Educational screen & audio-visual guide (c1956-1971])

Vitalizing Geography Studies G (Reprinted from The Journal of Geography, December, 1958) EORGE T. RENNER pointed out that geography ". . . is one of the most difficult things in the educative process to teach."' He would agree that for pupils it is one of the most difficult of the disciplines to learn. One facet of the difficulty, for teacher and pupil alike, involves the problem of transcending limited experiences with the earth. How many of us, for example, have scaled the high Andean peaks, have waded knee-deep in water in the rice paddies of Thailand, have slept in the tent of the Bedouin of the desert? How many of us have seen the wheat fields of Kansas, the ore boats of Duluth, the Statue of Liberty? How many children are encompassed by a world whose frame extends less than 50 miles in any given direction from the school's doors? Educational psychologists have pointed out, that to do our job and do it well, we must learn to cultivate the child's imagination, we must teach the correct interpretation of pictures, maps and presumably of globes.2 These are all aids in transcending the student's limited earth experiences. How well this can be done at an early age was recently demonstrated by the teachers and pupils of Sen. Robert F. Wagner Junior High School, New York City, in their fine exhibit, "Georama — Geography in the Global Age." The exhibit took ten weeks to produce; it was on display for a month. A visit to the exhibition was one to delight the teacher. Student guides were eager to explain the dioramas, the models, and the work that went into the exhibit. Youngsters gazed in awe at the giant six-foot relief globe in the center of the room' and the full-scale model of the earth satellite. "^ Interested children, having already learned to use new terms — seismology, oceanography, International Geophysical Year — in class, were applying them in the Georama. One lad was fascinated by the diorama entitled "How the Mongolians Made Camp," another by "the Face of the Earth as Seen from the Air," and a young lady was admiring "Architecture Around the World." Maps were everywhere. Among these was one showing the contour and its significance. Others showed the importance of location to Manhattan Island, the distribution of natural rubber around the earth, and trouble spots in the Caribbean. Also included in the exhibit were at least 30 small globes, each used to depict a significant geographic distribution or concept — such as the distribution of the world's glacier fields, earthquake areas, member stations of the I.G.Y., the winds and currents, the routes followed by the great explorers, and the world's major religions. Nothing was done haphazardly. All displays were arranged in orderly sequence. Observers were taken first through "The World We Know" where emphasis was placed on maps, map reading, globes and the study of the natural environment, next through "The World We Don't Know" which stressed glaciology, oceanography, the upper atmosphere, the significance of the I.G.Y. and the polar regions, and finally through the "Special Exhibits" featuring the giant globe, the model of the earth satellite, cosmic rays, the operation of rocket fuels and the problems of outer space. Mr. Charles M. Shapp, Principal at Wagner, pointed out that Georama was not a motivating force for the study of world geography alone. "It started," he said, "as a 9th grade social study activity within the curriculum framework and mushroomed by student enthusiasm to encompass virtually all classes including science, literature and art." When asked which of the tools was most useful to them during the course of the exhibit students invariably replied, "The small globe." Its possibilities for the educative process intrigued me from the start. We are all aware of the place that the globe holds in geographic education. We all know, too, that the ordinary multiprinted globe suffers from one serious limitation. It does not convey to the child the true picture of the earth's land surface. Mountains, river valleys, spacious canyons and other topographical forms have been reduced to a single dimension — to the smooth surface. And from this smooth representation of the earth the student has been expected to grasp what the earth's surface is really like — to discover the fundamental relationships between topography and weather and climate, the influence of terrain on historic migration routes, on land utilization, on trade. All too often these are mental leaps too difficult for the youngster in the grades to bridge. It is asking the smooth surface globe to perform a task which it is incapable of performing. The 12 inch relief globe, which really sparked the Georama, has bridged that gap. 5 It is a white unmarked project globe that portrays the world land surface in three-dimensional relief.'' Made of plastic in two hemispheres to permit "team" work, it is designed for the student to paint his study on the surface with poster colors, and because it is washable, they paint without fear of making irreparable errors. The excitement of the children as they become aware of the significance of the earth's relief features in their study is a rewarding one to observe. This is true experiential learning. Student reactions to Georama were recorded in essays written soon after the exhibit closed. Mason Bernard, 8th grader, states, "Georama is 472 EdScreen & AV Guide — September, 1959