Clifford H. Marshall Elementary School, Quincy- June 10th

42° 15' 10" N
71° 0' 03" W
Learn more about Lat/Long (including how to look them up by address)
Also, compare today's coordinates to those of other recent Earth View outings, near and far!




The EarthView team had its first geography lesson on the way to the Marshall School. As with many people, we relied on Google and a GPS for directions. This took us to the mailing address for the school, which is at the Quincy School Department. We were fortunate that the mail was about to be taken to the school by a staff member who allowed us to follow him. So we have a second map and set of coordinates to share for this visit.

42° 14' 37" N
70° 58' 51" W
The coordinates allow us to compare the two locations -- which is further north? which is further west? -- as does a map of the correct addresses. What lesson did the EarthView team learn about electronic maps?


The EarthView team is excited to be visiting Clifford H. Marshall Elementary School in Quincy for the first time in many years today! Once we arrived, we realized we had actually been to this amazing school during the first year of our EarthView program -- before we had a blog -- so we did not notice it when we checked our records.

While we normally visit schools on Fridays, we are happy to be traveling to two different schools on Wednesday and Friday this week!

We are thrilled to be visiting a city that is full of rich history. In fact, we recently included some Quincy attractions on our GeoDates page for our own university students looking for interesting places to visit.

The city of Quincy was first settled in 1625 as a part of Dorchester before combining with the neighboring town of Braintree. The city split from Braintree in 1792 when it became the town of Quincy and eventually the city we now know today in 1888.

Quincy is the birthplace of two United States Presidents,  the second president John Adams and the sixth president John Quincy Adams. John Hancock, the first signer of the Declaration of Independence was also born here. 

  

John Adams

John Quincy Adams

John Hancock

                      

The United State's first commercial railroad,the Granite Railway, started here and the Fore River Ship Yard sustained the economy of the city by shipbuilding.

In more recent history, the restaurant and hotel chain Howard Johnson (1925) as well as Dunkin Donuts (1950) were founded in Quincy.
                      

We hope that the students of Clifford H. Marshall Elementary school enjoy their visit with EarthView today and we hope to be back soon! 

Really Local Geography
EarthView team member Kevin Bean is a BSU geography student who grew up and still lives very close to the Marshall School, and shared some of the fascinating geography of the neighborhood with the rest of the team and the teachers and students we met today. Wherever we are -- there is a geographic story!

The very first word spoken on a telephone was “Watson,” the name of Alexander Graham Bell’s assistant. In a phone call from Boston, they tested an invention that would change the world and that would make them very wealthy individuals.

Mr. Bell used some of his money to start the National Geographic Society, which is where several members of the EarthView team have had the opportunity to visit his office. A little-known fact is that every president of National Geographic has been a relative of Alexander Graham Bell.

Mr. Watson, meanwhile, invested his fortune in the neighborhood where the Clifford Marshall School is found. Specifically, he built the Fore River Shipyard, which employed thousands of workers from all over the world, building ships that sailed all of the world’s seas until the ship-building industry left in the 1980s. These workers include Kevin's own grandfather, who came to this very neighborhood from Russia to work in the shipyard.

A landmark in the neighborhood is the building by its address at 1000 Southern Artery. Many of the Marshall students we met were aware that this building provides housing for elderly residents, but few realize that was the first building constructed specifically to meet the needs of elderly people in the world. It includes stores, a theater, and many other facilities that make the community as self-contained as possible. Today, however, the center is actually very well-connected to the community, including the Marshall School. Volunteers from the center visit the school as “foster grandparents,” and students from the school perform holiday concerts at the center.

Trinidad Connection

The students at the Marshall School come from around the corner and around the world. Rarely have we encountered a school with so many countries represented by the students who attend or their family members. As geographers, we believe strongly in taking the opportunity to learn about the world from people who have been to places we have not been, or who can offer us local insights about places that we have been. 

So we ask students where they or their parents may have come from, and today several dozen countries were mentioned. One of those was Trinidad -- which is actually part of Trinidad and Tobago. We told the student who mentioned Trinidad that we have a colleague who has recently made a film about a woman who organized her community in order to restore the water of her part of Trinidad.Not only is the film Earth, Water, Woman continuing to help people understand water resources -- Bridgewater students and staff are in Trinidad right now, contributing to the conservation work described in the film. Akilah Jaramogi -- the "star" of the film -- will be visiting the Bridgewater State University campus in the fall for public discussions of her work.