Collins Elementary, Salem -- September 28

42° 30' 52" N
70° 54' 22" W
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EarthView is pleased to be returning to Collins Elementary in Salem, which hosted us nearly a year ago, and which was covered by the Salem News.

EarthView deflates slightly as students enter at Collins Elementary
on September 28, 2012.

The blog post for that visit discusses several aspects of Salem's history and its long-standing importance in maritime trade. It also mentions the Peabody-Essex Museum, a local treasure of global importance. Several new exhibitions each year combine with nearly 2 million objects in the permanent collection to make PEM an ideal place to learn about history, science, art, architecture, and geography.

A painting of a whale boat from the Maritime Art Department at PEM.
EarthView coordinator Dr. Hayes-Bohanan has recently joined a
 rowing club in New Bedford where members
still use this kind of boat (but without hunting).

We encourage Collins students to take advantage of PEM and the many other opportunities to learn about geography -- of the region, the country, and the world -- from the point of view of their home town.

We also want to point out a couple of interesting physical geography stories that were in the news this week from the opposite side of the earth -- fairly close to Salem's antipode. Both stories were mentioned on  BBC radio this Thursday.

The first story is about an earthquake that took place in the Indian Ocean in April, and which scientists have been studying carefully. The BBC summarizes three articles related to this 8.7-magnitude quake from the journal Nature. This event was near a tectonic plate boundary, but it was the largest quake ever recorded that was not directly on a boundary, but rather on a transform fault within a plate. It did not generate a tsunami because movement along transform faults is horizontal, and does not displace significant amounts of water. What is most interesting about this and other recent deep-sea quakes is that it might indicate the eventual breakup of the Indo-Australian plate, which currently carries both the Indian and Australian landmasses.

The BBC also reported on a story related to biogeography. The entire works of Charles Darwin's lesser-known colleague Alfred Russell Wallace have recently been put online. He is credited with reaching the same conclusions as Darwin, based on his experience in Indonesia. In reporting on the story, the BBC mention the related discovery known as the Wallace Line. As described by geographer Dr. Susan Woodward, It is the only place on earth where the dramatically different animal communities are divided by a line that does not correspond to a major topographic barrier, such as a mountain range or ocean.

Brookfield Elementary -- September 21

42° 12' 53" N
72° 05' 52" W
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Just in time (almost) for the autumnal equinox, the EarthView team is making its first visit to Brookfield Elementary School. This will be the last day until March 2013, on which the minutes of daylight will exceed the minutes of darkness in the northern hemisphere.

EarthView has not been to the school before, but it is in the district where our famous Globe Lady taught French and then geography at the middle-school level.

As the earth revolves around the sun, it experiences two equinoxes -- one in March and the other in September -- when every place on earth experiences 12 hours of daylight and 12 of darkness. This happens twice because the sun appears to cross the equator twice as its overhead position passes from its northernmost extent (23.5 degrees north) to its southernmost and back, over the course of each year.

As explained on the very informative Time and Date web site, the equinox can occur on September 22, 23, or 24. This year it is on the 22nd, more precisely it is on the 22nd at 2:49 p.m. UTC, which is 10:49 a.m. in Brookfield. UTC means Coordinated Universal Time (ask the Globe Lady about how this acronym makes perfect sense in French), and is otherwise known as Greenwich Mean Time, for the Royal Naval Observatory near London. Greenwich and London are five hours ahead of Boston and Brookfield, but do not observe Daylight Savings Time.

Some might ask how the equinox can occur at such a precise, single time if it is something that happens all over the world. The answer is that it is defined according to the time that the sun is directly over the equator. More precisely, the equator is at a right angle to the rays of the sun, but to observers on earth, it is the sun that seems to be crossing.

For those who really want to know the details -- or who just want to savor the last bit of summer's sunlight --  National Geographic writer John Roach explains why the 12-hour nights are still a few days away.

National Anniversaries Today

On September 21, 1984, British Honduras declared independence from the United Kingdom, ultimately being renamed Belize. EarthView team member Dr. Hayes-Bohanan (who unfortunately is not part of this year's Brookfield visit) will be making his first trip to Belize in June 2013 to teach about the geography of chocolate. His classes will be in the town of San Ignacio at 17° 10' N, 89° 05' W. How many degrees (and in what direction) away is San Ignacio from Brookfield? You can use a globe, map, or one of the utilities on our lat/long page to calculate the distance. In fact, it would be fun to calculate it several ways, and try to figure out which is most accurate. Then you can calculate how far it will take him to get from the center of San Ignacio to the nearest point in Guatemala, a country he previously visited in 2008.

September 21 is also an important date in two much larger countries, Germany and China. Following World War II, Germany was temporarily divided by four other countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. On this date in 1949, the parts controlled by the first three of these were joined together to form West Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland), which remained a country until it was reunited with East Germany in 1990. On the same day in 1949, China's communist rulers declared the People's Republic of China.

Storm Anniversary

This date is also the anniversary of one of the most significant storms to strike New England, the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. It took place before hurricanes were named, although it is sometimes called the Long Island Express. More importantly, it occurred before forecasting -- and communicating about -- ocean storms was very sophisticated. The storm's arrival in New England was predicted by one forecaster, but his boss disagreed with the prediction, so the storm arrived with absolutely no warning, carrying winds of over 120 mph, gusting as high as 186 mph. Today, the National Hurricane Center is much better able to predict the arrival, usually reducing the damage.

And Finally, a Book

Just one year before that storm, J.R.R. Tolkien published The Hobbit, introducing an entire imagined world. It may be the only work of fiction with its own atlas.

Fixing a Virtual Road

On another blog, I recently wrote about why geographic literacy is still important, even when we have computers to provide a lot of answers to our geographic questions. My article is entitled The Road (?) to Belmopan, and it explains how both Mapquest and Google are making the town of San Ignacio in Belize seem more remote than it actually is.

I thought my colleague in San Ignacio would find this interesting, and she did, but she also found it alarming. People depend so much on electronic maps and directions that an error like this might cause people not to visit her town. For that reason, I have already let Google know about the problem, and I hope it is fixed soon.

The more we know about geography and maps, the better able we are to make appropriate use of electronic and paper maps in order to make better decisions.

Ahern Middle School, Foxboro -- September 14

42° 4' 27" N
71° 14' 18" W
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As the EarthView Team begins its fifth year of geography outreach, it is great to be starting at the Ahern School, which was featured on 10,000 copies of the first official EarthView postcard.

This card has helped us to let many people throughout Massachusetts -- and beyond -- know about EarthView and about the importance of geography education. It includes a link to this blog, which has dozens of articles to help people learn about the geography of their own communities, the geography behind the news, and ways to apply geography to important problems in the world.

We recommend bookmarking the blog at http://BSU-EarthView.blogspot.com in order to check for updates or just to click on the geography computer games.

This year we introduce three new EarthView Wranglers -- the Bridgewater State University students who help us set up the program for thousands of students each year. New to the team are Macee, Brendan, and Amanda, who join BSU geography professors Dr. Hayes-Bohanan and Dr. Domingo and of course the famous Globe Lady, geography teacher Rosalie Sokol of Sturbridge, by way of National Geographic!

When putting the title on this post, the question of how to spell the name of the town comes to mind. Is it Foxboro or Foxborough? As with some other towns in Massachusetts, both variations are widely used, with the shorter version more popular, even if it is not considered official.

In the wider world, the old German word for "fort" has spawned even more variations. If all of them were used here, Ahern could be in the town of ...

Foxburg (Germany)
Foxbury (England)
Foxburgh (Scotland)
Foxborgo (Italy)
Foxburgo (Spain and Portugal)
Foxbourg (France)
Foxburcht (Netherlands)

In reality, the "fox" portion of the name might be a bit different, though the town is not named for the animal itself, but for Charles James Fox (1749-1806), a member of the English Parliament who supported the American Colonies.

And speaking of forts, our visit comes on the 198th anniversary of the writing of a famous poem about a fort -- Ft. McHenry in Baltimore. On 1814, during the War of 1812, Francis Scott Key had spent the night on a ship in the outer part of Baltimore Harbor, watching a battle at Ft. McHenry. The poem entitled "Defence of Fort McHenry" is now better known as "The Star-Spangled Banner."


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The harbor has long been essential to the economic development of Baltimore and the entire mid-Atlantic region, but it also presents a significant barrier to traffic along the I-95 corridor. Over the past half century, three alternatives have been constructed for crossing the harbor, and two are relevant to today's anniversary. The Ft. McHenry Tunnel is the newest alternative, and the largest tunnel of its kind in the world. The Francis Scott Key Bridge crosses the outer harbor, and Baltimore lore has it passes over the site where Key was anchored that memorable night.

High Above San Cristobal

12º 42' 18" N
87º 00' 18" W
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(c) 2012 Nicaragua News -- Click to enlarge

Fortunately, it appears that nobody was harmed in Saturday's eruption of the San Cristobal volcano in Nicaragua, though close to 3,000 people in neighboring rural areas of Chinandega were evacuated.

Moisture in the eruption's rapidly rising air condensed to form a cloud at the top of the plume, resembling lenticular clouds that can form under certain circumstances over mountain peaks that are not erupting.

As explained in the Line of Fire article on my Environmental Geography blog, San Cristobal is part of a line of fourteen active volcanoes that are found parallel to the Pacific coast in Nicaragua.Use the map below to find some of the others, and notice where they are relative to the narrow continental shelf.


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You can also use the coordinates at the top of this article to compare the location of San Cristobal to your own location. Finally, you can use my "Nicaragua Volcanoes" quiz to learn where each of Nicaragua's volcanoes is found in the lineup!

The latest information about active volcanoes in the United States and its territories can be found at volcanoes.usgs.gov. What state has the longest line of volcanoes?

EarthView Preview Videos

Littleton

The EarthView team enjoyed a visit to Littleton Middle School in March, where we found the students exceptionally well versed in geography, especially political geography. Because of the innovative teaching of geography at their school, many of the students showed a strong understanding of complex international disputes.

Following the visit, we were pleased to see both print and video reports of the visit in local media. We really appreciate meeting reporters on our school visits, because one of the goals of Project EarthView is to get as many people as possible thinking about the importance of geography education.

During our visit, some of the faculty and staff of the school were recording a video of their own, and the result is a fun, short film that captures the EarthView experience very effectively. We encourage anybody considering an EarthView visit to have a look at this clip and to have a look at the program requirements on our web site. Visits are typically scheduled a few months ahead of time.


Video credit: Special-Ed Teacher and Instructional Videographer John Ogden (john.d.ogden@gmail.com)

North Andover

Earlier in the school year, we had spent a couple of days at North Andover Middle School, where EarthView is a regular part of an award-winning Family Geography Night, and we again have the privilege of working with students who really know their geography.

In addition to some wonderful photographs by EarthView team member Ashley Costa, this visit was featured in a five-minute documentary prepared by NAMS geography teacher Robert Poirier and North Andover High School student Alexander Gamble. This film describes how EarthView can fit into a broader educational experience, and why geography is a critical element of effective education in today's changing world.

Many

Middleborough

In the spring, EarthView returned to Middleborough, where Wrangler and BSU geography student Macee was able to visit her own elementary school, and where students from the nearby high school made this video about our visit. Macee is featured, as are several of the students who had been inside the earth!



EarthView at H.B.B. from MET on Vimeo.
Produced by Scott Gravel and Tyler Geary. Middleborough Educational Television, 2012

Thanks to Miss Pfannenbecker at Littleton, Mister Poirier at North Andover, Scott Gravel at Middleborough, and their colleagues and students for these wonderful video introductions to EarthView!

Why Six Flags?

Because I love roller coasters, I am looking forward to visiting Six Flags New England in Agawam (near Springfield) with my daughter tomorrow. A little bit of geographic knowledge was involved in deciding when to go; our original plan had been to visit the park on Wednesday, but we knew that a strong cold front would make weather conditions much more favorable the following day. Weather maps are among the very most useful ideas geographers have had!

The name of the park always makes me think of a different aspect of geography: the political geography of Texas. The company name and logo do not provide a hint of this connection, but the original Six Flags was called Six Flags Over Texas, and the flags were not generic party flags, but rather the sovereign flags that have flown over the land now known as Texas.

Each of the flags shown below has been the national flag of Texas -- or a significant part of Texas -- during the years indicated. In some cases -- particularly the United States flag -- more than one version of the flag might have been used over time, but these flags do represent the numerous changes in Texas sovereignty. The chronology of these changes on Lone Star Junction,.for example, includes a later version of the Spanish flag than the one below, from a chronology on Toledo Bend. Both sources show an early Confederate Stars and Bars flag that is not as well known as the later Confederate Battle Flag.

More detailed information is available from the Vexillological Association of the State of Texas. Its acronym -- VAST -- is appropriate in a state that prides itself on its great size (more than thirty times larger than Massachusetts).

Oddly enough, the entrance to Six Flags New England features a six-sided tower displaying seven identical U.S. flags -- one on each corner and one in the middle!

Typical Human

National Geographic reports on the most typical person in the world. Before watching the video, consider a few questions:

How old do you think this person would be? Where would he or she be from? Would the person be a he or a she?

Then watch the video for some interesting ideas about the changing geography of humans, and the geographic differences in the choices humans must make and are able to make on a daily basis.

A Kiss to Remember

Photo: Cate Eighmey

When Caleb and Candra Pence married on May 19, a few uninvited guests were raising a ruckus near their outdoor wedding. Actually, the tornadoes that touched down during the ceremony were about 8-10 miles away, neither the barrel-racer (Candra), the bull-rider, nor their guests were concerned enough to interrupt the ceremony. The Associated Press reports many of the details of the unusual wedding and the Christian Science Monitor provides a video that shows the surreal calm of the wedding guests.

This story -- surprising as it is to those outside Tornado Alley -- is an example of how accustomed people can become to the physical and human geography of their home regions. The groom's mother, for example, explained that she was not worried, not only because of the evident distance of the tornadoes, but also because they were "moving to the northeast." Her reaction reflects something else about the geography of much of the United States outside of the original thirteen colonies: because most roads follow the township and range system, people usually know what direction they are looking. In Kansas, with very low relief (flat land) and very few trees, a person can easily visualize an area of a hundred square miles or more.

Of course, tornadoes are by far the most dangerous kinds of storms, and those shown in these wedding photos did do a lot of property damage. But in this location (about 180 miles to the east of the home of Dorothy and Toto), they are also a part of the landscape that is only noticed when it is a direct threat.

Rumney Marsh Academy, Revere -- June 1

42º 24' 47" N
71º 00' 12" W
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The EarthView team is delighted to be returning to Rumney Marsh Academy in Revere. We very much enjoyed our visit in May 2011, and the opportunity to learn about the local geography. Our blog post for that visit describes some of the interesting history of Revere and the unique physical geography of the nearby marsh for which the school is named.

This year's visit will be the last EarthView program of the school year, ending a very busy and enjoyable year, and bringing the total number of EarthView participants since the program began to about 35,000.

Click to Enlarge
View original and commentary at EarthSky

Our visit is on June 1, the anniversary of some events near and far with very interesting geographic implications. By far the event with the most direct importance is also the most recent. One year ago -- on June 1, 2011 -- Massachusetts had the very rare experience of a significant and very damaging tornado. It tracked on the ground for an unusually long period of time, eventually destroying trees and buildings along a 34-mile corridor just south of the Massachusetts Turnpike. Four deaths were attributed to the tornado, with the most severe damage to property in the town of Monson, which the EarthView team had the honor of visiting just two weeks later. We witnessed a community that was focused on gratitude for the people and things that were not lost, and on helping each other recover from the severe losses that did take place.

Photo: Massachusetts State Police

Other geographic or geography-related events that took place on this date are:

1638	1st earthquake recorded in U.S., at Plymouth, Mass

1657	1st Quakers arrived in New Amsterdam (New York)

1792	Kentucky admitted as 15th U.S. state

1796	Tennessee admitted as 16th U.S. state

1796	Last of Britain's troops withdrew from U.S.

1808	1st U.S. land-grant university founded at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

1843	It snowed in Buffalo and Rochester New York and Cleveland Ohio
1843	Sojourner Truth left New York to begin her career as antislavery activist

1845	Homing pigeon completed 11,000 km trip (Namibia-London) in 55 days (find these places on the globe!)

1855	U.S. adventurer Wm Walker conquered Nicaragua, reestablished slavery

1880	1st pay telephone installed

1921	Race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma, between 50 and 300 people killed

1940	Coffee and tea rationed in Holland

1991	Warsaw Pact officially dissolved
1991	Mount Pinatubo (Philippines) erupts for 1st time in 600 years, and one of the most significant eruptions of the 20th Century; temperatures reduced worldwide for several years

EarthView Day and Night

41° 59' 20" N ; 70° 57' 58" W
and
42° 24' 07" N ; 72° 06' 47" W
Learn more about Lat/Long (including how to look them up by address)
Also, compare Thursday's coordinates to those of other recent EarthView outings, near and far!

The EarthView Team had no program on Friday this week, because EarthView did double duty on Thursday, playing a small part in two terrific events in different parts of the state. First was on our own campus, in the atrium of the John Joseph Moakley Center at Bridgewater State University. We welcomed students and educators from throughout our region to the STEM Expo, highlighting education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Our program emphasized the ways in which geography connects to natural and environmental sciences and geospatial technologies. For example, we used yarn to create a simple model of GPS systems.


The evening was spent at Quabbin Middle School in Barre (use the lat/long figures above to figure out how far EarthView moved to the north and west to get to this new location), where for the fourth time it was part of the schools traditional seventh-grade overnight program. Led each year by geography teacher extraordinaire Erin Stevens, this night combines geography, culture, food, music, and fair amount of silliness for a memorable evening of fun and learning.

Each of the seventh-grade homeroom classes selected a country to represent in the "Olympics" portion of the evening, which starts after the EarthView program. We could not resists posing the South Africa group in front of their country of choice.

May 24 was a great day to be doing geography outreach, as the final round of the National Geography Bee took place in Washington DC. Ten finalists who had emerged from 4,000,000 participants over the course of this school year showed their geography skills and passion. Be sure to see the NGS video, What You Can Do with Geography.

Early in the Bee, a special guest asked a question about the location of a recent international meeting, but not before taking the opportunity to remind the audience of the importance of geography education.

Earthquake Cheese Losses

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The agricultural area shown above is an area of north-central Italy that usually does not experience earthquakes. On May 20, however, it experienced a 6.0 quake, with several modest aftershocks following.

Compared to other quakes that have been in the news in recent years, this was relatively small and casualties, though tragic, were few. Seven people died in the quake -- four while working in ceramic or food factories, many of which were damaged and three from fright-related medical problems.

More than $250,000,000 was lost in agricultural products, a lot of it in a surprising way. The area is known for its cheeses. You can use Google maps above to find the distance from the epicenter to the city of Parma, known for a famous cheese that may be in short supply for the next while. Because fine cheese are aged in large wheels, the earthquake in a few seconds damaged up to two years worth of production.

Tens of thousands of wheels -- each weighing more than 80 pounds and worth over $500 -- were damaged. Some might be salvaged, but exposure to air means that mold will ruin most of the cheese before it can be repackaged.

Photo: ABC News / AP

To view recent earthquakes visit the Real-time Earthquake page operated by USGS. It can be set to update automatically. In fact, while I was writing this article, a magnitude 4.5 earthquake struck Greece, and the map was updated with many details.

Rings of Fire

Photo: National Geographic

EarthView participants often hear about the Ring of Fire, referring to the 25,000-mile-long corridor of volcanic and tectonic activity surrounding the Pacific Ocean. This week, both the terrestrial Ring and a celestial Ring have been in the news. The aptly named Fuego volcano erupted near Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, and a rare annular eclipse was visible from eastern Asia through the western United States.

Photo: redOrbit

For maps showing the path of every eclipse from 1901 to 2100, see the NASA Eclipse page. For current information about volcanoes within the United States and its territories, see the USGS Volcanoes page.

Living in the Ring of Fire

Kawaakibb is the screen name of a blogger living in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. On October 26, 2010, two major disasters struck her country at the same time, as the volcano Mt. Merapi erupted and an earthquake led to a tsunami striking the Mentawai archipelago. This led her to write Living in the Ring of Fire, which combines some basic geology with her personal experience of growing up near the intersection of three tectonic plates (or four -- the Philippine Plate is often considered part of the Pacific Plate). A more detailed description and useful maps can be found in Professor Robert Hall's article Indonesia, Geology.

BC Tent Saves the World

All better now!

During our recent visit to the State House, the EarthView team noticed a bit of a problem. Only two things can really go wrong with EarthView -- the fan and the zipper. We always travel with a spare fan, but a zipper is a not easily replaced! Fortunately, one of our geography students has learned watch repair in her family's shop, and working with small gears is close enough to working with zippers that she was able to keep EarthView working. The next day, we managed to open and close EarthView a few more times during a short program at the Howe-Manning School in Middleton.

As soon as we became aware of the problem, though, we knew that the real solution was to call BC Tent in Avon. Shortly after acquiring EarthView, we had taken it there for a bit of upkeep and patching, and for a zipper. Most of our 35,000 visitors have passed through EarthView's Prime Meridian since then, so it was time for a replacement. This is not an ordinary bit of sewing, nor does anybody keep this kind of zipper on hand. But BC Tent got to work right away, making sure we would have the zipper in place without losing any program time. We were also glad we could count on our team behind the scenes at BSU -- Kathie Manning, Dr. Diana Jennings, and Fred Clark -- to make sure this worked out seamlessly.

Even BC Tent's huge workshop is not big enough for a traditional EarthView photo op. CEO Bob Costa and general manager Rhona Dias did proudly pose with EarthView when it was all patched up and ready to start touring again. Not pictured is the real hero of the moment -- BC Tent's technician and fabric magician Edson, who also made that bag that -- amazingly -- holds a 20-foot globe. Their team's advice to our team: periodic zipper maintenance with beeswax!

Horace Mann Middle School, Franklin -- May 11

42° 05' 28" N
71° 24' 22" W 
Learn more about Lat/Long (including how to look them up by address)
Also, compare today's coordinates to those of other recent EarthView outings, near and far!


The EarthView Team is making its first visit to the Horace Mann School in Franklin. 
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Both Horace Mann and the BSU home base of are both located along Boston's "outer ring road" of I-495. Because Boston is so close to the Atlantic Ocean, this outer ring is not actually a loop, but rather connects Cape Cod and Cape Ann with all of the other places that are a similar distance from the city.

The middle school and the university have something else in common in the person for which the middle school is named. Bridgwater State University was co-founded by Horace Mann, though under a different name, in 1840. He was an early leader in public education, and helped to create Bridgewater as a normal school, which is a school specifically for the training of teachers. A beautiful auditorium named in his honor is still one of the best rooms on the BSU campus for public lectures and concerts, and its recent renovation preserved the paintings of the Muses that adorn its walls. We hope that Horace Mann Middle School students have an opportunity to visit Horace Mann Auditorium on the BSU campus some day. Photographs do not really convey just what a beautiful tribute it is to the importance of the arts in Horace Mann's vision of education.

"The teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron."

The EarthView visit follows the Horace Mann Middle School's first-ever Family Geography Night, during which parents and siblings have the opportunity to learn geography alongside their students. This follows successful Family Geography Nights in Braintree and North Andover.

Our visit takes place on May 11, which is the anniversary of several events with a geographic connection.


On May 11, 2011, In Nepal, Sherpa Apa Sherpa achieves a new record by climbing Mount Everest for the 21st time
On May 11, 2010, The Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatened sensitive marshes and wildlife along the Gulf Coast; Admiral Thad Allan was appointed to lead the Federal response to the spill
On May 11, 1989, Kenya announced worldwide ban on ivory to preserve its elephant herds
On May 11, 1984, a solar transit of the earth could have been seen from Mars
On May 11, 1967, the 100,000,000th U.S. phone was connected
On May 11, 1916, Einstein's Theory of General Relativity presented
On May 11, 1910, Montana's Glacier National Park was formed
On May 11, 1858, Minnesota admitted as 32nd U.S. state
On May 11, 1421, Jews are expelled from Styria Austria
On May 11, 1330, Constantinople (Istanbul) becomes new capital by Roman Emperor Constantine for Eastern Roman Empire
On May 11, 330, Constantinople (Byzantium) becomes capital of Roman Empire

EarthView on Channel 22

Geography lost amid emphasis on other subjects: wwlp.com

Many thanks to reporter Christine Lee, State House Correspondent for Channel 22 in Springfield, for her excellent report on geography education and the recent EarthView visit to the State House. Be sure to read her report, entitled Geography Lost Amid Emphasis on Other Subjects. Thanks to the teachers and the middle-school students from Barre who are featured in the report.

Good Moon Rising

The moon exerts a gravitational pull on the waters of the earth, whether it be in plants or in the oceans. This can affect the flavor of fruits -- even coffee! -- and can certainly influence floods in low-lying coastal areas. Because we do not understand all of the possible effects of tides, people sometimes worry about the effects the moon --especially a full moon -- might have. A special full moon, such as the "super moon" expected on Saturday night, May 5, can lead to more intense concerns.

The images below compare the apparent size of the moon at perigree and apogee. Of course, the moon does not actually change size or brightness; it just looks that way to observers at the earth's surface.

As explained by National Geographic, a super moon occurs when the moon achieves its full phase at the same time it has its closest approach (perigree) to the earth in a given year. This will occur Saturday night, and in fact the two events (full moon and close approach) will occur within minutes of each other near midnight. Just as it reaches the full phase, the moon will be only 356,955 kilometers away, compared to its average distance of 384,400. The result is that the moon will appear to be 16 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than average.

Because the moon appears largest when it is near the horizon, the best time for photographers to take advantage of the "super moon" will be just after sunset, as the moon is rising. If you go out to observe the moon at this hour, notice that the sun will have just set exactly opposite of where you see the moon rise!

And finally: do not worry! The impacts of this coincidence will be limited to tides and possibly fruits!

Back to the People's House

42° 21' 30" N
71° 03' 50" W
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Today EarthView will be at in Nurses Hall at the Massachusetts State House. This is our fourth visit to the People's House. It is a chance for legislators, their staff members, and the general public to see the world from a unique vantage point -- inside the earth.

These visits have been planned by the Massachusetts Geographic Alliance with the help of Sen. Steven Brewer of Barre, Rep. James Murphy and Weymouth, and their staff members. Sen. Brewer and Rep. Todd Smola of Palmer -- the only geographer in the legislature -- have introduced a bill that would create a commission to study geography education in the Commonwealth.

Representative D'Amelia from Bridgewater was among the many legislators who had a chance to go inside the earth! Read more about the visit on the BSU Geography blog.

A visitor from Kenya was very pleased with EarthView and with the gift of a smaller inflatable globe.

Following our visit inside the State House, three geography majors from Bridgewater State University (home base for EarthView) use a classroom globe outside the State House to show where we were!

Global navigators Lara Joyce,  Kimberly Frisoli, and Natalie Regan.  

Howe-Manning School, Middleton -- May 4

42° 35' 47" N
71° 00' 51" W 
Learn more about Lat/Long (including how to look them up by address)
Also, compare today's coordinates to those of other recent EarthView outings, near and far! 

CLICK TO ENLARGE

EarthView returns to the North Shore with a visit to the Howe-Manning School in Middleton. Located on the Ipswich River, Middleton was part of Salem prior to 1728. It is one of three towns in Massachusetts whose name begins with "middle" -- in this case because it is mid-way between Salem and Andover, which were the most prominent towns in the region at the time Middleton was founded.

The EarthView team is delighted to be bringing our giant globe to a town that has a globe right on its town seal! Thanks to a helpful librarian at the Flint Public Library for this version of the seal, and for letting us know that it was officially adopted on May 21, 1971. The script reads "Knowledge is Power," which of course it is!


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Middleton is now mostly a residential community, but in previous generations was known for its iron manufacturing. Middleton is also home to the oldest tree in Massachusetts. The Howe-Manning School is in a new building located in a commercial area in the center of the town and very close to the Flint Public Library.


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The EarthView visit takes place on May 4, the birthday of EarthView team member Dr. Hayes-Bohanan and the anniversary of a number of important events:

In 1853, Sarah Remond refused to sit in a segregated section of a Boston theater
In 1493, Spanish Pope Alexander VI divided the Americas between Spain and Portugal, even though very little had been mapped by Europeans at the time
In 1494, Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica
In 1626, Native Americans sold Manhattan for $24 in cloth and buttons
In 1886, Haymarket Riot in Chicago
In 1961, Freedom Riders bus tour begins in the South
In 1963, the Spellman Museum of Maps and Postal History was dedicated in Weston, Massachusetts. It remains one of only two comprehensive postal museums in the United States, and is a great place for people of all ages to learn geography!
In 1970, four college students killed in Vietnam War protests in Kent State, Ohio

It also is (or would be) the birthday of Hosni Mubarak and Maynard Furgeson (both in 1928), Audrey Hepburn (1929), William Bennett (1938), and George Will (1941). Students and teachers can use Mass Moments to learn about significant anniversaries in Massachusetts history, and Brainy History for birth dates and anniversaries worldwide.

Also, a very special geography-related event will take place in Middleton on the evening of our visit. Author Robert Thorson will be speaking about stone walls at the Flint Library. He is the co-author of the children's book Stone Wall Secrets and the author of Stone by Stone and Exploring Stone Walls. As geographers, ecologists, and historians throughout New England know, stone walls can tell us a lot about prior human uses of land in our region. Almost all of the forest we find in New England today -- such as the large area just to the north of the Howe-Manning School -- was once used for farming or grazing. The walls that remain within or along the edges of such patches contain clues about what happened there decades or centuries before. Mr. Thorson's talk is primarily for adults, and begins a 7:00.