30 on 40: Study changes in physical and cultural geography along 40 North Latitude
How can story maps be used to learn about physical and cultural geography? This story map with 30 visits along 40 degrees north latitude can serve as an illustration for (1) the kinds of questions you could pose in your instruction while engaging students in spatial thinking with web GIS maps, and (2) the types of things you can do when you and your students create maps and apps (including story maps) in the ArcGIS platform.
To be able to pinpoint exact locations on the Earth, and on the oceans, our world has been "overlaid" with reference lines of latitude and longitude. From 0 degrees latitude to 90 degrees north (North Pole) to 90 degrees south (South Pole), the latitude lines run east-west. Longitude lines run north-south, from 0 degrees longitude running through the North Pole through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich England, to France, Spain, and running out to the Atlantic at Ghana in West Africa, all the way to the South Pole. The lines of west longitude run north-south west of the Prime Meridian to 180 West, in the Pacific Ocean, and the lines of east longitude run north-south east of the Prime Meridian to the same line, 180 East, in the Pacific Ocean. The lines are further subdivided into units of minutes and seconds to provide precise locations on the Earth. I explain this in more detail, including the International Meridian Conference, in my book Interpreting Our World.
This story map is a tour of 30 points along one of these lines--40 degrees north latitude, of 4/9th of the way from the Equator to the North Pole. Over a span of over 20 years, I visited each of these points along 40 Degrees North Latitude across the USA and into Europe and it can be used in a lesson in instructional settings. Each of these points along 40 degrees north is also located on an exact full-degree of longitude, such as 40 North Latitude, 100 Degrees West Longitude, in other words, where those lines intersect on the surface.
This map and these photographs serve 3 purposes: (1) To serve as an effective teaching tool to foster learning about physical and cultural geography. (2) To encourage you to think about how you can use ArcGIS Online and story maps for your own investigations, and to communicate the results of those investigations to others. (3) To encourage you to get out into the field, observe, gather data, and think about the landscape. Be a map and photo detective! Careful observations will help you answer these questions.
To use the map to teach physical and cultural geography, for each point, consider the following 20 questions. Then, think of your own questions to ask!
- Who were the original Native inhabitants of this area? What lifestyles did they have, and what was their range?
- What induced people to settle in this area, past and present?
- What is the present day density of population here?
- Using the map, how far is this point from the nearest town?
- What landforms are dominant?
- What is the dominant ecoregion and biome? You may need to do some outside research to discover the answer. For example, you could use the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World biomes and ecoregions maps for this purpose.
- Name 2 characteristics of the vegetation in this area. How abundant is it? How healthy would you say the plants are here?
- What can you observe about the dominant climate here?
- In what season of the year was this photo taken?
- At what time of day was this photo taken?
- Describe the weather here on the day this photo was taken.
- Can you find any evidence of water in this image? If so, what form does that water take?
- How much variation can you find in the physical characteristics in the foreground vs the background of this image?
- What are the natural hazards that pose the most threat to this area?
- Can you find any evidence of human impact on the landscape? If so, what is it?
- Would you say humans have influenced this landscape a small, moderate, or great amount, or not influenced it at all?
- What is the dominant land use in this area?
- How much natural and human-influenced change does this area experience? Compare the change in this area to your own community.
- How different did this area look 100 years ago? How different will it look 100 years from now?
- What plan would you put in place in this area to protect its natural beauty and to ensure health for its inhabitants?
This story map that you are reading also shows the rapid evolution the Web GIS platform--specifically, ArcGIS and story maps. About a decade ago, I created this story map on this same topic, here. You can see how much more immersive and experiential this story map is compared to the one I made in 2012. Also notable is the fact that I created the 2022 story map in a fraction of the time that the 2012 map required. This is triple good news: As the ArcGIS platform evolves, the tools become more powerful, more engaging, and require less time to learn about and create.
I visited these locations in conjunction with the Degree Confluence Project. I encourage you to get onto the landscape in conjunction with something you are interested in, collect data, and observe!
A portion of the story map showing some of the points along 40 North Latitude. Another point is far to the east, in Spain.
One of the points along 40 North Latitude, in Utah, where the physical and cultural geography are investigated.