Kentucky Geographic Alliance

November 2023
KGAlliance.org

This month’s newsletter:

● Geography Awareness Week
● GIS day
● KGM
● STEM Winter Activities (Elementary)
● Thanksgiving Harvest Story Map
● America Recycles Day
● Winter lesson on Ice & Snow (Middle & Highschool)
● ArcGIS Bundle

Geography Awareness Week!

Geography Awareness Week is an annual event in the United States that aims to
promote and celebrate the importance of geography as a subject and its relevance
to our lives. Typically observed November 13-17th, this week-long initiative
focuses on raising awareness about geographic knowledge, understanding, and its
significance in various aspects of our world. The key points of Geography
Awareness Week can be summarized as follows:

1. Promoting Geographic Literacy: The primary goal of Geography Awareness

Week is to encourage geographic literacy among people of all ages. This involves
increasing understanding of the world's physical, cultural, and political landscapes.
2. Education and Outreach: The week often involves educational activities, events,
and initiatives organized by schools, universities, geographic organizations, and
community groups. These events aim to enhance geographic knowledge and skills
among students and the general public.

3. Highlighting the Importance of Geography: Geography plays a crucial role in

addressing contemporary global challenges such as climate change, resource
management, urban planning, and international relations. Geography Awareness
Week emphasizes the practical relevance of geography in solving real-world
problems.

4. Exploring Diverse Perspectives: Geography is a multidisciplinary field that

encompasses elements of physical science, social science, and the humanities. This
week provides an opportunity to explore diverse perspectives on geography,
including human geography, physical geography, and GIS (Geographic
Information Systems).

5. Fostering Spatial Thinking: Geography encourages the development of spatial

thinking skills, which are essential for understanding spatial relationships, map
reading, and decision-making. These skills are valuable in various professions and
daily life.

6. Geographic Information Technology: Geography Awareness Week often

highlights the growing importance of geographic information technology and tools,
such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing, in various
fields, including environmental management, urban planning, and business.

7. Promoting Global Citizenship: Understanding geography helps individuals

become informed of the world's diversity, interconnectedness, and the importance
of sustainable practices.

According to AAG “To geographers, place is defined as a space that has been made
meaningful by people and connections. Places can be sites of belonging or
exclusion; safety or danger; commerce and activity or repose and reflection.
Certainly, places imply witness: can a place even be a place if no one at all is there
or knows it? The work of seeing, understanding, and knowing places is the work of
geographers.”

For more information please visit:

https://www.aag.org/geoweek-2023/#:~:text=Take%20part%20in%20National%20
Geography,and%20where%20we%20can%20go.

GIS Day!

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day is November 15th and it aims to

celebrate maps that tell a story and have the potential to make an impact. Esri has
supported GIS day since 1999, and encourages participation by students, educators,
and GIS professionals. “GIS touches people’s lives daily, yet many are still
unaware of its power and pervasiveness. Invite others to see how you're using GIS
to understand the world and make better decisions.”ArcGIS StoryMaps utilizes
maps and media to complete an interactive narrative that's easy to publish and
share. GIS Day is dedicated to demonstrating, teaching, and inspiring one another
to get people to learn how to use this skill set in their work, schools, volunteer, and
personal lives.You can register an event or see events occurring. Frankfort is
hosting a GIS day event:
"Navigating the World of Geospatial Intelligence: GIS Day 2023".
University student-focused event featuring interactive GIS trivia, geocaching, live
demos, and insightful discussions on GIS impact in student projects.
Host: Kentucky State University - College of Agriculture, Community and the
Sciences (Geospatial Science Research Team)
Date: November 15, 2023
Time: 09:00 - 13:00

For more information please visit: https://www.gisday.com/en-us/overview or

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/98df7f9bb9974eae9eb9a1b02b992ac4

Kentucky Giant Map

The Kentucky Geographic Alliance recently hosted an event with the Kentucky
Giant Map for the Franklin Homeschool Group. We did a range of lesson plans
from Simon Says to Elevation to Tornadoes of Kentucky. If you are interested in
checking out a Kentucky Giant Map please visit our website to see a list of
locations where one is available closest to you. The Kentucky Giant Map comes
with a tool kit and 13 lesson plans that correspond to Kentucky Academic
Standards that teachers can use as they see fit.
For more information: https://www.kgalliance.org/kentucky-giant-map.html

STEM Winter Activities for

Elementary

For some winter themed classroom activities look no further! The Kitchen Counter
Chronicle has listed 15 different winter themed activities that focus on STEM
related topics. An example includes a lesson and activity on the investigation as to
why we salt the roads with temperatures dropping as we head into winter. It's a fun
and informative lesson. Other examples are examining the impact climate change
has on polar bear’s habitats, learning how snowflakes form, explaining snowstorms
and have the students make one themselves, compare melting ice and snow, using
tracking and observation as a focus, there is a marshmallow and hot chocolate
activity, and so many more!
For more information visit:
https://www.kitchencounterchronicle.com/winter-stem-activities-for-kids/

Esri StoryMap Thanksgiving

Harvest

Curious about where each of our Thanksgiving foods come from?

Linda Zellmer, a Government Information & Data Services Librarian at Western
Illinois University, has designed a series of choropleth maps depicting the
production of common Thanksgiving food items by state. These maps show the
acreage of crops like sweet potatoes, green beans, and cranberries, as well as the
number of turkeys raised in each state. Similarly, Esri, a mapping technology
company, provides an online mapping tool that offers insights into the origins of
Thanksgiving dinner components at a county level, using 2007 USDA data. This
interactive map displays the quantity of turkeys, sweet potatoes, cranberries, and
green beans produced in various regions. These resources collectively aim to
answer the question of where your Thanksgiving meal ingredients come from.
Challenge your students to map their own Thanksgiving dinner!

For more information please visit:

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d33a1386d15d4fce82462e3db8686549

America Recycles Day

The EPA recognizes the significance and necessity of recycling contributing to the
protection of our environment. America Recycles Day (ARD), celebrated on
November 15th each year, is a national initiative in the United States aimed at
raising awareness and encouraging responsible recycling practices. The primary
goals of America Recycles Day are as follows:
1. Promote Recycling Education: the event seeks to educate individuals,
communities, and businesses about the importance of recycling and its
positive impacts on the environment. It provides resources and information
to help people better understand recycling practices.
2. Increase Recycling Participation: ARD encourages people to take action by
recycling more and correctly.
 3. Reduce Waste and Environmental Impact: By increasing recycling rates, the
initiative aims to reduce the amount of waste ending up in landfills,
incinerators, and the environment. In turn, conserving natural resources,
saving energy, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
4. Build Sustainable Communities: ARD creates a sense of community
involvement and engagement. It encourages local events and initiatives that
bring people together to work towards a common goal of sustainability and a
cleaner environment.
Check out what you can do reduce your waste whether at school, work, home, or
in the community on the EPA website, follow the link below

Benefits of Recycling
● Reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills and incinerators
● Conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and minerals
● Increases economic security by tapping a domestic source of materials
● Prevents pollution by reducing the need to mine raw materials
● Saves energy
● Supports American manufacturing and conserves valuable resources
● Creates new jobs in the recycling and manufacturing industries in the United
States

For more information visit:

https://www.epa.gov/circulareconomy/america-recycles-day

Winter Lesson on Ice & Snow

Science Education Gateway has a lesson plan for Ice and Snow that connects
winter weather to Academic Standards.
Subjects

● Science
○ Physical Science
○ Earth Science
○ Environmental
○ Space Science
● Social Studies
○ Geography

Grade

● 6-8
● 9-12

Brief Description

Using an Earth Image database (Space Shuttle images) and world map, students
identify places on Earth where there is ice and snow, and then create a table
showing where they found the information, and the geographic location of the
snow and ice.

Objectives

Students will:

● identify places in the world where there is ice or snow.

● use world maps to mark places where they find snow and ice, putting in
places names and/or coordinates where possible.
● find and download images of Earth from the Web.
● determine ways to distinguish areas of ice/snow from clouds or other
white features on the images of Earth.
● create a table showing where they found the information, the geographic
location of the snow and ice, latitude, longitude, and any other pertinent
information.
● present the information to their teacher.
National Standards
SCIENCE
GRADES 5 - 8
NS.5-8.1 Science as Inquiry
NS.5-8.2 Physical Science
NS.5-8.4 Earth and Space Science
NS.5-8.5 Science and Technology
NS.5-8.6 Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
GRADES 9 - 12
NS.9-12.1 Science as Inquiry
NS.9-12.2 Physical Science
NS.9-12.6 Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

SOCIAL SCIENCES: Geography

GRADES K - 12
NSS-G.K-12.1 The World in Spatial Terms
NSS-G.K-12.2 Places and Regions
NSS-G.K-12.3 Physical Systems
NSS-G.K-12.6 Uses of Geography

For more information visit:

https://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techlp/techlp050.shtml#google_vignette

ArcGIS Bundle Opportunity

Bring Geographic Information Systems to your classroom by getting the FREE
ArcGIS bundle! This includes a free license for ArcGIS software for public,
private, and home schools. This is an opportunity for you to teach your kids about
the unexplored STEM industry that they may not have known about before.

Below is a link to the ArcGIS school bundle presented by ESRI:

Schools Mapping Software Bundle
https://www.esri.com/en-us/industries/education/schools/schools-mapping-softwar
e-bundle
Please forward this to any Kentucky educator you think would be interested in
the KGA’s free geography resources.
KGAlliance.org
______________________________________________________________
The KGA uses third party websites and does not provide the content for all
resources in the newsletter.
We send you the resources to make you aware of various opportunities
that you might find useful in teaching geography.