FOOD Beyond a stack of hay bales, high school students in a tiny Indiana town stroll down a grassy slope to reach their newest classroom: a fenced-in field of cud-chewing cattle. (New York Times) Use our resources to learn more about classroom “green scenes.” Discussion Ideas Compare the agricultural program described in the New York Times article (in Hagerstown, Indiana) with the program described in … Continue reading Cattle-to-Cafeteria
UNITED STATES Unfinished FEMA Maps Put Flood Victims In Limbo Superstorm Sandy pummeled the East Coast six months ago, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was there, finding people temporary shelter and supporting rebuilding efforts. FEMA also has another role. It oversees the creation of flood maps, which model the risk of flooding in different areas during storms. These maps are used to set … Continue reading Unfinished FEMA Maps Put Flood Victims In Limbo
Last Friday, intern Jeremy and I traveled to the New Jersey
State Fair “Sussex County Farm and Horse Show” to take stock of geographic action
in the Garden State.
What a trip. After no less than four years as a budding
geographer, it never ceases to amaze me how frequently geographic “lessons”
crop up–even when traveling short distances.
Geography Lesson #1:
Geography is….Fun!
If you’ve been reading the blog or our newsletters recently,
you know all about the 4-H-
MWW partnership at state and county fairs this summer and fall. MWW, along
with the GIS software developer ESRI,
is supporting 4-H students using the tools and techniques of geography to
benefit their communities. Each 4-H group takes their own approach to incorporating
geographic connections into their annual activities and local fair presence.
The culminating event of the New Jersey State Fair was the
“geography bowl,” a spirited, family-friendly competition. All participants
received My Wonderful World t-shirts, and two youth and adult winners went home
with National Geographic atlases, humbly presented by Yours Truly J
(well actually, we had to find an alternate prize for the adult winner, an avid
world traveler and National Geographic consumer who claimed to own both of the
atlases and subscribe to multiple National Geographic magazines). By far the
most gratifying part of the evening, though, was the enthusiasm and curiosity
exhibited by contestants and audience members as they sought the correct
answers. Excellent job all!
Geography Lesson #2:
New Jersey really is the Garden State.
Or at least a Garden State.
Or, there are substantial parts of the state with farmland and gardens. This is
often lost to those of us whose experience with New Jerseyis primarily relegated to driving
through on the Thruway or strolling along the boardwalk by the “shore.” Sussex County,
located northwest of New York City,
is a bucolic, verdant agricultural region—perfect site for the state
fairgrounds!
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Continue reading “Ponies, Prizes, and Pierogies: MWW Road Trip to the New Jersey State Fair”
