For college education, I am co-PI on on a 3-year, $495,000 grant awarded by the National Science Foundation to develop instructional materials for international online collaborations for teaching and learning geography. My colleagues are Dr. Michael Solem, Educational Affairs Director of the Association of American Geographers and Dr. Osvaldo Muñiz, Professor of Geography at Texas State University-San Marcos.

In this project, we are expanding a project called the AAG Center for Global Geography Education (CGGE). This is a web-based set of issues-based, inquiry geography modules, in which students at universities in different countries work together on a series of case studies and activities about contemporary geographic issues. Teams of international geographers created the first CGGE modules during Phase 1 of the project (2003-2005). I was the project evaluator for Phase 1 and the results of that research (published in the Journal of Geography in Higher Education) informed our proposal for Phase 2 of the project, which was funded by NSF in September 2007. For a pdf copy of the JGHE article, please click here.

In Phase 2, we are revising and expanding the project so that it has six modules, on these issues: Global Climate Change, Global Economy, Migration, National Identity, Population and Natural Resources, and Water Resources. Draft versions of these modules will be available for use on the project website in September 2009. The modules will be translated into Spanish and Chinese in 2010.

We will also enhance the online capabilities for faculty using the project and conduct workshops at international conferences to enlarge the network of international geography faculty using this instructional technology. During 2008, we held CGGE workshops for geography faculty at the AAG Annual Meeting (Boston), the Congress of the International Geographical Union (Tunis), and the annual meeting of the HERODOT European Geography Network (Liverpool). In August 2009, a CGGE workshop was held at the regional IGU meeting in Tsukuba, Japan as well as the AAG meeting in Las Vegas. We will hold CGGE faculty workshops in Singapore in March 2010 and at the Washington AAG meeting in April 2010.

At the pre-collegiate level, I have developed geography instructional materials for all grade levels and assisted several Colorado school districts with the creation of standards-based assessments. David Diggs (UNC Geography) and I have developed a set of Internet-based GIS mapping activities for elementary- and middle-grades to help teach the historical geography of Colorado (Colorado's Geography: Mapping Our Past). Another Internet-mapping activity allows middle- and high-school students to compare global patterns of climates, biomes, and soil fertility (Soils, Biomes, and Climates). We welcome your suggestions for improving these resources for teachers.