How do teachers not know their own geography?

[gsdx]

I've heard of all the rest but not Lake Huron, out of sight out of mind maybe.

It's the one in the middle. Looks like a guy with a backpack.

 

[gsdx]

And where exactly are Florida, New York or California a map? According to my info they are the names of U.S. states, and as such can be found ON maps....... Never seen them actually BE maps.

It's my new 'Insert The Words To Make My Sentence Make Sense' game. (Hint: Omitted words are 'on' and 'knowing', and not necessarily in that order.)

 

[Benvolio]

It is a big country with lots of geography. Huron is the most obscure of the lakes. I think it has been several years since I have heard it mentioned.

 

[Alistair]

Actually, Lake Superior takes its name from being above Lake Huron, not due to its size.

That was the French name for the lake, le lac supérieur. Properly translated, the expression means "Upper Lake," that is, the lake above Lake Huron. The original native American name was gitchi-gami. Meaning "be a great sea" Everyone who's heard Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald had heard of it. The British, upon taking control of the region from the French in the 1760s following the French and Indian War, anglicized the lake's name to Superior, "on account of its being superior in magnitude to any of the lakes on that vast continent."

So the name Lake Superior is for the size, not location

 

[KaraBulut]

...I teach Grade 5. Geography is a major component of my curriculum. I teach map skills.

That's interesting.

There are some recent studies that say that we're losing the ability to read and navigate via maps- probably because more and more people depend on GPS and their phone apps to navigate for them.

And there's those stories about people driving into rivers and lakes because they were expecting their phone to be a better navigation tool than their own eyes.

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/11/gps-brain-function-memory-navigation-maps-apps/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124608376

 

[Taralen]

Right, so fuck the fact this is a rapid fire quiz show shown to millions in their living rooms and the studio lights and the pressure from that.

Fuck the fact, questions on Jeopardy are always worded in a riddle like fashion and sometimes trick answers and stuff like that happen.

Fuck the fact, these people on a competitive edge playing for money, and sometimes choke up, and take a gamble on a question earn more points to win.

Fuck the fact, that nobody on Jeopardy is "stupid." They are all given a test, and only the people who get the most questions right on the test get to be on an episode.

Fuck the "We know what we know" mantra. Being a black gay man in my 20s, people on a game show don't expect me to know anything other than hip hop urban music and ebonics lol (which I pretty much know everything about hip hop and urban music from the past four decades lol, and I pretty much know every ebonics term and word lol) but I know a lot of things about history and science, and classic television and world politics and stuff.

But we all know what we know. We are all confident in different things. Someone might be 20% sure on a answer, whilst someone else might be 100% sure. What I don't know, maybe another guy on this thread knows, and vice versa. That's just how humans are. Even Ken Jennings fucked up to a stay at home mom on a very easy final jeopardy question, which is supposed to be the hardest fucking question on the show.

Fuck the fact, a teacher is not exempt. I've had many asshole and incompetent teachers. The reason why I dropped out of college. Don't get me wrong, I've had many teachers I loved and hung out with outside of class. But I've had way more teachers that thought their were untouchable. The female teachers always thought their slip wasn't showing, and the male teachers thought their dick didn't smell. Well your slip is showing madam, and sir, your dick does smell. Just because you're a teacher doesn't mean your exempt to everything. They can fuck up too just as well.

The only thing I can slightly agree with you, if these are teachers, geography is one of the main thing they are supposed to knowledgeable on. So it is kinda embarrassing to miss a question like this.

But sour grapes. Again, this is a game show, we know what we know, we choke up and have brain farts, stop making a big deal out of nothing.

If you go on Jeopardy become 5 time returning champion and win jackpot amounts, NOT GETTING A SINGLE ANSWER WRONG, then you might slightly have a point.

Other than that, just never mind trivial, pun intended, things like this.

 

[gsdx]

It is a big country with lots of geography. Huron is the most obscure of the lakes. I think it has been several years since I have heard it mentioned.

You can't get to Lake Superior or Lake Michigan without going through it.

 

[eastofeden]

That's interesting.

There are some recent studies that say that we're losing the ability to read and navigate via maps- probably because more and more people depend on GPS and their phone apps to navigate for them.

And there's those stories about people driving into rivers and lakes because they were expecting their phone to be a better navigation tool than their own eyes.

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/11/gps-brain-function-memory-navigation-maps-apps/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124608376

I was going to Martinez via HWY 680 and I know how to get there since I have been there 50 times but I was trying to figure out how to go in on HWY 4 which is just a couple exits before the one I usually go to....and the damn GPS on my phone kept trying to take me through Walnut Creek which is 20 damn cities down the HWY...I think I would have ended up on Mount Diablo if I had listened to the bitch on the phone....and I got in a fight with my phone and had to disable it...turning it off and on didn't do the trick...

 

[Alistair]

I was going to Martinez via HWY 680 and I know how to get there since I have been there 50 times but I was trying to figure out how to go in on HWY 4 which is just a couple exits before the one I usually go to....and the damn GPS on my phone kept trying to take me through Walnut Creek which is 20 damn cities down the HWY...I think I would have ended up on Mount Diablo if I had listened to the bitch on the phone....and I got in a fight with my phone and had to disable it...turning it off and on didn't do the trick...

I drove circles around Washington DC following my gps looking for the National zoo. I passed it about 4 times to my left, while my gps told me to turn right the whole time.

 

[Willie Boy]

I was going to Martinez via HWY 680 and I know how to get there since I have been there 50 times but I was trying to figure out how to go in on HWY 4 which is just a couple exits before the one I usually go to....and the damn GPS on my phone kept trying to take me through Walnut Creek which is 20 damn cities down the HWY...I think I would have ended up on Mount Diablo if I had listened to the bitch on the phone....and I got in a fight with my phone and had to disable it...turning it off and on didn't do the trick...

I drove circles around Washington DC following my gps looking for the National zoo. I passed it about 4 times to my left, while my gps told me to turn right the whole time.

Step one of machines conquering the world? Get them so integrated into our lives that we can't make decisions without them. I've never used GPS to find my way..... and I've never been lost.

Just something to think about. Maps are our friends, as long as they were created by competent mapmakers. Sadly that is a dying skill as we leave the direction finding in the incapable hands of computers more and more.

 

[gsdx]

Just something to think about. Maps are our friends, as long as they were created by competent mapmakers. Sadly that is a dying skill as we leave the direction finding in the incapable hands of computers more and more.

It certainly is something to think about, especially when people die because of them. When it comes to GPS, common sense seems to be left at home.

 

[Benvolio]

That was the French name for the lake, le lac supérieur. Properly translated, the expression means "Upper Lake," that is, the lake above Lake Huron. The original native American name was gitchi-gami. Meaning "be a great sea" Everyone who's heard Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald had heard of it. The British, upon taking control of the region from the French in the 1760s following the French and Indian War, anglicized the lake's name to Superior, "on account of its being superior in magnitude to any of the lakes on that vast continent."

So the name Lake Superior is for the size, not location

By the shore of Gitche Gumee
By the shining Big Sea Water
Stood the Wigwam of Nokomis.

 

[ronboy]

Here is a quick mini-lesson on the Great Lakes from Sir Ron:

There are five of them...Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario.

Four of the five Great Lakes are shared by Canada and the United States. (School children in both countries use the acronym HOMES (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior) to remember the names.

Lake Michigan is the only Great Lake located entirely within the political borders of the United States.


Map Key- 1. Lake Superior, 2. Lake Michigan, 3. Lake Huron, 4. Lake Erie, 5. Lake Ontario

The largest and deepest Great Lake is Lake Superior.
The shallowest Great Lake is Lake Erie (hence, the reason is had become so polluted, that it actually was a "dead" lake 50 years ago, before it recovered).



The Great Lakes are an important transportation route for goods for both the United States and Canada. Major port cities on the Great Lakes are on the map below (Courtesy of the Canadian Government).



The Great Lakes have direct access to the Atlantic Ocean thanks to the St. Lawrence Seaway which is a waterway shared by both the United States and Canada. There are major locks to allow direct access to happen at Sault Ste. Marie (twin cities in Michigan and Ontario), and the Welland Canal, which connects Lakes Erie and Ontario and allows ships to travel through (because the only other way the lakes are connected is through the Niagara River and Niagara Falls!)

The Great Lakes are also the largest supply of fresh drinking water in the world. Japan had wanted to send tankers into the Great Lakes to collect and bottle the water. Great Lakes water is relatively clean, clear, and runs quite cold from the faucet. Those of us who live in the Great Lakes area tend to take for granted that all drinking water is as good as ours, only to be disappointed when we visit other areas. I can personally vouch for Lake Ontario's water. It is very good to excellent, in both Rochester, and Toronto!

The Great Lakes also have a unique place in both American and Canadian history. They have their share of tragic shipwrecks, war battles, and a shared history of cooperation between the US and Canada.

Hope that this helps shed some light on one of North America's most fascinating physical features.

 

[peeonme]

Thanks for sharing, great lesson!

 

[gsdx]

The largest and deepest Great Lake is Lake Superior.
The shallowest Great Lake is Lake Erie (hence, the reason is had become so polluted, that it actually was a "dead" lake 50 years ago, before it recovered).

Lake Superior is known as 'Gitchi Gumee' (with various spellings) in the Ojibway language and means 'Big Sea' or 'Huge Water'. Early explorers mistook it as the Pacific Ocean.

Lake Erie is larger in surface area than Lake Ontario (the smallest Great Lake), but, because of Lake Ontario's depth, it holds about 4 times the water.

 

[Ontariobear]

Living in Southern Ontario the Great Lakes are part of our local geography but you only need one required Geography credit to earn your high school diploma here. If the teachers were from the Left Coast they are less apt to know this readily.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

Maybe, but I am sure if people were honest over 50% of JUB members probably couldn't tell you the Great Lakes either.

Absolutely. I just tested it myself by googling a satellite pic of North America and I could only indicate Michigan and Superior, and the latter, apparently, due to a misunderstanding: I really thought its name meant it was the northernmost, not the biggest, as Alistair explained.

But of course in my part of the world, the Great Lakes are Victoria, Albert, Edward, Kivu and Tanganyika.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

Here's a song to help with the State Capitols (if needed):

Well if we're being pedantic, I think the makers of the video (and you) should learn the difference between a capital and a capitol.

 

[freefall]

I feel conflicted here. After all, the words HOMES immediately rings in my head and I don't even come from or live in USA.

On one hand, I have to agree that just because one's a teacher doesn't mean s/he should be knowledgeable in every single thing, especially if s/he teaches subjects completely unrelated. And not all teachers are brilliant too.

On the other hand, not knowing basic geography is something to feel sorry for. Like not knowing the major cities or the highest mountain in the country - that's like failure of basic education.

So yeah

 

[ronboy]

Lake Superior is known as 'Gitchi Gumee' (with various spellings) in the Ojibway language and means 'Big Sea' or 'Huge Water'. Early explorers mistook it as the Pacific Ocean.

Lake Erie is larger in surface area than Lake Ontario (the smallest Great Lake), but, because of Lake Ontario's depth, it holds about 4 times the water.

Somehow, Neil, I knew that you could make my mini-lesson better with even more facts! Thank you, my friend!