cluster map

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

RE: Geography resources

Sorry folks, I have been flooded with requests and at this point have depleted my resources. Watch for more as I dig deeper in my home office.

 

Ethel

 

RE: The Monograph and Teaching Geography

 

,Morning Everyone
 
I am in the midst of clearning up gearing up for retirement nest year. So I have many back copies of the Monograph and the British, Teaching Geography. These journals have a wide variety of activities that are extremely useful when planning your program or great ideas when you need something on the spot or to help out a supply teacher. Please let me know if you are interested and I can put them in the Board mail before the end of this week. First call, first served.
 
Ethel J

Travel and tourism in French

Good Morning

    I am looking for some advice/help.  I will be teaching T&T in French next year.  This is the first time it is being taught at Lawrence Park.  Can anyone give me some advice on where to find French resources - a text book in particular?  I have taught the course in English but I would rather not spend my summer translating all my work.

Thanks

Alison

A Hepburn

Monday, June 11, 2012

Interesting concept on Hurricanes

The following web site with good working documents ,creates lessons on hurricanes from the perspective of elementary school students,  community workers ,and university level  students.  It come across as an interesting concept.

http://blhurricanes.weebly.com/index.html

Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

firld activities help

Final reminder for any of you who are interested in the Toronto walk on Thursday. Please let Dimitra Know.

Also , for many of you planning field activities for next year, you may find this web site of help . It has a number of PDF on various  field work technologies , web sites , and strategies. There is no greater learning then in the field .

http://www.enhancingfieldwork.org.uk/problems-solutions.asp

Cheers Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

Friday, June 8, 2012

Interesting web site out of Europe

Geocube…… re-inventing the way to explore Geography

The world of Geography at your fingertips and just a mouse click away!

Geocube is an attractive online resource about Geography. Geocube is based on the principle of the Rubik Cube with six faces and 54 topics. It is a virtual and easily accessible website which is available online for free. Move the Geocube around with your mouse and explore the faces and topics.Geocube provides an accessible way to read, see and watch what Geography is and geographers do. This is a European initiative developed by HERODOT, the European Network for Geography in Higher Education and is available to anyone who is interested in Geography.

http://www.geo-cube.eu/

Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: The Revenge of Geography

I have sent you all a couple of articles from this group before . Though ,they are relatively expensive as a subscription the information is very useful in senior geography , politics, law , environment and other courses. From a discipline standpoint they are quite exciting because many of the authors spend time looking at issues through the eyes of Geography. This may be a great subscription to pass on to the school librarian or a great resource for a CWS and humanities department to have. Cheers Mark

 

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

From: Stratfor [mailto:mail@response.stratfor.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2012 6:00 AM
To: Lowry, Mark
Subject: The Revenge of Geography

 

 

STRATFOR

Robert D. Kaplan on his new book, The Revenge of Geography

Robert D. Kaplan is a bestselling author and Stratfor's Chief Geopolitical Analyst

 

The Revenge of Geography is what I am all about, and what Stratfor is all about. As a foreign correspondent, I have lived geography for over three decades, traveling from one news hotspot to another across several different continents. Even in an age of cyberspace and interconnected financial markets, mountain ranges like the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan still matter, and matter greatly, and that is why I need to describe them.

My reporting has convinced me that we all need to recover a sensibility about time and space that has been lost in the jet and information ages, when elite molders of public opinion dash across oceans and continents in hours -- something which allows them to talk glibly about a so-called flat world. I want to slow down the pace of travel -- and of observation itself -- in order to see the fabulous variety that the earth still offers, and describe how it affects politics.

We live in a world of megacities and overlapping missile ranges. Territory is more critical precisely because it is so crowded and so contested, with events of one region flowing into that of another at warp speed. I want to give readers a tactile sense of this new fluid and organic Eurasia, teeming as it is with humanity. I want to do it one river and mountain range at a time, with thousands of years of history thrown in.

The media proclaims that individuals determine history. But geography provides the backdrop. Geography determines the parameters within which individual choice operates, and I want to describe that backdrop in depth.

The first part of the book profiles the great geopoliticians of a century and decades ago: Halford Mackinder, Nicholas Spykman, Alfred Thayer Mahan, and others -- men whose ideas are both disturbing and fascinating. In the second part of the book I apply their wisdom to today's events in Europe, Russia, China, the Indian subcontinent, Iran, Turkey, the Arab world, and Mexico. It is my hope that after finishing this book you will read the headlines differently, and you may be less surprised about the headlines to come. And that, too, is the mission of Stratfor.

This book is written with Stratfor's mission in mind: that is, to describe a country's position on the map, fill it in with mountains and plains and river valleys, and then with the people who are heir to a particular culture and national character -- all in order to better understand human choice, and the human condition itself.

 

Subscribe & get this book free
Offer ends Monday June 13th

*This offer is only valid for new Stratfor members. These prices cannot be applied to existing or renewal of STRATFOR accounts. Memberships cannot be purchased to replace other higher priced memberships. Other exclusions or limitations may apply.

Questions? Contact feedback@stratfor.com




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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

blog of archived sites

Hi I have created a simple blog site where I have archived interesting geographical things that I have sent to you throughout the year. I will continue to send them to you directly .However if you are looking for them after the fact they will be in this blog. The blog is entitled Geographic Resources and Ideas and here is the URL

http://geographysites.blogspot.ca/

Enjoy Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: Great little video of toronto

 

 

I heard about this on CBC metro morning this morning. I fabulous little video of Toronto that is only 2 days old. It is just 4 minutes so it is a perfect minds on for grade 8, 9, Travel and tourism , Urban or world issues.

http://vimeo.com/30788720

 

Enjoy Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: Great little video of toronto

 

 

 

I heard about this on CBC metro morning this morning. I fabulous little video of Toronto that is only 2 days old. It is just 4 minutes so it is a perfect minds on for grade 8, 9, Travel and tourism , Urban or world issues.

http://vimeo.com/30788720

 

Enjoy Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: good Demographics article and links to good data

 

This is a very good description of the demographic changes over the next few decades. Gives very good scenarios of countries plus good links to data and forecasts by country regions, etc. Great for world issues, human , and with some support grade 8& 9 immigration .

The Earth at Population 7 Billion

The United Nations Population Fund estimates that the world’s 7 billionth person was born Oct. 31. Understanding demography is a core part of STRATFOR’s work, as it colors a great many factors, from whether a state can balance its budget to whether a state will be capable of defending itself.

Conventional wisdom tells us that the increase in population is putting pressure on the global ecosystem and threatening the balance of power in the world. As the story goes, the poorer states are breeding so rapidly that within a few generations they will overwhelm the West and Japan — assuming the environment survives the rising tide of people.

That thinking obscures a far more complex reality. Four factors help properly analyze the impact of population growth. First, populations are indeed cresting in the developed world — and appear already to have done so in Germany and Japan. Because of large gains in life expectancy, these cresting populations are first aging. Third, while a senior citizen and an infant both count as a single person from a census point of view, only one of them can one day have children — in other words, aging is the last step before a population begins declining. The developed world is moving into an era of shrinking populations. And before anyone thinks that the masses of the developing world are about to take over, the demographic profiles of the major developing states are only three decades behind the developed world.

So while the absolute population of the developed world will crest within the next generation, that of the world as a whole will level out and begin to decline sometime in the next two to three generations.

This trend of aging, followed by shrinking populations, is already rewriting the geopolitical environment. A normal population structure is tilted toward the young: there are many babies, fewer children, still fewer young adults, and so on. Young adults support children, but they are at the low ebb of their earning potential. Young adults’ large numbers plus low earning power combine with their high living costs to make them debtors. Older adults have finished raising children, and their earning power is at its zenith: They are a society’s creditors. A typical population structure features fewer mature adults than young adults, which leads to weak capital supply but strong capital demand. Loans are expensive, borrowing is difficult and cost efficiency is of crucial importance. This was the normal state of affairs globally in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

The modern era’s trend of aging-but-not-yet-declining populations has changed all of these calculations. There are many more mature adults in all developing countries than there are young adults. Capital supply is robust as those mature workers save for their retirement and pay more taxes than when they were younger (or both). But there are fewer young families to absorb the available capital. In such a capital-rich environment, borrowing costs plummet, leaving substantial room to lower taxes. Economic growth greatly increases when money management becomes a booming industry as every saver looks for ways to earn returns on investments. Sectors become overinvested and bubbles form; volatility and financial crashes become more common.

Demography drove economies to this condition in the 1990s, when credit (and thus growth) increased. In the 2000s, mature workers produced a good deal of excess capital. The 2010s find the global economy correcting itself after 20 years of excess-capital-driven growth — at the same time as mature workers are retiring and leaving their capital-supplying role.

A darker period is likely to dawn by the 2020s. Most of those high-wage earners will have retired — they will no longer supply capital and instead will depend on the state to issue their pensions. The cost of capital will invert strongly. The generation born between 1964 and 1979 — characterized by its low numbers — will be responsible for supplying capital. Not only will they have to fund the younger generations, they also will have to support the pensions and geriatric-support programs created by their predecessors. Since the developing world’s aging process lags about 30 years behind that of the developed world, this same generation will act as the primary capital suppliers to the entire world.

The developing world started to age too late. Its countries will lack enough mature workers to generate the capital needed to replace that which can no longer be imported from the developed world. The developing world will experience the financial challenges of the developed world, without having built up the infrastructure and industrial base the developed world has had for three generations. Such capital scarcity threatens to halt growth across the poorer parts of the planet. It will also make for strange bedfellows: The only hope the developed world’s ’64-’79 generation will have to meet their bills is to import more taxpayers. Perhaps the most unexpected outcome of population patterns is that the developed world will have a massive interest in attracting immigrants.

The aforementioned analysis is what the picture will look like on a global scale — but with demography, every country and region in many ways constitutes a unique reality. The trends that shape demography are affected by geography and culture. The overarching trend is of a shrinking global population, but there are dozens of standalone stories where that trend is either bucked, magnified or otherwise interpreted through the lens of the locality. Here are five examples:

Russia’s population started shrinking some 20 years ago due to the influence of alcoholism, drug abuse and communicable diseases rather than due to having achieved affluence. That difference in causality whittled away the morale of Russia’s potential young parents so deeply that Russia now has more citizens in their 20s, 30s, even their 60s, than it has teenagers. Russian power may well be in sharp ascendance currently, but it is entirely likely that in about 10 years time, the Russians will lack the people they need to man a sizable army, or perhaps even to maintain a modern society.

India is the only major developing state that is still experiencing a normal population profile (in which there are more babies than children and more children than young adults, etc.). This could make India the world’s workforce, but the country probably will soon be the target of huge citizen-recruitment programs from the rest of the world. Unless India can make a significant leap in the quality of its mass education, the coming brain drain will deplete the country’s skilled labor.

China’s population stands at more than a billion, but after thirty years of the one-child policy and of population movements from rural to urban areas, the Chinese birthrate has fallen dramatically. Only Japan is aging faster than China. Even if STRATFOR is wrong and the Chinese economy does not collapse over the next few years, it will struggle mightily to survive the 2020s, when China faces sharp qualitative labor shortages. China’s economy depends on attractive labor costs — the looming bottoming out of the cheap, low-skilled labor pool could be a deathblow.

Brazil may not turn out as capital-starved as much of the developing world. The country’s demographic has not inverted, but merely slowed: its number of 20- and 30-year-olds is similar to its number of teenagers and children. In two decades, Brazil may have a population structure that makes it relatively capital rich (by the standards of the world in 2040). It could well become the only major developing state that can generate its own capital and not depend on the developed world’s shrinking capital supplies. And thanks to the local opportunities that local capital can create, it might avoid losing too much of its skilled labor to foreign recruitment.

The United States is the only developed state that still can claim a positive demographic profile, and this is before factoring in immigration. In the developed world, only New Zealand is younger than the United States, and the United States is the only developed state that has a young generation strong in numbers — those born between 1980 and 1999 are second in number only to the baby boomers, who are currently in the process of retiring. As such, the United States not only faces the least severe shift from capital excess to capital scarcity, it is also the only developed state that can hope to grow out of the current demographic period in anything less than sixty years. In the 2020s, the United States will have a good number of citizens in their 30s, who are capable of having children. Across Europe, the dominant generation at that time will consist of people in their 50s and 60s. America’s adjustment will still be difficult, but it alone among the major powers will still have excess capital and a younger generation capable of supporting its economic systems.

STRATFOR would like to extend its thanks to the fine people at the U.S. Census Bureau who collect, organize and share their statistics on global population. You can access their data here.

 

 

Enjoy Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: More population resources

 

Here are a couple of other interesting population resources to compliment earlier ones.

 

The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMhpr051833

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15445092

The world's population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Where do you fit into this story of human life? Fill in your date of birth below to find out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515

 

thanks to our friends in Australia

 

Cheers Mark

 

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: Interesting Geo Info

Subject: Interesting Geo Info

 

Dam blown up to allow river to flow naturally again. Message for Brownhill Creek? Brilliant time lapse and has links to prior videos for this river.

http://io9.com/5856710/a-dam-explodes-and--for-the-first-time-in-a-century--a-river-reclaims-its-course

 

Please share with our Environmental sciences contemporaries

 

Historical Geog, Everest not highest mountain!!!! And Sea-view Hill at 6,500’ was the highest point in Australia.

http://io9.com/5855100/gorgeous-victorian-infographic-shows-earths-mountains-and-rivers-as-we-knew-them-over-150-years-ago

 

Please share with our History contemporaries

 

Thanks to John Coop in Australia for passing these on.

 

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: Many Simulation games

 

 

 

I received this e-mail from Mike Farley an ex TDSB teacher) who teaches at UTS with a link to his web site and some very useful simulation games.

Here is the web site.

 

http://mikefarley.weebly.com/serious-games.html

 

there is also a very good work ship to support Pax Warrior a web simulation that TDSB does have the rights to.

Cheers Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: surveying information

 

 

http://www.ccls-ccag.ca/educ-resources-Programs.html#ON

career stats salaries range from 35,000 to 100,000.

 

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: Financial literacy Poisted

 

 

Hi All; The Financial literacy lessons and activities are now posted on the OAGEE web site. Here is the link:

http://www.oagee.org/curriculum/financial-literacy

Many thanks to all of those TDSB folk who were writers and reviewers of this great stuff. Thanks Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: Interesting mapping article

 

 

This is a good and relatively simple article to support students in creating maps .

It is entitled “ Make Maps People Want To Look At” ArcUSER winter 2012. I have attached both the link and a PDF. Enjoy

http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0112/make-maps-people-want-to-look-at.html

 

Mark

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

FW: Geography: The Arbiter of Power

 

 

 

This is a very good relatively  non partisan think tank which has its research papers currently on its web site gratis. All you need to do is sign in with an e-mail . Great for world issues and other senior courses.  There is a very good article on Spring Break in Mexico and the security concerns . enjoy Mark

 

Mark Lowry

Geography and Geotechnologies Instructional Leader

Social World Studies and Humanities

Toronto District School Board

1 Civic Centre Court

Toronto , On ,M9C 2B3

Tel; (416) 394-7269

Cell; (416) 576-4515

Fax; (416) 394-6420

http://tdsbweb/_site/ViewItem.asp?siteid=63&menuid=63&pageid=63

 

 

From: Stratfor [mailto:mail@response.stratfor.com]
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2012 11:16 AM
To: Lowry, Mark
Subject: Geography: The Arbiter of Power

 

 

Stratfor

Geography: The Arbiter of Power

For Stratfor, geography is an introduction to how the world works.

We look beyond the ideologies and policies of leaders to the underlying physical realities of place. These realities define how a nation develops, how it interacts with its neighbors, whether it is exploratory or isolationist, rich or poor, powerful or weak.

The constraints of geography define what is impossible, what is possible, and often times, what is probable. Stratfor always begins with what is possible after geography's impossibilities are accounted for.

Check out these 3 insightful reports that follow Stratfor's geopolitical approach

The Geopolitics of the U.S.: The Inevitable Empire
The Americans are not important because of who they are, but because of where they live.

Russia's Geographic Challenge (Video)
Senior Analyst Lauren Goodrich explains the geographic impetus behind Russia's need for regional dominance.

The Geopolitics of Israel: Biblical and Modern
Geography has shaped Israeli foreign policy for nearly 3,000 years, independent of policymakers, technology or neighbors.

Questions? Contact feedback@stratfor.com




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