Teaching Physical Geography with Toys, Household Items, and Food

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to Doug Sundin for providing the photographs of the experiments included in this article. We would like to thank our students Charles Block, Chelsy Herring, Zach Newton, Victoria Peil, Rachael Pociask, and Tara Schuessler for their help with this project. We are also grateful to Helen D. Hazen and Mark C. Jones for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article.

NOTES

Notes

¹ For a similar food color activity to demonstrate convection see Palmer (2000).

² The other hands-on experiments described above were not used in this semester's lab class, and were therefore not included in the survey.

³ When using food for teaching that the students might consume (such as cookies and cupcakes), make sure that you do not include nuts or other ingredients that students may have allergic reactions to or inform students about such ingredients.

⁴ For some ideas for using food in geography classes for children see Gandy (2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laura Carnahan

Laura Carnahan has a Master's degree in Atmospheric Science from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. She teaches Weather and Climate classes at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.

Mary Jo Pankratz

Mary Jo Pankratz has a Master's degree in Geology from Washington State University. She teaches Physical Geography and Geology at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.

Heike Alberts

Heike C. Alberts has a PhD in Geography from the University of Minnesota. She teaches Human Geography at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh.