Have you consulted an orrery lately? Fifth graders at La Patera School recently had a chance to do just that, thanks to Professor Dan Montello’s Geography Awareness Week presentation on telling time, seasons, and latitude by the sun. Dan and a handful of other faculty, staff, and students recently ventured out into local schools to share their geo-enthusiasm and represent UCSB Geography.
Geography Awareness Week is an annual celebration in November to promote geographic literacy and education, organized by National Geographic Education Programs. Established by Presidential proclamation almost 25 years ago, GAWeek is centered around events, policy advocacy, communication, volunteerism, and activities for students, families, and community members. This year’s theme, “Declare your interdependence,” encouraged participants to consider how their daily decisions connect them to the rest of the world (source).
This year UCSB saw a record turnout of volunteers, much to the delight of the department’s graduate student Visibility and Outreach Committee, which spearheads the recruiting effort each year. A total of 23 faculty, staff, undergraduates, and graduate students gave presentations to classes from kindergarten through high school. Eleven schools in Goleta and Santa Barbara participated, many for the second or third year in a row.
“I am so impressed each year with your outreach program. The presenters have been very knowledgeable, friendly and great with kids.” wrote Laura Buratto, a fifth grade teacher at La Patera School. Other gratifying feedback arrived via creatively illustrated thank-you cards to the presenters. “Now I love geography,” wrote one Mountain View Elementary third grader.
Presentations discussed a range of topics with examples including world population migrations, transportation and development in the US, reading maps, touring the US through satellite images, and mapping coral reefs with kite aerial photography. The variety of classes receiving presentations was just as broad, ranging from fourth grade classes studying California geography to high school special education classes in world studies. A few presenters pulled double (or even triple) duty, including the intrepid Professor Stuart Sweeney. His presentation, titled “Why did surfing originate in Hawaii? The settlement of Polynesia and cultural adaptation to the Pacific,” reached three world history classes at Dos Pueblos High School.
Ann Tan, a grad student who visited second graders at Washington Elementary, had this to say about presenting: “GAW[eek] is an amazing opportunity to share something I’m really excited about, soils, with kids who otherwise wouldn’t learn about it until much later on. This is the second year I’ve volunteered, and it has been a really rewarding experience.”
Adam Araza, an undergrad, said that his favorite part of volunteering was seeing the wide array of questions that the kids had about how geography is involved in everyday life. He remarked that “to see such enthusiasm and general interest in the topic was refreshing.” Matt Conway, an undergrad who presented jointly with grad student Bonnie Bounds, offered this insight: “I enjoyed sharing geography with a group of enthusiastic students, and I enjoyed meeting and working with other students in the Department of Geography.”
“Not only did we talk about geography, we also talked about college,” said grad student Heather Frazier. “A lot of the fourth grade students I spoke to were really excited to find out that you get to choose your own classes in college. It sparked a big discussion about college, grad school, and lifelong learning. That was my favorite part of my presentation this year.”
Grad student Song Gao presented to Mountain View School first graders about local geography. “It was really awesome having the opportunity to introduce Santa Barbara geography and share the value of geography with the students and teach them spatial thinking with a maze game,” wrote Song about his experience (see accompanying photo). “What gave me a big surprise is that the kids in the first grade even know GPS and how to use a compass to recognize the directions. I would like to contribute again to the great Geography Awareness Week.”
When grad student Helen Chen asked seventh graders to draw maps of their routes to school, she was impressed by their creativity (see accompanying photo). “It was a great experience to teach the seventh grade students in La Cumbre Junior High School. Students are smart and eager to learn how to read different types of maps,” she recalled.
Professor Jennifer King and grad student Kevin Mwenda presented to separate classes at Washington Elementary. “I think we were both left speechless by the energy and enthusiasm of fourth graders” reported Jennifer. “It was more challenging than I expected to keep the attention of 33 fourth-grade students, but it worked out pretty well in the end.”
Jennifer’s presentation provoked one especially memorable reaction. “Decomposition is cool!” pronounced one student, speaking about organic material. Chalk one up to another successful Geography Awareness Week.
Article contributed by members of the Visibility and Outreach Committee: Bonnie Bounds, Helen Chen, Kitty Currier, Heather Frazier, and Susan Meerdink. Editor’s note: Special thanks to grad student Kitty Currier who finalized this article and to everyone involved in such a worthwhile enterprise.
