Annual Geography from Space contest ready for take-off

The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum is getting ready to kick-off its annual Geography from Space Quiz contest. The contest dates coincide with Geography Awareness Week - November 16-22 - and offers a fun way to engage your students during this important week.


Want to practice or give your students more to explore, the quiz website has the past quizzes since 2000.

Geography Awareness Week Website is Up and Running

National Geographic has launched its Geography Awareness Week website, and it is loaded with ready-to-use lessons and activities. It's organized with a different theme for each day - Human Geography/Cultures on Monday, Physical Geography/Environments on Tuesday, Geotechnologies on Wednesday (this is the day to break out the GPS units), Global Hotspots on Thursday, and Careers in Geography to wrap-up the week on Friday.

The activities are designed with the non-geography teacher in mind. If you read my earlier post on the topic, you know that geographic illiteracy is a problem that is at the all-hands-on-deck point. As anyone who has taught about geology in an earth science class or the Europe of Shakespeare in a language arts class knows, geography reaches throughout the curriculum.

When you visit the GAW website, you'll find that NG has included a number of virtual field trips using Goggle Earth. Take this opportunity to introduce this technology to your students. When you get there, don't forget to lend your voice to the My Wonderful World campaign by filling out the info in the blue box. This is an easy way to show the world how important geographic literacy is.