Photo and Map Collections for World Geography
(Note: When you search for a photo in the search engine at the top of the page, the options appear at the bottom of this page. Suggestion: try search for ”qanat.”)
We are building a collection of annotated photos and Esri “story maps.” In 2016, we are again soliciting annotated slide shows and story maps, especially those that can be related to specific SOLs. Authors will receive a small stipend upon acceptance of their work. See guidelines below.
World Regional Maps
Excellent sets of maps by Georgeanne Hribar have been developed using ArcGIS. Maps for World Geography, Human Geography Geoinquiries, and World History can be accessed at http://vga.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html
The following maps were prepared for classroom use by Dr. Andrew Foy, Department of Geoscience, Radford University. Below is are first drafts of color maps of several world regions. They all appear as pdfs. Regional composition is in agreement with Virginia World Geography 2008 SOLs.
Australia and the Pacific Islands
Caribbean Islands
East Asia
Mexico and Central America
South America
South Asia
Southeast Asia
Note: Other world regional maps can found on the World History I pages.
Story maps
These are best viewed in the most recent version of your browser. To eliminate caption from the image, click the down arrow. to save photo for use in PowerPoints, right click and select “save image as.” A full resolution jpeg will download.
Currently available:
Taiwan by Don Zeigler, Old Dominion University.
South Africa by Penny Anderson, Spotsylvania County Schools.
Coming:
Germany, by Barbara Crain, Northern Virginia Community College.
Slide Collections
Slide collections for world regional geography now exist for Belarus, East Sea/Sea of Japan name controversy, Ecuador, Israel, Morocco, Moscow and Saint Petersburg (Russia), and Peru. Each appears as a separate “album,” available in the box below. You may view them as a slideshow or as a set of thumbnails, which can be enlarged by clicking on the photo. When descriptions are present, they can be seen in the slideshow version.
A separate collection, Aerial Views of Earth, contains photos from several parts of the world, including Virginia.
rainforest.JPG
The Amazon rainforest along the Rio Napo is characterized by widely spaced tall trees emerging above a two-layered closed canopy shorter trees. Little sunlight reaches the forest floor.
River travel
Travel in this roadless area is by boat. Trips down river originate in the town of Coca, reached by flights out of Quito.
Settlement on river bank
Small settlements occur along both banks of the Rio Napo. Several Indigenous groups occupy Ecuador's Amazon region; many still practice subsistence agriculture and shamanistic traditions.
House on stilts
Dwelling of subsistence farming family in typical torrential downpour.
Slash-and-burn agriculture
A patch in the forest cleared by felling timber and burning downed trees to provide temporary fertility. Such practices have occurred and reoccurred throughout the Amazon basin. Scientists now view the rainforest as resilient in face of such human impact. It has been ale to support human populations at low densities for millennia
Squirrel monkeys
Squirrel monkeys play in a banana tree planted near the edge of the rainforest.
Buttress roots
The largest, emergent trees are supported by woody flanges known as buttresses.
Open forest floor
Most trees are small and the forest is floor is surprising clear of entangling vegetation. In most areas it is rather easily penetrated by humans.
Jungle
True jungle with its wall of green vines and dense vegetation is restricted to habitats such as river banks where sunlight can reach all levels of the rainforest.
Hoatizin
The Amazon rainforest in general is one of the most species-rich ecosystems in the world and many of Ecuador's highly diverse plants and animals are found here. The hoatzin is an endemic species. When it hatches, the baby bird has claws on its rudimentary wings. The bird will leap into the river if threatened and uses its claws to climb back into the nest.
Agouti
The agouti is a large rodent that forages on the forest floor for fallen fruits. Most animals in the rainforest, including monkeys, birds, iguanas, and even some frogs, live high in the trees.
Oil exploration in the Amazon
A river barge carries equipment for oil and natural gas exploration in the Napo area. The negative environmental impacts of this industry are a major concern among environmentalists. Palm oil production is also a threat to the integrity of rainforest ecosystems and health and livelihood of native people.
Yuturi Lodge
Guest lodges for ecotourists occurare scaattered along the river in attempts to combine economic development and rainforest conservation. Yuturi Lodge, shown here, is five hours down river from Coca in the Yuturi Biological Preserve and is owned by Indigenous people.
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Future Slide Collections: Guidelines
We are looking for annotated photos to become part of online collections of slides useful to teachers of world geography. Photos dealing with Virginia or relevant to AP Human Geography are also welcome.
If you wish to submit photos, at a minimum please identify the location of the set of photos and write a caption for each photo. Accompanying information on geographic significance is always welcome. It may prove helpful in the future if you also categorize your photos as to physical geography, cultural geography, economic geography, political geography, and so forth, and provide keywords. Keep in mind the teacher/user and think about the type of information you would want if you were to use someone else’s photos. Slideshows will likely be organized according to world region and, if possible, SOL.
Remember that accompanying maps can also be useful!
Maximum size of the largest dimension (length or width depending upon orientation) is 1024 pixels. We can make necessary adjustments if you do not have the means to do so yourself. Photos should be of sufficient resolution to be used on the web (72 dpi) and/or in PowerPoints. Recommended PowerPoint size is 768 x 512 pixels. The site cannot not accommodate files greater than 12 mb.
Plan to send individual jpegs of photos, numbered in sequence. Captions keyed to the photos should be placed in a WORD document so that they may be copied and pasted into a photo album. It would be most helpful if the photo caption also indicates the relevant SOL. (See the South Africa slideshow above as an example of best practices.)
Please send questions or submissions to Penny Anderson at panderso@hs.scs.k12.va.us.
