Story and Photos by Xenia Slabina
The EMU was filled with shrill screams Tuesday morning—a crowd of 60 galloping seventh graders quickly scrambled up the staircase to the EMU Ballroom to participate in Geography Awareness Week.
The annual event organized by the Geography Department aims to fill the gap in geo-literacy education in the United States. Jessie Clark, GAW Director, says that hosting the awareness week is a tradition at the University and a point of pride for the department.
“It’s an opportunity to reach out to the community, to bring in students (elementary, middle and high-school age), to introduce them to geography, but even more than that, to introduce them to the culture of the University, too,” Clark says.
GAW was created by Susan Hardwick, a Geography Professor Emerita at the University of Oregon, and was proclaimed in 1987 by Ronald Reagan to be commemorated nationally on the third week of November.
Every year, GAW is dedicated to a particular theme. This years’ theme is called “Declare Your Independence.” Students enjoyed activities including fluvial geomorphology, food and political geography, and a GPS scavenger hunt that taught different sub disciplines in geography.  Sarah Praskievicz, a volunteer geography student, helped students use the stream table, which was a river mini-model that looked like a giant box filled with sand-like material and a pump. The water was running through the pump to demonstrate how it can carve out natural river channels.
“Students were able to do things like build dams, and they were able to get their hands in there and build all sort of things and then destroy them,” Praskievicz says, “It was really fun and helps them to see how rivers work on a smaller scale.”
Cascade Middle School Geography teacher, Elizabeth Fine, points out that this event provides a tremendous amount of enrichment for her students.
“We all learn by experience, so this is hands-on experiential learning from the hand-held GPS to the hands in the water table,” she says.
GAW will continue in the EMU, with more focus towards undergraduate students towards the end of the week.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Getting Geo-Schooled