Teaching, Learning, and Exploring the Geography of North America with Virtual Globes and Geovisual Narratives

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of two case study sections of geography of North America.

	Spring 2021	Summer 2021
Term Length	16 weeks	4 weeks
Course Format	Fully Online, Asynchronous	Fully Online, Asynchronous
Number of Students (Course Enrollment Limit)	35 (35)	31 (35)
Number of Geography (BA) or Geospatial Sciences (BS) Majors Enrolled in the Class	18 (51 percent)	10 (32 percent)
Other Majors Represented Among Class Enrollment	Anthropology, Criminal Justice, Electrical Engineering, History Education, International Affairs, Journalism and Emerging Media, Middle Grades Education, Political Science, Psychology, Public Relations	History, History Education, Integrated Health Science, Integrative Studies, Journalism and Emerging Media, Middle Grades Education, Political Science, Psychology
Components of Google Earth Project	Storyboard Planning (25 points) Storyboard Discussion (25 points) Project Draft (50 points) Final Project (100 points) Project Presentation (50 points) Project Discussion (50 points)	Topic Planning Discussion (no grade) Final Project (100 points) Project Discussion (50 points)

Figure 1. Fourteen North America Sub-Region Virtual Field Trips in Google Earth with the point locations of each stop included in each virtual tour, which include a mix of both physical geography and human geography examples in each sub-region. The fourteen sub-regions are based on the delineation from the textbook used in this course: Hardwick, Susan Wiley, Fred M. Shelley, and Donald G. Holtgrieve. 2013. The Geography of North America: Environment, Culture, Economy. Boston: Pearson. Map data: Google, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO Landsat / Copernicus, IBCAO, U.S. Geological Survey, INEGI.

Figure 2. Physical geography examples from the Inland South virtual field trip in Google Earth. Clockwise from top right: 3D view of Brasstown Bald (4,784 ft.), highest point in Georgia; Google street view from summit of Brasstown Bald; Google street view from summit of Mt. Mitchell; 3D view of Mt. Mitchell (6,684 ft.), highest point in North Carolina and highest point in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River. Map data: Google, Landsat / Copernicus, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO.

Figure 3. Urban geography examples of Atlanta, Georgia, from the Inland South sub-region virtual field trip in Google Earth. Clockwise from top right: Google street view of Peachtree Street in downtown central business district of Atlanta, Georgia; Google street view of intersection of Tenth Street NE and Piedmont Avenue NE in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia; 3D view of Atlanta skyline as seen from the southeast looking northwest toward Kennesaw Mountain; 2D view of Atlanta metro area. Map data: Google, Landsat / Copernicus, Data SIO, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO.

Table 2. Geography of North America project topics completed by students.

Spring 2021	Summer 2021
Geography of Idaho	Physical, Human, and Economic Geography of Maine
The Desert Tortoise	Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Appalachian Trail	Historical, Functional, and Economic Significance of the French Long Lot Land Surveying System
Plate Tectonics and North America	Geography of Kansas
Is Kansas Flatter Than a Pancake? Physical Geography of Kansas	Homelessness in Washington, DC
The Pacific Northwest	Geography of Arizona
The 1994 Earthquake in Northridge, California	Geography of Quebec
Wild Horses of North Carolina	Geography of the Coastal South
The Landscape of True North (Manitoba)	Geography of Georgia
Physical and Human Geography of Texas	Nuclear Power in the South
The Nez Perce and the Rocky Mountain Region	Geography of the Tidewater Region
Migration of Iguanas into the United States	Geography of British Columbia
The Urbanization of Georgia	New York: More Than Just a City
Physical Geography of National Parks in California	Spring Break, Texas Style: South Padre Island
Physical Geography of Colorado	The Great Lakes: Heartbeat of North America’s Heartland
Florida’s Human Geography	Geography of Greater Appalachia
The Great Missoula Flood	Environmental and Economic Geography of California
Historical Geography of Country Music	Physical Geography of Utah
Major Campaigns of the Civil War: Significance of Geography and Landforms	Geography of Shark Attacks along the East Coast of the United States
Physical Geography of Yukon Territory	Impacts of Climate Change in Alaska
Impacts of Climate Change in the Far North	Historical and Economic Geography of Butte, Montana
Geography of New England	The Geography of the Grey Wolf Population
The Hills Are Alive – in Helen, Georgia	Physical and Human Geography of Prince Edward Island
Cultural Geography of Country Music’s Impact in the Inland South	Physical and Human Geography of Washington State
Megalopolis and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed	Geography of Megalopolis
The Issues and Potential Impacts of Legalizing Gambling in Hawai’i	Florida’s Shifting Geography and Geology
Physical and Human Geography of Prince Edward Island	Cultural and Environmental Geography of California
Geography of Georgia	The Great Plains and Tornado Alley
The Great Lakes

Note: Some topics were associated with more than one student final project, but are only listed once for the purposes of this table as examples of various topics of focus. Students were presented with a lengthy list of sample topics to select from, or could also develop their own topic. Some of the topics derive from case studies presented throughout the Geography of North America textbook used in this course: Hardwick, Susan Wiley, Fred M. Shelley, and Donald G. Holtgrieve. 2013. The Geography of North America: Environment, Culture, Economy. Boston: Pearson.

Table 3. Characteristics of survey participants in two case study geography of North America course sections.

	Spring 2021	Summer 2021
Online Survey Response Rate (N = 13, 20 percent of 66 possible)	10 (29 percent of course section)	3 (10 percent of course section)
Participant Major	Geography: 6 History Education: 2 Psychology: 1 Unidentified: 1	Geography: 3
Participant Minor	Anthropology: 1 Applied Statistics and Data Analytics: 1 Environmental Sciences: 1 GIS Certificate: 3	GIS Certificate: 1 History 1
Participant Previous Involvement in Geography Course(s) Prior to This Course	No: 5 Yes: 5	No: 0 Yes: 3
Participant Age	18–24: 4 25–34: 2 35–44: 1 55–64: 1 65–74: 2	18–24: 1 25–34: 1 35–44: 1
Participant Gender	Female: 5 Male: 3 Unidentified: 2	Male: 3
Participant Race/Ethnicity	Black: 1 Hispanic: 1 White: 6 Unidentified: 2	White: 3

Table 4. Results from survey Likert scale items.

	Extremely familiar	Very familiar	Moderately familiar	Slightly familiar	Not familiar at all
Prior to this course on the Geography of North America, how would you describe the level of your personal knowledge about the geography of North America?	15.4	15.4	61.5	7.7	0.0
Prior to this course on the Geography of North America, how would you describe the level of your personal knowledge about using Google Earth?	7.7	7.7	46.2	7.7	30.8
	Extremely Impactful	Very Impactful	Moderately Impactful	Slightly Impactful	Not Impactful at All
Now, after completed this course, how would you describe the impact of using Google Earth on your understanding of the Geography of North America?	30.8	46.2	23.1	0.0	0.0
	A Great Deal	A Lot	A Moderate Amount	A Little	None at All
Considering your use of Google Earth in this course on the Geography of North America, rate how it increased your general understanding of the geography of North America?	38.5	38.5	23.1	0.0	0.0
To what extent did your use of Google Earth change your understanding about the geography of North America?	15.4	30.8	53.8	0.0	0.0
	Extremely Likely	Somewhat Likely	Neither Likely nor Unlikely	Somewhat Unlikely	Extremely Unlikely
As a result of this course and using Google Earth, how likely are you to engage with or participate in additional geography and geospatial science related opportunities?	61.5	15.4	23.1	0.0	0.0

Table 5. Example of Google Earth Project Grading Rubric.

	Exemplary	Midpoint	Unsatisfactory
Geography Content and Engagement with Course Topics	50 points Project has a strong spatial focus, with specific links to one or more of the five themes of geography and with specific engagement to specific course themes and topics.	25 points Project has somewhat of a geographic focus, could be stronger, and engagement with particular course topics and themes could be stronger.	0 points Project lacks spatial content and does not engage with particular course themes and topics.
Diversity of View Types (2D, 3D, Street View)	15 points Project has a mixture of different types of views with different levels of detail and zoom levels (as appropriate) for different stops throughout the tour about your project topic (2D views, 3D views, street views).	7.5 points Project mostly has one type of view for each stop along the tour with an occasional different type of view.	0 points Project consists entirely of just one type of view for each stop along the tour (i.e., if only 2D views from directly above are used throughout the project).
Length of Project	15 points Project has 10 or more different “stops” along the google earth project tour about your particular topic of focus (the number of “stops” along the tour is in addition to any section break slides, introduction, conclusion, and references slides).	7.5 points Paper has 3 to 9 “stops” along the tour (the number of “stops” along the tour is in addition to any section break slides, introduction, conclusion, and references slides).	0 points Paper has less than 2 “stops” along the tour (the number of “stops” along the tour is in addition to any section break slides, introduction, conclusion, and references slides).
Introduction, Conclusion, and Section Breaks (Full Screen Slides)	5 points 3–5 Section Break Full Screen Slides, including a detailed Introduction slide and a detailed Conclusion slide.	2.5 points 1 to 2 section breaks, or no introduction slide or no conclusion slide.	0 points No section break full screen slides.
Proof-reading	5 points 0–9 spelling and/or grammar mistakes.	2.5 points 10–19 spelling and/or grammar mistakes.	0 points 20+ spelling and/or grammar mistakes.
References	10 points 10+ sources, alphabetized, follows consistent citation format.	5 points 2–9 sources, needs formatting attention, bibliography not alphabetized, poorly formatted.	0 points Less than 2 references.
TOTAL	100 points	50 points	0 points