Archives: project 01

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The Geography of Horror

ESRI has put out this great “Geography of Horror” map, just in time for Halloween. It’s a map of where the top rated horror movies (about 250 of them) take place. You can explore the the locations via decades of movie releases.

This kind of thing brings up questions I wish I had time to explore. How do horror movies influence the perception of location? What geographic characteristics contribute well to horror? It would also be interesting to try and find remakes that have been done of movies and compare how the locations play a role in each story. For example, compare The Ring (2001) which takes place in Seattle, with the original Ring (1998) set in Japan.

The Geography of Horror.

 

 

 

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Geography Question Generator

I’m tired of people thinking of geography as memorizing locations and capitals. Geography is so much more. There are unlimited amazing questions that geographers take on to help us better understand how the earth affects us.

In an attempt to help people imagine these big questions, I created the Geography Question Generator. It randomly creates questions that a geographer could explore. Right now it can generate about a couple hundred questions, a few might make a little less sense (no artificial intelligence in this tool). I’ll keep adding elements to it to create more questions. They mostly stick to broad topics in geography.

My hope is that people will take a little bit of time to consider the exciting questions that geography can help us explore.

Check out the tool here.

This tool goes great with the first lesson in Zombie-Based Learning, but can be used at any point to show that geography is a pretty deep field.

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Beautiful Hand-Made Globes

Peter Bellerby – The Globemaker from Cabnine on Vimeo.

This excellent video shows a bit of behind the scenes of the craftsmanship put into these globes. Peter Bellerby, founder of Bellerby & Co., reflects on the long process of figuring out how to best make a globe.

These globes don’t come cheap though. The craftsmanship and detail has a price. A “mini” desktop globe starts at £999.00. Not quite something you’d put in the classroom, but the art of constructing a globe would hopefully inspire many.

via Wired

 

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Britain Mapped in Minecraft

Ordnance Survey took their actual topographical data  as well as image data, but instead of  putting them  into a GIS program, they scaled it down and put it into Minecraft. They used different block materials to display different features (for example, the gold blocks are minor roads).

Minecraft players can even download the map and explore it. However, it’s a massive file.

I think this is exciting. I love the idea of combining real-world data and games. Could this be a way to get students interested  in GIS? Essentially, Minecraft has been turned  into a very basic GIS program.

Follow the link to find out more about how they did it. Use the article as an engaging reading extension for students interested in Minecraft and/or GIS..

via Minecrafting with OS OpenData | Innovate | Ordnance Survey.

Here is also a nice video from Ordnance Survey that explains GIS: