America, with all its diversity, is not easily defined. David J. Smith's
If America Were a Village takes a snapshot - past, present and
future - to help define America for children. Using the same successful
metaphor of the international bestseller If the World Were a
Village, the book shrinks down America to a village of 100. The
metaphor helps children easily understand American ethnic origins,
religions, family profiles, occupations, wealth, belongings and more.
Shelagh Armstrong's expansive illustrations imagine America as a
classic, vibrant small town. Who are the people living in this vast and
varied nation? Where did they come from? What are they like today? How
do they compare with people in other countries? The book's simple
statistical analysis provides a new way of learning about where people
live in America, the state of their health, the shapes and sizes of
families, what they use and more - forming a concise picture of a
country. If America Were a Village is part of CitizenKid:
a collection of books that inform children about the world and inspire
them to be better global citizens.
Regarding replacement map sets for Mapping the
World By Heart
Many people have asked about replacement map sets. Please point
your browser to the website of the new publisher of the curriculum, Fablevision and at the
bottom of the page you will see an option to order a replacement set of maps.
If The World Were A Village DVD
The animation of If The World Were A
Village is available as a DVD or as a VHS tape, in English or in
French, at reasonable prices.
Discover the innovative and award-winning "Mapping The World By Heart"
geography curriculum, including
US, Mexico,
and Canada
Supplements.
Gain a new perspective on our world population through the
beautifully illustrated book "If The World
Were A Village" and its companion global activities.
Learn about the
author's consulting services, including workshops,
school programs and author visits, in-service training for teachers,
curriculum audits, website evaluation, and credit-bearing summer
institutes. David Smith travels the globe sharing his enthusiastic and
innovative approach to teaching and learning about our world
community.
Visit our dedicated Amazon
Store for all your geography, teaching, and other needs.
A page of links to information for travelers is
available here.
MAPPING.com WEEKLY HOTLINKS
August 29 to 5 September, 2010
Light
Pollution Maps Maps of the 48 contiguous states and the very most southern
parts of Canada, showing the brightness created by artificial light at night. The data
is from 1996-7, with some new data added from the Fall of 2001. Taken into account is
the extra reflectivity added when there is snow on the ground. These are all based on
The
Night Sky in the World from the Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia in Padua.
August 22 to 29, 2010
Google Maps Mania There are so many remarkable things that can be done with Google
Maps that it's really challenging to stay up-to-date with all the options and tools and
services. Google Maps Mania is one of the better websites that track Google Maps news,
mashups that are being developed, and the new tools and options being released. Worth
bookmarking.
August 15 to 22, 2010
The Most Dangerous Roads in the World From the Dark Roasted Blend blog, this amazing series about the
world's most dangerous roads. There are 7 sections of this series; looking at these
routes and the vehicles on them will take your breath away -- tiny mountain roads, on
the edge of a precipice, badly-maintained, and with large transport trucks trying to
pass each other.
August 8 to 15, 2010
Global Temperature Anomalies, May 2010 From NASA's Earth Observatory. The Goddard Institute for Space
Studies assembled temperatures for May, 2010, and created this map comparing
temperatures in May this year against average temperatures for the same month from 1951
to 1980. You can quickly see areas that are well above normal (particularly the
Arctic), areas that are well below normal (western North America and central South
America as well as the Pacific side of Antarctica). A really helpful page of text
explains the map, and links to a couple of references.
August 1 to 8, 2010
Find a Human To Talk To Not geography exactly, but so useful... Have you ever called
"Customer Service", found a robo-voice telling you how valuable your call is, and ended
up saying to yourself, "not another voice prompt; how do I get to a real live human
being?" Turn here. This is really useful website that gives phone numbers and
shortcuts to real human beings for a growing list of nearly 2000 companies.
July 25 to August 1, 2010
US Senate Races -- Solid Seats and Seats in Play From the NY Times, a fascinating interactive map attempting to
quantify the Senate seats that are up for grabs, and to predict possible outcomes. This
map shows 35 seats that are solidly Republican and will continue to be so, 48 that are
solidly Democratic and will continue that way, and 17 that are "in play", leaning one
way or another or just tossups. Another map, showing the same kind of data but for this
year's House races, is available here.
July 18 to 25, 2010
Airline Schedule Changes And Available Seats From USA Today, an interactive map that will confirm for you
your suspiciaon that airlines serving US cities do not offer the same capacity from
Point A to Point B as there used to be. Airlines can change flying capacity two ways.
One is to change the number of daily flights on a route or at an airport, and the other
way is to change the size of planes. Both affect the number of seats. USA TODAY chose to
examine changes in the number of seats because that method takes into account both kinds
of capacity changes.
July 11 to 18, 2010
Early
Urban Rail Transit Maps From the University of Chicago's Map Collection, this page
presents links to some late 19th-century and early 20th-century maps of Urban Rail
Transit systems. Read the introductory paragraphs to understand some of the content
issues and biases of these maps. Great browsing, especially for any city you happen to
know.
Susan Lapides
Photography Spectacularly beautiful photography from an
experienced and sensitive professional. As she explains, Susan is a New
England based photographer who has covered the region for numerous
publications, including Time, Yankee, People, Fortune, Forbes, US News,
Conde Nast Traveler, and Trust for Public Land, among many others. Her
photographs treat the people, places, events, and daily graces with
dignity, honor, and respect."
Wandering Educators Their main page says it all: "A Global Community
of Educators, Sharing Travel Experiences". Good photos and stories,
links to all kinds of travel services, a huge potential for people
working with like-minded people around ideas and issues related to
travel.
Lufthansa Virtual Pilot Game Land the jet in the specified city in Europe.
The first round is fun; the other two require
speed, good mousing skills, and excellent geographic knowledge.
Sheppard Software Geography GamesA vast array of free geography games; games
on
the whole world, on specific regions, on individual countries. Extensive,
well-developed, and fascinating.
Search mapping.com or the web, or search AbeBooks:
