Spreading the Love: Geography in the Classroom
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, especially when it is young and impressionable. At Spatial Networks, we pride ourselves in the work that we do in our business as well as our community. Every year, our CEO, Anthony Quartararo, takes time out of his busy schedule to visit local educational institutions in the name of philanthropy, edification and scholarship. This year, that honor was bestowed on me. I had the esteemed pleasure of visiting one of Pinellas County’s finest institutions of learning, Wellington School.
Over the course of two days, I spoke to first graders and fourth graders about the geography of Florida and similar places around the world. The main goal was to spread appreciation for the vast wealth of knowledge that is geography. In doing so, the young students gained a renewed admiration for their home state and the knowledge to relate to physically akin locations elsewhere on the globe. The binding factor used to make these connections was karst topography.
In short, karst topography is a landscape that has been uniquely developed by the chemical relationship between soluble bedrock and acidic water. Common karst features include: caves, springs, sinkholes, and disappearing streams (to name a few). Karst landscapes exist across the continental United States as well as most distant places like: Mexico, Cuba, Madagascar, Kenya, Italy, France, China, and Vietnam.
The first and fourth grade students at Wellington School thoroughly enjoyed the lesson and were surprisingly inquisitive about the chemical reactions that define the karst process. Particularly in the first grade class, the questions “Why?” and “But why?” were exceedingly abundant and sincere in nature. That simple three letter word took us down rabbit holes and on tangents that I was scarcely prepared for; but in the end, we all learned a great deal (and had fun to boot!).
Kanesha the GeoVeg
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