"Invaluable tools to help their students understand our city and our world, from "New York: A City of Neighborhoods" in which participants can better comprehend our immense municipality through a colorful 108-piece jigsaw puzzle."
Targeting New York State Geography Standards
(Learning Standard 3)
"Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent world in which we live - - local, national, global -- including the distribution of people, places, and environments over the Earth's surface"
Universal Appeal and Application Developed primarily as a tool for teaching 4th Grade mandated curriculum, Mapzzles® readily demonstrated universal appeal and application to facilitative teaching and self-directed learning regardless of the age, grade, subject matter, learning style, developmental ability or motivation of the learner.
Classroom, Office and Home Colorful regional map-puzzles including that of Long Island’s thirteen towns and local municipalities. Constructed of durable chipboard containing 108 pieces assembled in less than 30 minutes. Hands-on inter-generational geographic teaching tools and conversation starters. Providing an engaging alternative to passive television viewing habits. A Team-Building morale booster to improve employee performance. A Montessori style manipulative engaging active minds and bodies at all ages. Self Esteem Builders and aid to memory used in rehabilitation. Beneficial for persons in OT or classified as early Alzheimer’s. A fun activity for regional Long Island puzzlers and lifelong learners whether in the classroom, in the office, or at home.
The United States of Amnesia The lessons of history are often costly. Debbie Meier’s reference to the inclination of most Americans to forget the past is telling. According to National Geographic's May 2006 Roper Survey and Report, most young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 demonstrate limited understanding of the world and place, insufficient importance on basic geographic skills that might otherwise enhance their knowledge. They appear to be dreadfully unprepared for an increasingly global American future.
Brain Compatibility These brain compatible learning tools facilitate the teaching of geography, map reading, visual literacy, pattern recognition and emotional intelligence. In our age of high tech, Mapzzles®, are an accessible low tech means of effecting brain cell growth, positive self-image, participation equity and authentic assessment.
Declining EQ Author Daniel Goleman (Working with Emotional Intelligence) reports that the average intelligence quotient (IQ) in the U.S. has risen 24 points since 1918, while in the last quarter of the 20th century young people 6 to 16 years of age show steady decline in their emotional quotient (EQ).* Similarly during the same period observations made worldwide confirm those findings. Mapzzles ® grows spatial (non-verbal) and emotional intelligence. The emphasis placed upon cooperation and collaboration in our problem solving approach to spatial solutions enables people to enhance their ability to see the world accurately and to negotiate their way through it.
Hey Kids! We’ve Shrunk the Planet! You've heard the saying, "children should be seen and not heard"? It came from a generation when children were expected to ‘know their place’. Today, common sense demands that all children "know their location" and how to make their presence felt and their feelings known to their parents, teachers and significant others. Why? Because in the space of a single lifetime, and the advent of the Information Age, changes in technology, climate, and the pressing need for disaster preparedness training -- we've shrunk the planet!
* Emotional Intelligence has been defined as the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotion in ourselves and in our primary relationships
Photo: A cooperative effort of young visitors to the Queens Museum of Art piecing together Mapzzles "A City of Neighborhoods," at the Maporama 2000 Exposition.
Remembering Our Seniors
Theirs was the last generation of Americans to have been taught geography as a discrete subject piece of their public education. After them Geography funding disappeared. Students were suddenly left to their own devices insofar as learning about their place in the wider world was concerned. Today their devices include but are not limited to smart phones, I-pads, computers and Global Positioning Systems. You need only ask Grandma to point to your state on a U.S. line map and she’ll more than likely be able to do it. Ask one of your parents or any friend of yours to name the state directly north, south, east or west of where you live and you may be more than a little surprised by their answers. Moreover, our parents’ parents remember their love of jigsaw puzzles when they were children. News flash -- they still do. So instead of providing a puzzle of 500 or 1,000 pieces, give them one with 108 pieces they can complete in 15 minutes and see the pleasure it provides. Whether they’re living alone, with you, or in an assisted living residence, watch as they accept the challenge and gain satisfaction in knowing they can still succeed at reaching a goal. See their faces light up.
SURVEY REVEALS GEOGRAPHIC ILLITERACY
2006 National Geographic Roper
WHAT WE FOUND
Americans are far from alone in the world, but from the perspective of many
young Americans, we might as well be. Most young adults between the ages of 18
and 24 demonstrate a limited understanding
of the world, and they place
insufficient importance on the basic geographic skills that might enhance their
knowledge.
Young Americans answer about half (54 percent) of all the survey questions
correctly. But by and large, majorities of young adults fail at a range of
questions testing their basic geographic literacy.
·
Only 37% of young
Americans can find Iraq on a map—though U.S. troops have been there since 2003.
·
6 in 10 young
Americans don't speak a foreign language fluently.
·
20% of young Americans
think Sudan is in Asia. (It's the largest country in Africa.)
·
48% of young Americans
believe the majority population in India is Muslim.
(It's Hindu—by a
landslide.)
·
Half of young
Americans can't find New York on a map.
These results suggest that young people in the United States—the most recent
graduates of our educational system—are unprepared for an increasingly global future.Far too many lack even the most basic skills
for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships
among people and places that provide critical context for world events.
WHAT WE'RE DOING ABOUT IT
National Geographic and leading education, business, and nonprofit partners
have launched My Wonderful World, a campaign to increase global learning in school, at home, and
in the community. With the help of parents, teachers—and you—we can help give
our youth the power of global knowledge. Because kids who understand our world
today can succeed in it tomorrow.
About the Survey
The findings presented are the results of a face-to-face survey conducted from
December 17, 2005, to January 20, 2006, by Roper Public Affairs and Media, a
part of GfK NOP. Interviews were conducted among a nationwide representative
sample of 510 adults age 18-24 in the continental United States. Data were
weighted for sample balancing by sex and age. The margin of error for the total
sample is +/- 4.4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. The
margin of error for subgroups is higher. Because of rounding, numbers may not
total 100 percent.
This study is the latest in a series of surveys commissioned by the National
Geographic Society. The most recent prior survey was conducted among nine
nations in 2002.
National
Geographic Today
Bijal P.Trivedi
November
20, 2002
In a nation called the world's superpower,
only 17 percent of young adults in the United States could find Afghanistan on
a map, according to a new worldwide survey released today.
The young U.S. citizens received poor marks
generally in geography. But then, as results showed, their counterparts in
other countries were hardly star students.
The National Geographic–Roper 2002 Global
Geographic Literacy Survey polled more than 3,000 18- to 24-year-olds in
Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden and the
United States.
Sweden scored highest; Mexico, lowest. The
U.S. was next to last.
"The survey demonstrates the geographic
illiteracy of the United States," said Robert Pastor, professor of
International Relations at American University, in Washington, D.C. "The
results are particularly appalling in light of September 11, which traumatized
America and revealed that our destiny is connected to the rest of the
world."
About 11 percent of young citizens of the U.S.
couldn't even locate the U.S. on a map. The Pacific Ocean's location was a
mystery to 29 percent; Japan, to 58 percent; France, to 65 percent; and the
United Kingdom, to 69 percent.
Are Young U.S. Citizens Americentric?
Despite the threat of war in Iraq and the
daily reports of suicide bombers in Israel, less than 15 percent of the young
U.S. citizens could locate either country.
More young U.S. citizens in the study knew
that the island featured in last season's TV show "Survivor" is in
the South Pacific than could find Israel.
Particularly humiliating was that all
countries were better able to identify the U.S. population than many young U.S.
citizens. Within the U.S., almost one-third said that population was between
one billion and two billion; the answer is 289 million.
"It gives the
sense that there is this Americentric thing going on—that we are big and
powerful and have all these people in our country," said John Fahey,
President and CEO of the National Geographic Society.
On the other hand,
Pastor suggests that the results could mean that most young Americans just have
no idea of the total world population (about six billion).
Poor Geographic
Literacy Worldwide
Young adults worldwide
are not markedly more literate about geography than the Americans.
On average, fewer than
25 percent of young people worldwide could locate Israel on the map. Only about
20 percent could identify hotspots like Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
Of all the young
adults in the survey, only about one-third in Germany, Sweden and Japan could
name four countries that officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons. In the
rest of the countries, that number dropped to less than a quarter. In France,
24 percent did not know that that their own country was a nuclear nation.
The survey results are
not all bleak, says Roger Downs, head of the geography department at
Pennsylvania State University, in State College, and a National Geographic
geographer-in-residence in 1995-1996.
Geography Not Valued
in Schools
Since the last
Geographic-sponsored survey in 1988, said Downs, the percentage of young U.S.
citizens who reported taking a geography course in school rose from 30 to 55
percent. And students who had studied geography did better on the current
survey.
U.S. schools generally
have slighted geography. "If geography is not in the curriculum,"
Downs said, "it's not tested—and that says to the students that it is not
valued."
The schools are not
solely to blame, either. "Wouldn't it be nice if parents also read atlases
to their children?" Downs says.
Questions covering
current events or practical activities yielded more promising results.
Most young U.S.
citizens knew that Africa was most affected by the AIDS epidemic, and about
half knew that El Niño caused erratic weather.
"When geography
and life intersect, people pay attention," said Nick Boyon, senior vice
president for international research at Roper ASW, in Manhattan.
Boosting Geography
Geographic knowledge
increases through travel and language proficiency, among other factors.
In the highest-scoring
countries—Sweden, Germany and Italy—at least 70 percent of the young adults had
traveled internationally in the last three years, and the majority spoke more
than one language (in Sweden, 92 and 89 percent, respectively).
In the U.S. and
Mexico, only about 20 percent had traveled abroad during the same period, and
the majority spoke only one language.
To fight geographic
ignorance, and apathy, among young people in the U.S. and around the world, the
National Geographic Society will convene an international coalition of leaders
in American business, education and media. Next year the panel will
recommend initiatives to policymakers in those areas—and to parents and
children.
Men Outperform Women, Despite Education Parity
Roper Poll 2006
As in the 2002 National
Geographic survey, young men answer more questions correctly than young women
do, despite both groups having very similar education levels and recent
Internet access. Women place more importance on Internet and foreign language
skills, but they say they know less than average about geography (45%, vs. 36%
of men). From the total of 53 factual questions, men got an average of 30.2
answers right, versus 27.0 correct for women. Looking at specific types of
questions, there is no significant difference between women's and men's
performance on questions requiring map reading skills, and they give similar
answers, both right and wrong ones, on a majority of the factual questions.
Yet men score better on matching countries with their continent, and on finding
countries on the Asia, Middle East and world maps. For instance, 17% of men get
all four countries included in this survey on the Middle East map right,
compared to 11% of women.
U.S. POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Young Adults Don’t Fare Much Better at Home
Young Americans' knowledge of the geography of the United States is only
marginally better than their knowledge of other countries around the globe. Each
of the participants in this survey was shown a map of the continental United
States, the same map used in the 2002 and 1988 surveys, and asked to identify
seven states. On average, young Americans can accurately locate about half
(3.4) of these states. One in five (20%) get all seven right, and just 3% can't
find any of these states on the map.