Specialty Coffee Market Is Full of (Good) Beans

GEOGRAPHY Coffee growers and shippers from developing nations are saving their businesses by improving the quality of their beans and appealing to the elite “specialty coffee” market. (NPR) Trace the geography of coffee by mimicking our Geography of a Pencil activity. Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers Toolkit.   Discussion Ideas: The NPR story outlines a supply chain that … Continue reading Specialty Coffee Market Is Full of (Good) Beans

Blog:a-thon: Mapa en Relieve: Guatemala City

Elizabeth Wolzak, an Instructional Designer for National Geographic Education, shared this map with our staff in honor of Geography Awareness Week. Elizabeth, whose parents are Dutch and American, was born in Guatemala and lived there until she was 19. Image courtesy Mapa En Relieve Guatemala. (From Fodors). “If you want to get the lay of the land before you head out to the country, this … Continue reading Blog:a-thon: Mapa en Relieve: Guatemala City

Meet Summer Intern Michelle Renn

Hey everyone!

My name is Michelle Renn and from now through August I’ll be interning at National Geographic and contributing to the My Wonderful World blog.  
   
The fact is: I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t believe that we truly live in a wonderful world.  All throughout my childhood I was fortunate to travel a lot with my family.  We traveled domestically and internationally, often taking road trips across the country in the summers.  We camped along the way, exploring National Parks, big cities, small towns– and everything in between.  I learned from a young age that travel is about the journey, not just the destination.  In retrospect, I entirely credit my parents with instilling in me a profound desire for exploration.  Once I was exposed to a taste of new places, cultures, languages, and foods, the curiosity was unstoppable.  I began to realize what a very large world we live in, and I became determined to experience as much of it as I could.  
  
 My love for exploration is likely what attracted me to Geography as a major in college.  The breadth and depth of the discipline is miraculous, comprising everything from studies of humans and cultures, mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), environmental issues and systems, and physical attributes of the Earth.  Geography is the exploration of people, cultures, the environment, and the intersections among them— it is an exploration of the planet we all share.  I couldn’t stay away. 🙂   
 
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Continue reading “Meet Summer Intern Michelle Renn”