Posts and Responses

Class Field Trip!

Unusual Hotels: Three Camel Lodge

Yurts are becoming trendy accommodations in national parks and upscale-camping facilities in the U.S., but at Three Camel Lodge in the heart of Mongolia's Gobi Desert, you can experience the yurt’s ancestor in its natural habitat. Three Camel Lodge houses its guests in traditional Mongolian gers €” felt-and-canvas tents developed by the region’s nomadic herders. While you’re there, be sure to take a camel ride and try the camel’s-milk lotion.So if anybody wants to plan this with me for the summer I think it would pretty fun (:http://www.threecamels.com/

Global Livestock Production and Health Atlas

I found this to be a great example of how GIS information can be used to create a multi-layered, really informative project. This would be a great resource for anyone interested in further researching the specific political, social, and economic statistics of the Middle East. As quoted directly from their website,  “GLiPHA is a highly interactive electronic atlas that provides a scaleable overview of spatial and temporal variation in quantitative information related to animal production and health.”http://kids.fao.org/glipha/index.html

Spatial Literacy

This week I was watching a student locate cities on a google map and realized (hopefully) that this exercise is both creating and reinforcing awareness of locations in the Middle East in ways I hadn’t necessarily considered.  He was using Baghdad as a reference and then searching for cities known to be either north of or west of Baghdad.  In the process, he is becoming familiar not only with the particular location of Baghdad, but also the relative location of other cities to Baghdad.  Have you found Google Maps to be a useful tool for helping to learn place name geography, location, distribution etc.?  Please elaborate.