County-Level Migration Map

How cool is this???? A migration map based on 2008 IRS information that highlights the number of people moving into or moving from any county in the United States.

Red lines on the map show movement from one county to another (the map even shows the county they go to) while black lines show movement into the county.

You can enlarge the map to focus on a specific area – although then you lose the complete US perspective. The width of the lines of migration (the black and red lines) indicates number of migrants – wider means more people moving.

Hovering over one of the lines of migration that lead to a county of your choice with your mouse shows the number of individuals moving into or from the county, as well as the per capita income for each group.

You can even ‘share’ the map showing migration patterns by clicking the ‘share’ button.

This could be an interesting tool to see migration patterns, especially when you look at the Northeast, major Midwestern cities, and Los Angeles. The information on this map could lead to interesting discussions on why people move, where they move, and the effect on the culture, economy, and politics of where they move from and move to.

Think of the possibilities!!!

. Many thanks to Forbes for hosting the site and to Matt Rosenberg who publishes the Geography.about.com blog for this fantastic site.

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Where in the United States

My wife pointed me toward a site that allows you (or your students) to populate a map of the United States with information showing the states an individual has visited. The site is called Douwe Osinga's Projects, and the process is really simple - point and click. I filled out mine - not quite sure how I missed travelling to North Dakota - maybe next year. Hummm - perhaps I'll send my daughter to college there - that ought to create a visit!


visited 43 states (86%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

You can also do the same with a map of the world, or of India. A pretty cool site with potential for both personal and classroom use.

Locating Osama bin Laden

An interesting site came to my attention Sunday from the Geography blogsite concerning a Foreign Policy site comment on mapping the location of bin Laden.

From the Foreign Policy site:

Geography Professor Thomas Gillespie of UCLA has employed a technique typically used for tracking endangered species in order to pinpoint the most likely location of the world's most wanted terrorist. In a paper (pdf) published in the MIT International Review Gillespie describes how he used biogeographic data including bin Laden's last known location, cultural background, security needs, declining health, limited mobility and height to create a mathematical model that he claims will show where the terror mastermind is hiding.

To read the whole article, see maps, and much more, visit here.

I wonder how many of our students could correctly identify bin Ladan? That could make for an interesting survey.

Enjoy!

Essential Question: How effective is modern technology in locating people, places, and things?

Geography Awareness Week

"Next to the knowledge of ourselves, the knowledge of the world is essentially necessary, which can only be acquired by the pleasing study of Geography."

-George Alexander Cooke

This is Geography Awareness Week – an opportunity for all of our teachers (especially our Social Studies teachers) to teach some aspect of geography to their students. The general lack of knowledge of geography is widely published. Take the opportunity to look at some aspect of the geography of North America during this week and relate it to your course of instruction.

Teaching Math? Asking students how long would it take to walk across America… or any one of a dozen questions that could be asked on that topic alone that would involve mathematical computations. Teaching English? Teach the vocabulary of the geography of Alaska through reading stories about that bush pilots . Teaching science? Physical geography is a natural!

There are many different online tools to help teach during this week, incluidng National Geographic. A number of others are listed on our Social Studies website under the ‘recognition events’ icon.

If nothing else, how about an online game to identify the states… a challenge for students and – perhaps – teachers.

Our responsibility as educators is not limited to a single field or discipline. In today’s world, understanding others is an important aspect of education and in our global economy, understanding others is an important part of economic survival. Let’s all work together to emphasize some aspect of geography during this week.