1. Seek Whatif? Research Why? Discover How? Explore Where?
2. Be an Explorer ii
3. Be an Explorer iii Table of Contents Introduction. iii A
Special Place for Butterflies 1 Where Has the Flu Gone? .. 4
Healthy Foods For All .8 Introduction Geography can help you
understand your community, your city, state, country and world. By
starting to explore just a small part of your hometown, you will
begin to ask questions about the area - Why? Where? How? What if?
And by using geographic tools, like maps, you will be able to
discover the answers to those questions. The three exercises in
this booklet will start you on your way to geographic exploration.
Using the geographic tools and information described in each
exercise, you will begin to explore your community. You will learn:
what butterflies are native to your community and what plants you
will need to plant in your butterfly garden; find out why the flu
spread through your community and school and how you may be able to
help prevent the spread during next years flu season; discover how
many people have healthy foods to eat on a regular basis in your
hometown; and, you can also ask what if all people in my community
had healthy foods every day how would this change my community.
After completing all the exercises you can then create ways to
apply the same methods and questions to larger areas. Get ready to
explore and have fun with geography and maps!
4. Be an Explorer 1 Be an Explorer Fun with Geography and Maps
Exercise 1: A Special Place for Butterflies Using Geography and
maps to build your own butterfly garden By using some geography and
map skills, some gardening tools and a little bit of creativity,
you can build your own butterfly garden. A special place where you
can spend time on a nice summer day watching as the butterflies
flutter around the flowers, a joy to behold for all. But where do
you begin? The first step in building your butterfly garden is to
find out what type of butterflies occur naturally in the area or
have been living there for many years. These areas provide just the
right growing conditions where the butterflies' favorite plants can
survive. The plants are also native to the area. Scientists have
collected much information about what kind of plants each type of
butterfly likes and they have used maps to help show where
5. Be an Explorer 2 all the different types of butterflies
live. This is a type of geography known as biogeography. By using
these maps you can find out what butterflies are native to your
city and you can also use the maps to help in choosing the right
plants to grow that will help attract these butterflies to your
garden. For example, in Charlotte, North Carolina on native
butterfly in the Red-spotted Purple butterfly. This butterfly
enjoys eating the small white flowers of the privet plant. The
privet plant is also native to North Carolina. It can be easily
grown in a butterfly garden and would feed and entice the
Red-spotted Purple butterfly to visit this garden created in
Charlotte, North Carolina. Once you have discovered what types of
butterflies live in your hometown and the type of plants they like,
it's time to be creative and design your butterfly garden.
Butterfly gardens can be made in any shape and size. You need to
decide where the garden will be located and how much room there is.
Perhaps you can add some of the butterflies' favorite plants to a
flowerbed that is already established, or maybe there is a natural
area in the yard where the plants could easily be planted for the
butterflies. Both places would be great sites for your butterfly
garden. If you don't have a yard, butterfly gardens can be made in
a plant pot or a flower box. These small, unique gardens are
especially nice placed by a window. Maybe you could put it by your
bedroom window so that it is the first thing you see in the
morning. After you have decided where to put the garden and know
how much room you have for planting, the next step is to decide on
how many plants you
6. Be an Explorer 3 would like to have in the garden and start
planting. You may want to put taller plants in the back so the
smaller plants can be easily seen. You may also like to group the
plants by color or mix them for a fun, festive look. But you don't
need to worry too much about the order the plants are placed in the
garden or their color arrangement. As long as they are the
butterflies' favorites plants, the butterflies will be delighted to
visit your garden. Exercise 2: Where Has the Flu Gone?
7. Be an Explorer 4 Geography and maps can help track the
spread of diseases Achoo, cough, cough, sniff, sniff ... achoo! Oh
my aching head! Sounds like someone may have the flu. If you do,
how did you get it and where does it go when it leaves? By using
geography and maps and some detective skills, you can answer these
questions. To begin our investigation, we must first know what the
flu is. The flu, or influenza, is a virus that infects your
respiratory system. Symptoms of the flu include sudden onset of
coughing, runny nose, sneezing, fever, body aches, and tiredness.
The second step in our investigation is to determine how we catch,
or contract, the flu. We usually get the flu during the winter
months but we can also catch the flu during other seasons as well.
The flu virus is spread person to person. During the peak flu
months, January through March, there are many people carrying flu
germs. If you cough or sneeze you may be spreading flu germs
without even knowing it. While at school, playing in the
playground, at the mall, or at home, germs are easily spread from
person to person by being in close contact with one another and
sometimes even by using the same items like cell phones and IPods.
By using geography and maps we can track the spread of the flu
germs. Geographers and health professionals use sophisticated
software called geographic information systems or GIS, to help map
flu outbreaks. By monitoring the number of people that are reported
to the local public health departments diagnosed with the flu,
8. Be an Explorer 5 health geographers and other health
professionals can map the location of the patients. By mapping the
locations of all the sick people geographers are able to see where
the highest concentrations of flu patients are located. With the
help of the local health departments they are able to notify
doctors offices about the increase in the number of patients in
their communities. With this information the health departments and
medical offices can help their communities be better prepared
against the spread of the flu. Geographers can also track the
purchase of over-the-counter medications and other related items at
local pharmacies. These include items such as cold medicines,
tissues, and cough medicines. After adding this layer of
information to their GIS map, they can pinpoint areas that have a
higher number of sales of these products, indicating that the flu
may be spreading in that area. There are many websites that provide
us the ability to track the spread of the flu. If you are planning
a trip during the peak flu season, you can access these websites
and see what the potential is of contracting the flu where you are
going. By knowing this you can take precautions during your trip.
Lets take one school day for an example of how, using our knowledge
of geography and mapping, we can map the spread of flu germs within
our own communities. Think about your day from beginning to end.
How did you get to school, walk, by car, school bus or bike? Did
you stop along the way? If you did, what did you touch or pick up?
What did you do when you first arrived at school?
9. Be an Explorer 6 Now, lets map our movement for the day. On
a sheet of paper, draw a map of the route from your home to school
and add any stops along the way and any time you may have touched
someone or some item. Next, map your movement through your school.
Perhaps your first stop was at your locker. Did you touch your
locker? How about your neighbors or friends locker? Did you share a
drink or look at photos on your friends cell phone? Add that
information to your map. Map your moves through the cafeteria and
places that you sat and where you talked with your friends. Did you
share food or a drink with someone? Make a list of all your family
and friends you spent time with during the day. Check to see if
anyone on your list is now sick. What kind of contact did you have
with them? Weve completed our map of one school day activities. So
what can we do to help prevent the spread of the flu? For this
season, just by increasing the number of times you wash your hands,
you can help reduce the spread of the virus and catching it
yourself. You can also make sure to cover your mouth when you
sneeze or cough - cough or sneeze into your sleeve! If you know
someone that has the flu, its better to stay away from them until
they are well so not to catch the flu and spread it further. By
tracking our steps and movement for one day, we can see all the
potential places where flu germs are easily spread. By using this
information and your map, for the next flu season perhaps you can
help with a school campaign to educate your classmates on what
steps they can take to help prevent the spread of the flu.
10. Be an Explorer 7 Exercise 3: Healthy Foods for All
11. Be an Explorer 8 How easy is it for people in your
community to buy fresh healthy foods. Fresh fruits, vegetables,
dairy, and meat are the stables for a healthy diet, and they taste
good! But many people in the United States do not have places to
buy fresh foods. By using geography and maps we can locate the
places in our communities that sell these foods. And also, we can
see how easy it is for us to get to, or access, these healthy
providers in our neighborhoods. Through this exercise, we will
define what types of places provide fresh foods, draw a map of our
local neighborhood and locate on the map the sources in our
neighborhood where we can find these foods. In addition, we will
determine how easy it is to get to the food sources; could we walk
or ride our bikes there; is there public transportation available,
like buses, or do we need to have a car (and driver!). First, lets
draw a map of the neighborhood that we want to investigate. Lets
look at the area between your house and school. If you can draw the
map from memory, go ahead! Others may want to use map sources, like
your local city or town website to get an accurate map of the area.
Make sure to include on your map the street or road networks
because we will need these to help determine how we can access the
sources for fresh foods. So what types of places could you find
fresh fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat products in your
community? One of the first places to investigate would be
your
12. Be an Explorer 9 neighborhood grocery stores. Most grocery
stores sell fresh foods, which they keep in stock so that they are
readily available for purchase. In many cases this would also
include fruits and vegetables grown by local farmers a great source
of healthy foods! We can add our favorite neighborhood grocery
stores to our map. There may be more than one grocery store that is
convenient to your house. Add all to your map. Our next source of
fresh foods to investigate would be local farmers markets; a market
area for local farmers to sell their produce. To find a listing of
farmers markets in your community, you can contact the state
Department of Agriculture. Depending on the size of the market, you
will not only find fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables, but
fresh eggs, cheese, and home made baked goods! So now lets add the
farmers markets to our map. These are two types of places to buy
fresh foods. There are other sources as well. Many people grow
their own fruits and vegetables in their own gardens. For those who
do not have enough space for their own garden, some cities and
towns offer space for community gardens. Not only will they grow
their own fresh foods, but, by being a member of a community
garden, members may be able to swap their harvest with other
members, providing opportunities for each member to try new and
different varieties of foods. Your city or town should provide a
listing of community gardens. Additional sources for community
gardens would be local garden clubs. Now we can add the garden
areas to our map. Try to locate as many home gardens as you can
between your house and your school. It will be fun to see how many
of your
13. Be an Explorer 10 neighbors grow some of their own food.
Perhaps you could start a community food exchange in the
neighborhood. Keep in mind that some gardens could be very small.
If your community offers community garden areas, you can now add
those to your map. Now that we have located and placed on our maps,
four sources of fresh food, we need to look at how easy it is to
reach these places. Gardens in our yards are quite easy to access,
so they are very good sources for fresh fruits and vegetables. We
dont need anything but our garden shoes to reach our backyard
gardens! Grocery stores, farmers markets, and community gardens may
be a little more difficult to reach. Your neighborhood may only
have one grocery store and it may not be a good source for fresh
foods. Also, there may not be any farmers markets or community
gardens within the area, but the neighboring community may offer
better sources. But to reach them you may need to have a car or
public transportation. By visiting the local town/city websites,
you can add to your map bus and/or train routes for the area. By
adding these routes to your map, you will be able to see if there
are public transportation lines that you can use to access grocery
stores, farmers markets or community gardens. Can you think of
other information that would be helpful to your map? How about bike
paths and sidewalks? Bike paths and sidewalks in our neighborhoods
make it much easier and safer for us to get our healthy foods. Try
adding these to your map. Sidewalks may be found on the local
town/city website. For bike paths, you can look at the state or
county parks and recreation website.
14. Be an Explorer 11 Determine what is the best source of
healthy foods in your neighborhood. Is it the closest or would
having some public transportation or car allow better access to
healthy food sources? After you complete your map, perhaps you can
share your information with a friend and help them locate healthy
food sources in their neighborhoods and compare your results. Bon
appetit!