Window on Cybergeography.(www.geographyinthenews.com)(www.geographynews.org)(www.internetgeographer.co.uk)

Geography in the News

www.geographyinthenews.com

Geography in the News offers many features of interest to the geography community. In order to access the bulk of the sites features, the purchase of a subscription is necessary. For a school, the membership cost is $99 for twelve months. Individual subscription is $35 per year; school district subscription is also available, the rate will be negotiable based on the number of schools in that district.

The main attraction in Geography in the News is its weekly article based on the most interesting or influential event that happened anywhere in the world that week. The timeliness of using a world event to illustrate, to students and teachers alike, the importance of geography and geographical understanding of other cultures as well as physical environments is the strength of Geography in the News. A new article is posted on the site every Friday while the previous week's is archived.

The following are features of the site: Geolinks, Archives, Lesson Plans, and Reference Atlas. The main feature of this site is the Archives section which contains news articles that were published on the site previously. The articles were written by Dr. Neal G. Lineback, Professor of Geography at Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina. There are currently over 200 articles in the Archive (article #400 was the earliest one I could find on the site); however, Dr Lineback has written over 600. There is an email address listed if you are interested in any of the earlier articles. The topics of these articles range from Futuristic Mega-Mall Concept: Mall of America (Feb. 16, 2001) to The Wildest Winter Weather (Dec.11, 1997). A pedagogic article, #600, Learning World Geography by Crisis, summarizes the importance of geography as a discipline not only in our education system but our society. The search tool for the article archive is simple to use and allows you to search by date, article number, titl e, subject or location.

The GeoLinks section offers links dealing with Geography, History, and Government, News, and General Education. Each section also offers a handful of links. The Reference Atlas is an excellent addition to this site. The World Atlas allows the user to get a feel for different countries of the world in a very simple manor. It also allows users to zoom to the country level and see major cities (labeled), rivers (unlabeled) and the neighboring countries. When viewing the United States Atlas, you are able to zoom to the state level. At the state level, the site illustrates cities (labeled), rivers (unlabeled) and major bodies of water (unlabeled, except for the Great Lakes and oceans).

The Lesson Plans section, an excellent resource for teachers, is also exceptional. The lesson plans are broken down into 6-8 and 9-12 grade levels. Currently, each section has three lesson plans. The lesson plans include all of the information a teacher may need to successfully carry out the lesson in the classroom. Where applicable, descriptions of needed materials, extended learning suggestions, and any pre-formatted student handouts are included. Most importantly, these lessons, along with the maps, are downloadable in PDF format.