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

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.

 

Galapagos Landscape
Galapagos Landscape
The landscapes of the Galapagos are varied and reflect the age of each volcanic island. The archipelago is composed of 13 major islands and numerous islets and rocks. They extend over 200 miles in an east-west direction.
Daphne Islands
Daphne Islands
Two of the smaller Galapagos islands, viewed from Santa Cruz island. On the right is Daphne Minor, where Peter and Rosemary Grant documented natural selection occurring among ground finches in the 1960s.
Mangrove-lined shore
Mangrove-lined shore
Mangroves line the shores of many islands. These habitats are for marine life and serves as rookeries for seabirds such as Magnificent Frigatebirds.
Mangrove roots
Mangrove roots
Closer view of dense root aerial root system of mangroves.
Sea cliffs
Sea cliffs
Sea cliffs are nesting and resting areas for hosts of seabirds such as boobies. Upwelling water brings nutrients to surface water that support abundant marine life.
Island group
Island group
While some of the younger islands are mountainous, erosion has leveled older ones.
Prickly pear trees.
Prickly pear trees.
Some islands host prickly pear cactus that evolved into arboreal form.
Another Galapagos landscape.
Another Galapagos landscape.
A Darwin\'s Finch
A Darwin's Finch
Thirteen species of Darwin's Finch are endemic to the islands, one to three species occurring on each. They are the signature case of evolution through adaptive radiation from a single ancestral species among most scientists and the general public, although great examples occur elsewhere (e.g. the Honeycreepers of Hawaii and the anole lizards of the West Indies).
Giant tortoise
Giant tortoise
The first name applied to the islands by Europeans honored these animals. On his 1570 world map Ortelius referred to them as "Insulae de los Galopegos." Later a pirate, befuddled by the complex ocean currents encircling the islands called them the "Islas Encantadas" (the enchanted islands). Ecuador officially named them Archipiélago de Colón in 1892 in honor of the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America; but most people still known them as the Galapagos. Darwin had noticed that tortoises on different islands had different shaped carapaces.
Blue-footed Booby
Blue-footed Booby
Blue-footed Boobies delight tourists with their courtship dances.
A pair of Waved or Galapagos Albatrosses
A pair of Waved or Galapagos Albatrosses
These large seabirds nest on the Galapagos, the only tropical species of albatross.They reportedly feed int eh rich waters of the Humboldt Current 600 miles away off the coast of Peru.
Land Iguana
Land Iguana
This species is related to the iguana found in parks in Guayaquil.
Marine iguanas
Marine iguanas
These lizards live on land but feed on seaweed (algae) attached to rocks offshore. It can swim in the sea to depths of 30 ft to forage.
Galapagos Mockingbird
Galapagos Mockingbird
There are four species of Mockingbird living on and restricted to the various islands of the Galapagos.
Life at the edge of the sea
Life at the edge of the sea
Sally Lightfoot Crabs forage on land while Galapagos sea lions play in the shallow waters along the coast.. The Galapagos sea lions breed onshore and are yet another species found only on these islands.
Galapagos animals show no fear of humans
Galapagos animals show no fear of humans
The tameness of Galapagos animals is a trait common to animals of oceanic islands not disturbed by people.
Sign identifying Galapagos National Park
Sign identifying Galapagos National Park
The Galapagos Islands comprise one of Ecuador's National Parks and part of the Galapagos Marine Reserve. They are also a UNESCO World Heritage Site , recognized as of global significance becuase of their unique biota and influence on the development of the theory of evolution by natural selection and therefore on biogeography, evolutionary biology, ecology, and much of Western thought.

 

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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.