Rebecca Sydow

Dr. Collins
GEOG 710: Seminar in Geography Education
28 July 2016

Critical Essay #3-4: Geographic Skills

Economic geography, though often a difficult topic for students, has the potential to really
engage them in their local community. Because one of the main issues in teaching economics in
general is boredom and lack of applicability to the students lives, it makes sense to tackle both of
those problems head on with project-based learning. The idea is to conceptualize the geography
of the service and technology sectors as well as venture capital by involving students in a mock
bid for a major tech company to come to their city. Divided up into groups and given a city in
South Carolina (or around the country), the students will research the geographic and economic
particularities of their city and use that knowledge to convince the tech company, played the
teacher and potentially a panel of community business leaders, to invest in their city.

1. Asking Geographic Questions

When students are given their city, as a group they must ask questions like: Where is it located?
What is the significance of the location? What are the consequences of its location and
associations? What about this place makes it desirable for a business investment? To effectively
argue their case, the students will need to know their city inside and out in order to highlight the
positives and address the negatives effectively. Certain factors like creativity, access to
education, research, quality of life, cost of living, climate, public transportation, and access to
health care attract service and tech companies, so students must ask whether the place their
assigned covers these many requirements.

2. Acquiring Geographic Information

This skill will be covered by the process of research. To craft their argument, students must
describe the geographic characteristics of their assigned city and analyze whether they are pros
or cons for their argument. They must collect this information by looking at maps as well as
thematic data for their city, including the routes of public transport, the location of desirable
neighborhoods, the locations of already existing businesses, the area where new construction will
be feasible, the incidence of creative businesses and opportunities that would help the cities
cool factor, the location of research centers like universities, and the prevalence of medical
services, to name just a few. During their research, they must evaluate the reliability of the data
they are accessing and question whether the source is reputable enough to be used in such an
important presentation for the investment panel. To emphasize this last point, students should be
asked to actively source their information and should be required to document where they found
their data.

3. Organizing Geographic Information

For their presentation to be effective, students will need to skillfully select and design
appropriate ways of presenting their research and argument about their city. They will need to
construct a layered WebGIS map that maps the many variables of their city they plan to share as
well as different charts and graphs to readably display their arguments. They will need to
evaluate and decide on the most effective way to share their data with the panel and, as part of a
reflection on their project, should explain why they chose the method they did so it can be
ascertained how comfortable they are with the strengths of different forms of geographic
representations.

4. Analyzing Geographic Information

This skill will be covered both in research and in their argumentative presentation. When
learning about their city, they should analyze what they find for patterns and trends that would
support a new tech company (for example, increasing access to public transportation, burgeoning
creativity, or a growing educated population/labor force). To do so, they must be comfortable
with geographic data in all forms (graphs, tables, maps, etc.) and be able to explain their findings
using geographic models and theories. They should also be able to utilize basic statistics in order
to thoroughly understand their data. To craft the most effective argument, the students will need
to be able to present claims that are backed up with factual, well-reasoned data. They cannot
argue for their city if they do not understand its complexities, strengths, and weaknesses.

5. Answering Geographic Questions

Finally, in their presentation, the students will answer their initial geographic questions by
presenting conclusions about their city and arguing for the business to invest in their area. They
must construct a report, using various geographic data, and explain how and why the data
supports their argument. The acts of constructing the presentation and arguing their case enables
them to answer their own questions and the questions of the investment panel. They will need
charts, maps, images, and an oral presentation to get their point across. Students also must
explain how they did their research, as their reasoning and the validity of their process will factor
in to how strong their argument is. For example, a group may advertise that they have various
factors that would support the business, but if there is no valid data and explanation behind their
conclusions, their argument will not be effective.

Overall, this project aims to enable students to ask geographic questions and research
productively for the answer. In the beginning, they ask, What about this place makes it desirable
for a business investment? Through research and analysis of things like transportation maps,
demographic information, and climate data, they are able to answer that question and present a
reasoned argument. This project would be great in a geography classroom, but it could become
broader if team-taught with others, including economics and statistics faculty. Ultimately, I
would hope that through this process, students would gain interest in a topic often seen as boring,
as the project way of interacting with the information as well as the local relevance might make
it more exciting. I would also hope that they gain a geographic understanding of business that
could help them when they move beyond the classroom. Finally, if community business
members (or university faculty) would be willing to sit on the panel, students could gain
invaluable exposure to future business and academic opportunities. Overall, the project could
effectively teach concepts like the geography of services and technology investment to students
by actively involving them in the five geographic skills.