1. Center for Research on Vermont
Developing Geographical Minds Lessons from World Regional and Vermont Geography
Cheryl Morse
University of Vermont
Geography Department
Center for Research on Vermont

2. Two Minute Writes A.
Please make a list of “global issues”.

3. Two Minute Writes B.
Please describe what comes to your mind when you think of “Vermont Agriculture”.
Note: you are writing to a Martian, so be descriptive.

4. THE QUIZ (from Geography Hell?)
Please take this quiz
You will not be asked to share your answers or your score with anyone
This is not challenge by choice!

5. Total Number of Quiz Responses: 626
Why Do I Ask My UVM Students to Take This Quiz?
Because I was clueless…
Total Number of Quiz Responses: 626
Taken in 4 Semesters
Spring 2008-Fall 2010
About 1/3 of students went to HS in Vermont

6. Quiz Results 43.53 Overall Quiz Average:
Quiz Average Did Not Increase Over Time
Students are NOT becoming more geographically literate over time

8. Student Scores Do Not Increase:
By year at UVM (eg., seniors do not score significantly higher than first-year students)
If the student took a Geography Course in High School
If the student took another Geography Course in College
According to where the student attended high school (in VT or out-of-state)
What I Do Not Know, because I didn’t ask:
Results by gender
Results by travel experience
Results by race/ethnicity

10. What do students’ incorrect answers tell us?
Name the capital of Iraq:
Bangladesh, Qatar, Kuwait, “it’s not Baghdad”, “Televeve?”, Islamabad; Istanbul; Kuwait
Name one non-native or exotic species that has impacted Australia:
“British Prisoners”; Zebra Mussels (from VT student); Americans; Switchback Mountain Goat; “huge mice things/rodents”; “Nemo/clownfish”
Name the capital of Canada:
“WHO CARES!!!”, “there isn’t one”, “doesn’t each province have its own capital”, “which region of Canada?”, Ontario, Montreal, Calgary, Halifax, Vancouver, Quebec, Quebec City, Edmonton, Toronto, “A friend of mine would know that…I’m not sure.”; “O…something that starts with an ‘O’”; Vancouver; “Ottawa, eh?”
Latitude:
“are you joking?!”, “10,000,000”, 500 ft, 200 ft above sea level, 90 N, 100, 32 NW, 80, 70, 30, 23N, “200 feet above sea level”; 120, “up there”; 350 ft; “90 (a little south of)”
OPEC- Name one member country that is not in the Middle East:
Venezuela, George Bush, Texas, Exxon/Mobil, Russia, Britain, Chile, US, Egypt, Peru, Congo, Bulgaria, Turkey, American, Canada, Morocco, Argentina

11. How do the UVM results compare to:
Indiana Tests, 1987 and 2002
National Geographic – Roper Survey, 2006
The Nation’s Report Card – Geography 2010 ?

12. Why Don’t Young Americans Know More Geography
Why Don’t Young Americans Know More Geography? And, Does it Matter That They Don’t Know Geography?

13. the importance of a “geographical mind”
Doreen Massey

14. Developing Geographical Minds:
Vermont’s Agriculture and the Production of Place

15. Geographical Imagination
Our mental maps of places; and the ways we render spaces and places
“a lot of geography is in the mind”
Doreen Massey
What we expect of a place, even before we experience it for ourselves.
what we expect of other social groups within specific spaces.

16. Some Thoughts About the Importance of Descriptive Writing and Field Work

17. “The renaissance in Vermont agriculture…”
Governor Peter Shumlin, Inaugural Address, Jan 6, 2011
Recent Comments about Vermont Agriculture
“…[VT’s] wonderful marketshed from Montreal to Boston to Providence to Hartford to NY and Philadelphia…”
[We need to] “maintain this incredible landscape that makes Vermont such a special place" and “the culture we create by having working landscapes of farmers and foresters in our communities"
Chuck Ross, Sec. of Agriculture, Food and Markets, VPR, Jan 24, 2011
“…Vermont's farmers, right now, are in a constant economic struggle. Every year they have to figure out ways to work and survive so that we can all benefit: these are the folks who maintain a great piece of the landscape, jobs, and culture that is part of the fabric of what makes Vermont, Vermont.”
Dan Kirk, “My Turn” BFP
“We need to ensure that Vermont is the milk-bowl and breadbasket of New England…” Working Landscape Partnership, VT Council on Rural Development

18. photo: John David Geery http://johndavidgeery.com
The Endangered Working Landscapes of Vermont
“Place in the Country”
“Green pastures, bales of hay, and mountainous backdrop provide a pastoral setting for this landscape photograph.”
Orwell, VT
photo: John David Geery

19. A Brief Environmental History of Vermont’s Landscape (in Crisis)
‘great swarming time’, chartering of towns
sheep craze
dairy farming
outmigration
tourism and agriculture
work as leisure (Blake Harrison, 2006)

20. The Co-Dependence of Rurality and Tourism in Vermont
photo and logo: VermontVacation.com

21. Sabra Field
Woody Jackson
Phyllis Chase
Contemporary Representations of Vermont Landscapes – How Media Reproduces Constructs

22. What Do These Maple Landscapes Produce, How, and For Whom?
Vermont Department of Tourism ad in Spring 2011 Vermont Life

23. What Do These Maple Landscapes Produce, How, and For Whom?
Jordan’s Sugaring Operation, Essex

24. Map: Jan Albers, 2002, Hands on the Land

25. Vermont’s physiographic regions align closely with its geologic regions.

27. Two Vermonts? Vermont County Population, 2010 Data: US Census, 2010
GRAND
ISLE
6,970
FRANKLIN
47,746
ORLEANS
One of every four Vermonters lives in Chittenden County
ESSEX
6,306
LAMOILLE
24,575
CHITTENDEN
156,545
CALEDONIA
WASHINGTON
Chitt. County’s population is 2.5 times larger than the next most populated county, Rutland
ADDISON
36,821
ORANGE
WINDSOR
RUTLAND
61,642
POPULATION
6,000-7,000
24,000-62,000
BENNINGTON
156, 545
loss of pop since 2000
WINDHAM
Data: US Census, 2010

28. Rural – Urban Differences in Vermont
Population (2009 est)
413,705 (66.5%)
205,055 (33.5%)
Per Capita Income (2008)
$37,480
$41,139
Earnings per Job (2008)
$35,867
$46,043
Poverty Rate (2009 est)
12.0%
10.5%
Not completed High School
14.5%
11.5%
Completed College
27.0%
34.8%
Data: USDA Economic Research Service

29. Organic dairy farms make up 20% of the state total;
Vermont Farm Data
Number of farms (2009): 7,000
Dairy farms (2010): 1,010 Organic dairy farms : Conventional dairy farms:
Organic dairy farms make up 20% of the state total;
They produce about 5-7% of the state's milk
Top 5 Agricultural Commodities
Percent of state total farm receipts
Dairy Products
65.4
Cattle and calves
8.0
Maple products
6.2
Greenhouse/nursery
5.3
Apples
2.5
Data: National Agricultural Statistics Service

30. Vermont’s Top Five Counties in Agricultural Sales, 2007
How Many Agricultural Vermonts?
Together, Addison and Franklin counties constitute nearly half of VT’s agricultural production
The county in third place produces half that of the counties in first and second place 2 3
FRANKLIN
$160,619,000
ORLEANS
$82,348,000 1 4
ADDISON
$161,417,000
ORANGE
$43,292,000 5
RUTLAND
$35,286,000
12.2
PERCENT OF VT’S STATE AGRICULTURAL SALES

31. Addison County Franklin County Orleans County
Total number of farms: 773
# farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 79
Milk is 78% of ag sales
Cattle and calves are 8% of sales
Franklin County
Total number of farms: 740
# farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 80
Milk is 81% of ag sales
Cattle and calves are 11% of sales
Orleans County
Total number of farms: 635
# of farms w/ $500,000 + in sales: 25
Milk is 85% of ag sales
Cattle and calves are 8% of sales

32. The Freestall Landscape

33. Smaller Farm Landscapes

34. Questions that Can be Pursued:
Now that we know something of the environmental history, landscape change, and social dynamics of Vermont, what can we predict its landscape in the future? What will the landscape look like? Who will live here? How will people make a living?
How does your community compare to Vermont’s statistics? Is your town the same or different? How and why?
Why are rural areas of Vermont “poorer” than urban areas and why are some losing population?
What crops and agricultural products were produced in VT over time, and which crops and products will support the state in the future? Where do our agricultural products go? Can we map them?
Which ‘global’ problems or issues can we study here in Vermont?

35. Data Sources US Census data Center for Rural Studies at UVM
VCGI maps of VT
State of Vermont Dept of Ag, Food and Markets
National Agricultural Statistics Service
Landscape Change website, UVM Geology Dept