.

Great DVD with supplements:
Guns,Germs and Steel is a great DVD for Geography. 
www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/index.html
Sharon also provided a copy of the handout.

Ted Talks Website
Great Geog. website called "tedtalks". www.ted.com. Great site for AP kids, and you can log in to different speakers. Great ideas.  Use menu on left side, some are great for Geography. Click on "global issues". 

There is a section on Africa (hover cursor over the picture to get to links). Others include:
Squatter Cities by Ted Brand (3  min 17 seconds)
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/123

Shadow Cities, the cities of the future byRobert Neowirth (15 min) 
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/36

Ghost Map of the 1854 Cholera outbreak by Steven Johnson. (10 minutes) 
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/61

Manufactured Landscapes by Edward Burtynsky (35 min) 1st half urban, 2nd half is focused on economic and includes outsourcing.  http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/56

National Geographic and Other Sites:
Vanishing Cultures by Wade Davis has a really good site on lost cultures and languages. 
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/06/0627_020628_wadedavis.html
Enter his name in Google and  you'll find lots of other sites by him too.

True North (How do  you Map Your  History from MN Hist Society)
http://www.lmic.state.mn.us/ghol/ 
Totally free site which creates maps based on the layer topics student chooses.
There are lessons written teachers can use for grades 4-12. They would like to pay you $100 for lessons on MN. 

Shared Discussion Ideas for Teaching Geography

Linda Andrean--Take kids to this place to teach them how Mpls. got started. The Godfrey House was the first framed house built in St. Anthony when only 300 people lived here. Mr. Godfrey built first lumber mill. U of M lady takes her students to this house to talk about early MN and how Geog influenced that history.

Sarah Bjerke had great success when teaching her kids about rivers and how they influence development by going to Mill City Museum.

Sharon Shelrud uses the exercise on "Where Will we Put the Next Super Target" for simulated urban planning.

Sharon Shelrud--Expedition Lesson plans from National Geographic are useful. She uses them more for ideas. The "related links" are very good.

Sharon Shelrud--another useful simulation she uses is to give kids imaginary money and tell them to look for places to buy land for investment for the next 50 years.

Sara Damon--when teaching sector theory she frames in in terms of a product. It makes it easier for the kids to understand.

Sara Damon--the movie Baraca is useful for teaching about agriculture. Especially the section on chickens.

Lanegran--when teaching about cities, students should first be taught the FUNCTIONS of cities. What are the urban functions of the place? That is why people live in cities. Kids can understand this. Don't start with boundaries or physical parameters such as population. The very first cities developed out of command and control centers and developed without rural functions.

Lanegran--when introducting a map he always starts with the question, "what do you see". This is so the students are all in the same place about what they are viewing. If you don't do this, the class will start with different perceptions.

Lanegran--showed his slide show on "Georgaphy of Modern Agriculture".

1. First step is to ask, where do you get your food? (excellent map in newest edition of Goode's Atlas)
A. map shows that there are only a few places which are seriously undernourished
B. Map of protein consumption is very interesting and revealing
2. Major components of agric.
A. Ecology of agricultuire (impact of climate soils and landforms
B. LInkages among production and consumption regions
C. Cultural preferences
3. Von Thunen model is useful to illustrate agricultural patterns, but also to teach how to make models.
4. Commodity Chains--useful for teaching  overall process of agriculture. If possible, get the old movie of how McDonald's came to Russia and what was needed to make it possible for that to happen.
5. Many other useful commodity maps in Goode's Atlas.

Shelerud--a great website for economic geography is:
http://www.geographischerundschau.de/international/
There are very good lesson supplements which are provided. Teachers can also write lessons.

Linda Andrean--offered an idea to make a map of where Byerly's/Lund, Cub and Rainbow Stores are located in the Metro area or in a selected city/area.   Students will then analyze the patterns their locations

Adjourned at noon. Next Geography Round Table is proposed for April 5th, 2008.

Notes from Round Table #3
August 2008 (Shelerud)

The August Round Table was combined with a workshop on Roseau and the Northwest Angle. The Round Table started this three day workshop with a power point presentation that gave a suggested a schedule to use for a year long high school Human Geography course that ensures all seven of the required MN Geography Standards were covered.  key concepts that must be covered in a HG course or that must covered if high school geography was embedded in another social studies course were also presented.  Participants received at least one lesson for each MN Standard, a list of resources and a copy of the power point if they wanted. Books, magazines and a variety of maps were on display and available for participants to take back to the hotel to look over.

Sharon Grafstrom did an awesome job of setting up tours of the Marvin Window Plant in Warroad, the Polaris plant in Roseau and a wonderful tour of the Northwest Angle by boat. Emily Miller of Roseau demonstrated the use of a smart board during our tour of Roseau High School Dave Grafsrom, gave a talk on ethanol that we should have scheduled a lot more time for. Participants of this workshop came from all over the state of Minnesota.  It was interesting to hear how the different regions of Minnesota are covering geography grades K - 12 in both public, private and non traditional educational settings.

People liked the idea that the Round Table 'came to them" and that they didn't have to travel to the Twin Cities for this experience. The Round Table plans to have the August/September meeting outside of the Twin Cities in 2009.  We are tentatively planning on going to Hibbing,MN and collaborating with Craig Hattam for 2009.

If you would like more details regarding this event please contact Sharon Shelerud at sharonmn@aol.com

Notes from Round Table #4
November 2008 (Shelerud)

The topics for this Round Table were Political and population Geography.  Most of the time was spent on Political Geography, as participants agreed there is SOOO much out there on population geography.

Chris Ripken was the host for this Round Table at Centennial High School. web sites that were shared are as follows: www.270towin.org which showed past election results by state. This site provided great maps to show regional patterns of Democratic and Republican voters starting with the election of George Washington

http://www.mrdowling.com/ is a web site to be used fora quick overview of World Wars I and II www.worldwarone.com also provides a good source for a quick overview of WWI.

Chris R. shared a great student activity to use to demonstrate border, sovereignty and territoriality.

Lisa Sanders from Austin was not able to join use, but she sent lessons on political and population geography to share with the group. If you would like further information on these lessons please contact Sharon Shelerud at sharonmn@aol.com

The next Round Table meeting will be held at Macalester College, Carnegie Hall Room 109 from 9 a.m. - Noon. Topics will be Cultural Geography and urban Geography.  Lessons from the Nov. Round Table will also be available for people to look at.

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