Geography Links

If you want to download outline maps from around the globe, I recommend the website of our sister organization of the Southwest, the Arizona Geographic Alliance. Make sure you give them credit when you use them for publication.
  > http://alliance.la.asu.edu/azga

There are many sites online with geographic data. One of the most useful is from World Climate.com. You can get average temperature and precipitation data from all over the world, and it can be copied and pasted easily into most spreadsheets. Students then can graph the data, and it makes for great math connections.
  > http://www.worldclimate.com

Another good site for statistics is Tides Online. Let the students investigate the rise and fall of the tides, daily and monthly. You can download the data in table form, or you can generate graphs.
  > http://tidesonline.nos.noaa.gov

This is the US Census Bureau's link to good population data from the 2000 Census, in both table and choropleth form.
  > http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet

If you want statistics from a long-past census, starting in 1790, this is the place to go. You can reorganize the data to compare states (i.e. which ones had the highest number of foreign born residents in 1890?)
  > http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census

This is a great way to analyze population statistics with your students. It generates pyramids for current data, and it projects growth up to 2050. Make sure you try out the Dynamic model!
  > http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idpyr.html

New York is a Great Lakes state, with more shoreline than Illinois or Ohio. If you want your students to learn about our Inland Seas, this is a good place to begin. The T.E.A.C.H. section (click on the education icon) has a great tutorial about the lakes.
  > http://www.great-lakes.net

Questions of the day - whether you are getting your students ready for the Geography Bee, or if you want a quick challenge, check out this site. It is usually updated daily with five new questions.
  > http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geobee

Start with NASA's Visible Earth. You can download images from just about anywhere, and they are grouped by countries and states, as well as by geographic features. The LANDSAT images are breathtaking!
  > http://visibleearth.nasa.gov

If you wany your students to participate in the exciting world of remote sensing, I suggest signing up for the ISS EarthKam Program. They can order images from the International Space Station, and it is a great way to get students excited about using mapping skills.
  > http://www.earthkam.ucsd.edu/public/about

World Factbook is a general resource about world geography.
  > http://www.capitals.com

This is a website from Dale Lightfoot in Oklahoma State University. It has a very extensive gallery of photographs showing cultural aspects from around the world. My favorite is Global Colar Wars ( and Other Familiar Scenes.)
  > http://www.geog.okstate.edu/users/lightfoot/colawar/page/main1.htm

If you want to learn aobout any of the states or territories, start 50 states: States and Capitals.
  > http://www.50states.com

If you want your students to generate custom maps of our nation, don't miss the official United States National Atlas.
  > http://nationalatlas.gov

Are you struggling with the concept of plate tectonics. Then I recommend this site from USGS: Dynamic Earth. It has a very good tutorial about tectonics, with photographs and links to other sites.
  > http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/dynamic.html

This is my own personal website, which is still a work in progress. You will find discussions about all aspects of the geography of the Empire State, along with suggested tours in different regions of the state.
  > http://www.nygeo.org

Nothing did more to define New York as the Empire State than our canal system. Visit the two websites on the right to find out more about the history of the canal, and the system as it exists today.
  > http://www.canals.state.ny.us
  > http://www.eriecanal.org/index.html

Not only can you generate street maps from all over the country, but it also has a special feature that allows you to see aereal photographs. It is great for the kids to see their own neighborhoods from the air.
  > http://www.mapquest.com

Whem all else fails, visit Bill Bowerman's website, with links on just about any topic pertaining to geography that you might think of - highly recommended!
  > http://members.aol.com/bowermanb/101.html