Can you find California on a map of the United Sates? How about
Louisiana?
About a third of young adults can’t
Nine percent of American young adults think the Alps are in Antarctica and 10 percent think the mountain range is in North America. Little more than half know they are actually located in Europe.
This is just one of several alarming statistics from the 2006 Geographic Literacy Study conducted by National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs.
The study surveyed 510 young Americans ranging in age from 18 to 24. Out of those participants, 33 percent could not find Louisiana on a map, despite copious media coverage of the area during and after Hurricane Katrina. Only half could find New York state.
Participants struggled even more when it came to international geography. Eighty-eight percent couldn’t locate Afghanistan on a map of Asia and 75 percent incorrectly believe English is the most widely spoken native language in the world.
Hollister resident Allison Garcia, 19, knew the Alps were in Europe, what direction is Northwest on a map of the United States, and that Louisiana is the “L”-shaped state in the South, but she wasn’t sure on which continent Sudan was located.
“I’ve never taken a geography class – I think the closest I got was in history class where you have some vague coverage of it,” Garcia said. “If I’d had the option to take it as an elective in high school, I probably wouldn’t have taken it. It’s pretty boring.”
Three-quarters of participants could also not find Indonesia on a map, despite the intense focus following the tsunami in December 2004. Sixty-three percent could not find Iraq.
“The people I see come into my classes are college students who are obviously well past elementary school, which is where you should be learning geography,” said Dr. Marlene Bumgarner, who teaches cultural geography and the child development program at Gavilan College. “But, they never took geography; they never plotted things on maps; they didn’t have to memorize countries, states and capitals. I think elementary schools are now really addressing this, but it will take a while for that change to be reflected in these kinds of polls.”
Parents can help prevent their children from becoming part of these negative statistics by playing games that help them learn geography, Bumgarner said.
“There was a blip of interest (in geography) years ago when ‘Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?’ was popular, which I think did that generation a lot of good,” Bumgarner said. “That game and the television show really helped kids learn about the world and all these different countries, which was great. But, that was a fad that went in and out. I wish the fad would come back.”
“Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego” originated as a computer game where children helped track Carmen, an international criminal, across the continents using clues about the different countries Carmen was hiding in. The game’s popularity led to a television series, books and a series of Carmen Sandiego-oriented games, including “Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?” and “Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?” The Carmen Sandiego games are still available at computer game stores and at www.amazon.com. The games also come in versions compatible with Sega, Nintendo, PlayStation 2 and other video game systems.
National Geographic has a game section for kids on its
Web site, www.nationalgeographic.com, including a popular game called GeoSpy. The game tests players on continents, countries, and capitols and has a spy theme.
The Web site www.maps.com also has a games link, offering geography quizzes and crossword puzzles, as well as trivia and jigsaw puzzle-based exercises.
“One piece of the problem is that kids are not reading newspapers to hear about where problems in the world are happening and to put that together in the larger picture,” Bumgarner said. “I think parents and children should be talking to each other about these things, about where the news is happening. And if kids don’t know where someplace is, parents should be encouraging them to look it up in an atlas.”
