TOP TEN
GEOGRAPHY TEACHING TIPS 
(IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
TOP TEN
GEOGRAPHY TEACHING TIPS
(IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
We received a number of teaching tips from teachers attending the NYSCSS / NYS4A 67th Annual Convention in Saratoga, NY (March, 2005). The NYGA maintained a booth, giving away maps and other geography related materials. Each person receiving materials was asked to give a teaching tip. Providing a teaching tip also made each participant eligible for a GPS unit given away.
| 10.
Talk with students about changing national boundaries in Eastern Europe. For
example, a house in northeastern Hungary was at one time or another part of
Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and the Austria-Hungarian Empire. Siblings
born in the same house between 1915 and 1945 are of different nationalities. |
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9. As a government teacher, I discuss
in my crime unit how different states react to crime. What would be the most
favorable states for a fair trial? Where would you be more likely to have
a long prison sentence? |
| 8. Tape the name of a country or
capital onto each student when they come into the classroom. Once they have
matched the country to the capital, the students then become a working pair.
They have two minutes to find a pair for a neighboring country. These four
then become a group to work on that day's assignment |
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7. Examine the effects (environmental,
geographic, etc.) of Hydro-Québec on the land and the people
as they plan for dam-building. How can they foresee and avoid some of the
problems that occurred with Hydro-China? Focus on other large public works
projects from around the world. |
| 6. After students can both pronounce
state capitals and fill in an outline map, they can advance to a puzzle, and
then a computer-generated quiz. |
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5. Give monthly world map tests,
with the score based on improvements from the previous month (from 25 items
to 100% on a final exam). Students graph their monthly scores. |
| 4. Compare current maps of the local
area with historic maps. Note the changes. Try to get old photographs from
your country or town historian. Have students recreate the same view. |
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3. When teaching 8th grade, World
War I and World War II especially, I have students look at the effects of
geography and climate on battle outcomes. |
| 2. We plotted on specific maps all
the summer vacation trips the students took by state (NY), in the United States,
and around the World. |
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1. Why and how would geography determine
how slavery in the North was different from slavery in the South. How did
geography dictate the routes Freedom Seekers took on their escape toward Canada? |