U of L helps tackle geographic illiteracy
May 17th, 2005
The National Geographic Society is counting on U of L to help with what is seen as a problem that stretches across the U.S. map — geographic illiteracy.
“It’s a very disturbing trend because it’s a national trend,” geography and geosciences professor Keith Mountain said.
The last years of high school might include little or no geography, for example. The society, well-known for its magazines sporting lush photography of far-off places, has awarded U of L a grant to develop public outreach materials and classroom teaching materials about Kentucky’s geography.
The U of L research team, as part of the Kentucky Geographic Alliance, has been working about a year to compile an interactive compact disc and a resource packet called “Explore Kentucky: A Geographic Journey.”
The plan is to make those materials available to teachers in professional development workshops during the summer, so that the information can be used soon in the state’s classrooms. Mountain said the materials will be sent to the Kentucky Department of Education and later can be ordered via the alliance’s Web site.
The project is divided into themes: Ohio River and Kentucky Waterways, Agriculture, Natural Resources, Urban Landscape and Topography. The packet includes Web sites and suggested reading lists that pertain to the themes; to make the packets adaptable to all levels, lists are divided into elementary books, secondary school books and advanced reading. Each section offers other curriculum resources including field trips or museums.
“It’s up to those teachers to apply it to their grades,” Mountain said.
Tackling the interactive CD has been a challenge, with Mountain and company doing all the photography, text and CD-cutting. Blending those talents with expertise in demographics and mapping software, the team also includes U of L alum Lauren Rapp, now the Kentucky Geographic Alliance administrator; and students Sara Thurman and Margaret McGinnis.
“We have tried to not bury it in text,” he said. “There are a lot of possibilities to the way you move through it. You have to have tangents where people can dive in. All these little units have to have connections and continuity. “We’re really compiling information. There’s nothing about the information that is not in the public domain.”
Mountain said the goal is to provide “an objective, interesting overview of life in Kentucky.” The group intends for the materials to “not have any form of judgment, particularly with tobacco, coal, you name it. We’ve tried to find that balance, and we think we have,” he said.
Next will be an audio component, with the “Kentucky Radio Expeditions” series to be developed this year to air later across the state.
Some of the radio expeditions will be to popular signature locales such as Churchill Downs or a horse farm. However, others will focus on everyday life and places. For example, Mountain said, a segment piece might include the sounds of a boat going through locks on a Kentucky river with explanation of how that works. Teachers might connect their waterway lessons to the expected airing of that audio piece.
Mountain described the multimedia project as both an arduous task and a wonderful experience. There are some fringe benefits too. “We have learned a great deal about Kentucky ourselves,” Mountain said.
Reprinted from The Portal, a newsletter from the College of Arts and Sciences
Related Link: Kentucky Geographic Alliance
