Building Minecraft in Planning, Design, Spatial Literacy and other Curricula

I read James Fee and Dale Lutz thoughts on how Minecraft, a computer game of building and defending areas of our earth, had made their sons both decent 3D designers and more savvy about sustainability.

Lutz wrote on the It's All About Data Blog:

I found this out first hand recently when, the night before doing a webinar on 3D, I asked my 15 year old son to whip me up a model of the Barsebäck Nuclear Power Plant using Minecraft. In a matter of minutes, he had the model on the right for me.

Fee wrote on the Spatially Adjusted Blog:

It all came to me when Connor said he wished he hadn’t dug such a big hole because the sheep and pigs kept falling into it (that’s pretty funny out of context, but you’ll get over it). So while I was building my Fort out by the sea, he went back to restoring the hillside so it not only looked good, but could support trees, flowers and bushes. We talked about creating a rail line between our two forts and he wanted to make sure it was routed around area’s he wanted to protect.

These gentleman are very savvy geospatial professionals and so far as I can tell, great Dads, they are not explicitly educators. That said, I've learned quite a bit from both of them over the years. And, they are on to something with Minecraft, a game born in Stockholm.

It turns out that at least one school in Sweden requires students to work with the game. Or as The Local, the Swedish English language paper, puts is, "Swedish school makes Minecraft a must." The Viktor Rydberg school teaches lessons using the game to about 180 13 year olds. What do they learn? Per one teacher: “They learn about city planning, environmental issues, getting things done, and even how to plan for the future.”

Many of the boys, it seems, know of the game already, but girls were not deterred and began building, too. Instructors compare it to shop or art class; it's about making things and reworking them to make them better. As Fee points out, this is very much the idea behind geodesign, the more spatially aware vision for thoughtful, iterative planning.

How did Minecraft get into this school? A nationwide "Future City" competition asked students how to make education better in Sweden and one suggestion was using Minecraft.

I wonder if STEM, geography and other educators are willing to set GIS aside for a moment to consider the role Minecraft might play. What standards could it address? What areas of critical thinking? What areas of spatial literacy? A quick search turned up a few scattered uses of Minecraft in geography education, but nothing too mature...yet.

Spatial Temporal Math - Is it Spatial?

Students in Costa Mesa, California, via funding from Hyundai, are testing out a new math teaching environment in a new laboratory. The teaching program is called ST Math. The ST refer to "spatial" and "temporal," respectively. Curious? So was I!

The program is from MIND Research Institute:

The MIND Research Institute enables elementary and secondary students to reach their full academic and career potential through developing and deploying math instructional software and systems. A non-profit organization, MIND also conducts basic neuroscientific, mathematics, and education research to improve math education and advance scientific understanding.

The ST Math program introduces concepts without language or symbols. Only after the visualization is mastered are the symbols introduced. The interactive environment for each topic involves a penguin traveling along the road. Jiji runs into all sorts of missing bridges (obstacles). I guess his city has limited funds for infrastructure... Anyway, students interact with floating blocks to fill the holes to allow Jiji to continue on. It makes more sense once you watch the video, try actual exercises and enjoy the "games" (choose the "games" link under programs in the menu).

I could not find any particular discussion of the spatial aspect of the materials or what spatial thinking skills, if any, are addressed. I did, however, identify the "Upright Jiji" game, where the player rotates Jiji to standing, as very spatial. It's fun, too!

Working the exercises and games reminded me of three things. First, it reminded me of the colored wooden "sticks" we used to learn addition in grade school circa 1972. I recall enjoying playing with them, but can't say how, or if, they helped me learn.

Second, ST Math reminded me of Motion Math (which I wrote about early in 2012). While Jiji doesn't involve physically moving my laptop, I do see touch versions are available and expect motion will be integrated in the future. The key similarity is the intense and simple graphic representations of the challenges and the clear, rock solid progression from basic to more complex problems.

Finally, ST Math reminded me of an early online teaching tool, PLATO (Wikipedia), that I used in college to learn physics. It was not as flashy as ST Math, but included some of the same visual elements and the progression of lessons from easier to more challenging. I loved PLATO and probably spent more time on it (we had two terminals in Eckhart Hall) than anyone else in 130s physics in 1983. I got an A in physics; I credit PLATO and a great professor, Isaac Abella.

The single thing that ties ST Math, Motion Math and even PLATO together, for me, is that all of these implementations made me 100% confident I could learn the topic at hand. It might take me a few times through each exercise, but I could figure it out. Having a computer program, or an instructor, that can instill that confidence in a student is pretty special. When I think back on my favorite instructors from grade 1 to graduate school, they all gave me that confidence. I'm intrigued that a computer program can do the same thing.

- Math Lab opening press release via THE Journal via SmartBrief on EdTech

NEARC Educators Day 2012: Successes but Challenges Ahead

Tora Johnson, speaking, and Lyn Malone
open the conference.

The fifth annual NEARC GIS Educators Day was held in conjunction with the fifth annual Conference of GIS Educators from Maine on Sunday, November 11. The venue was the Camden Opera House.

I spoke first in an early paper session and addressed the use of authentic learning to better engage students. I introduced four teachable moments (AFL Players Map, Satellite Sentinel/Enough project images from Khartoum bombing in Oct, bad geocoding, Apple’s use of OpenStreetMap) and had the attendees brainstorm about which standards/learning objectives, skills might be taught from this story, situation or event. (Resources mentioned in that talk)

Robb Freeman, Eastern Maine Community College shared his first foray into service learning. His school serves mostly working students and after a first class in GIS prompted interest from a group of excited students, he looked for a second course. As luck would have it, a state grant, The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, (EPSCoR) aimed at service learning related to sustainability fell into his lap. He first looked for a local partner. The three organizations he approached with his student labor all said yes! He decided to work with the Frenchman Bay Partnership and focus on their eel grass loss issue. Eel grass is important ... He started his four students off with six weeks or so of lab work in preparation for their work on data collection and mapping of the current state of eelgrass and the development of a detailed atlas of the Bay.

There were some successes:

• student fun/learning 
• learned of a 66% net loss of eelgrass between 1996-2008
• build a new eelgrass data layer for 2011 
• developed a few atlas maps
• students offered a poster for last years conference (and won the competition!)

The biggest disappointment for Freeman was that the students did make as much progress as he would have hoped. In the end, students from the College of the Atlantic joined the class in their project. Among the things Freeman would change in a future implementation:

• set more realistic expectations
• make clear promises to the client
• use less class time and get students into the field sooner
• give students freedom to learn “how to” - but not too much
• let the client determine the project goals
• lead by example - by illustrating how service learning (doing real work) can be fun and rewarding

Spatial Thinking Panel

A panel on spatial thinking was far reaching and involved as many people from the audience as panelists. While we didn’t define spatial thinking, we did agree that students entering college are not prepared in term of spatial thinking and basic geography (lat/long, etc.) We touched on critical thinking skills, problem definition skills, and the possibility of teaching spatial thinking without GIS. We addressed questions from a faculty member at Fitchburg State (MA) about getting students interested in GIS. We also tried to address the challenge of students who want to learn to push buttons vs. really understand the underlying process/logic.

Matthew Bampton of the University of Southern Maine took a swerving path from FloatingSheep.org maps, to Waldo Tobler, to Wicked Problems (see the definition) to get to his work taking undergraduates into the field to see what they could do. He spoke of two projects, one covering many years to explore the islands off the main coast to better understand the underlying geological processes, and a second looking at the impact of historical climate change in the Shetland Islands. The projects all sounded very involved and included carrying and using a variety of surveying tools including total stations and terrestrial LiDAR. Bamptons response to a question regarding challenges lead him to address “what works.” Among his observations:

• mix of men and women on field teams
• students physically well-trained for the environment are likely to be especially successful in problem solving/creative thinking in the field
• formal old school rules (no drinking, no smoking, no foul language, be polite, etc.)
• selection of students just by grades did not work; better to see a full skill set
• better to build skilled teams
• students from small liberal arts schools tend to fair well in the field

A panel addressed the New Hampshire Esri K-12 site license (I wrote about it in August), which was fully funded and running this fall. The four players behind it were New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, New Hampshire Fish and Game, the University of New Hampshire Dept of Education and the state Geographic Alliance.

The final panel of the day was titled What Do Employers Want? The 21st Century Geospatial Workforce. It featured actual hiring managers from real Maine GIS using companies and organizations.

Judy Colby-George founded Spatial Alternatives, a small consulting company in Yarmouth, with a special interest in participatory GIS. She made these comments about potential hires:

• she’s looking for a person who can ask the right question at the right time
• she worries less about GIS skills, because employees follow the company workflow
• she’s looking for students who understand the principles of GIS and who are willing to do whatever is needed (from sweeping floors to digitizing to analysis)

On the future of hiring she noted that what happens in local town budget impacts how she’ll hire. She fears future budgets may force smaller firms to close.

She shared this advice for students:

• do group projects (that’s what real life is like)
• best class she took had groups do same project using different software and highlight what the package did well/poorly
• get around human resource by tracking down hiring manager

She had this advice for instructors:

Consider having students get their own project data (or give them ugly data), since again, that’s the real world.

Patrick Cunningham, is the CEO of Blue Marble Geographics based in Gardiner, ME. The software development shop has about 25 people and recently acquired World Mapper.

On hiring he noted:

• we want to hire folks from Maine
• people who show a skill for learning
• GIS degree not required
• however, a college degree is
• applicants should have some experience (at least internship or volunteer work)
• software developers need lots of math and heavy programming

In the near term he expects to hire a marketing person (the company has never had one before) and a sales support staffer.

His advice to applicants: Write clearly on resume and cover/intro letter. It matters!

Nate Kane works at the Maine Department of Transportation, the state’s transportation agency.

His agency is looking for:

• people who can innovate, think for themselves
• not necessarily specific software for a specific time but rather those who get the “how”
• someone who can persevere and try something new
• those who work well with others (something you can’t teach)

In the future staffers will be more involved with gaining access to and using contributed (geoaware) data. That means means collaboration and fusing of data. He also sees more roles for staffer to present what has been done or learned to a variety of agency clients.

Kane recalled the most valuable course he took (from Mathew Bampton): urban physical geography. It involved a team project, finding resources and communicating results. He reminded students that state service applications may seems intimidating - but it’s worth filling out all the forms and not leaving anything out.

Stu Rich of PenBay Solutions based in Brunswick described the company as a software development shop focusing on Web based presentation of facilities data. They have two kinds of staffers:

• CAD/GIS analysts - who manage, enhance, correct QA/QC the data people
• software developers - who build the software (human interaction) with stable data 

The former need data experience (data manipulation, QA/QC, etc.), AutoCAD and ArcGIS knowledge, but no need for open source experience. He explained how his clients use proprietary software exclusively: Esri, Autodesk, Oracle, etc.

The latter need not have specific experience with a language or development environment.

Rich described the move from the desktop to the Cloud, but reminds educators and applicants that apps like ArcGIS Online are young. Still, he argues, this is the direction in which the industry is going.

Spatial Training Works and May Enhance STEM Learning

Northwestern University posted a story about research led by its own Professor David Uttal confirming that training in spatial concepts does indeed raise spatial thinking and reasoning abilities. The meta analysis (a study of studies) reviewed 217 research studies on educational interventions to improve spatial thinking. The upshots:

• Yes, training will improve spatial skills.
• Yes, that improvement will last and transfers to other skills, including perhaps STEM subjects.

Great news! Still aspects of the research, or perhaps just the news story, do give me pause.

Are we talking about training?

The term used throughout the article to describe the intervention is training. Maybe I don't know its proper meaning in this context. I do know we do not do training in GIS at at Penn State. We don't even teach software (something I would describe as training). 

Do we train K-12 students? Do we train them to read? To do fractions? Perhaps we do.

The few examples of the spatial training offered in the article include physics students using 3D representations (not physical models only, I guess) and the use of video games. The good news here is that more than one type of intervention can work. But is it really training?

What interventions work "best"?

I'm sure this is already being researched or planned for the future, but which of the various interventions show the most return? Do different ones work better at different ages? For different types of learners? For different genders? Will adults get as much out of spatial puzzles as five year old Max and Theo do at school?

How do we use these results?

With the current focus on STEM education and the never-say-die efforts to promote geography in he U.S., who will take the lead on translating this research into action or policy? Whose job is that? Do the findings necessarily make geography and GIS key tools in advancement of spatial skills? 

Blurring the Map to Find Patterns

Somewhere along the line in my geography education I learned how to blur the map. The idea is that by blurring the details of the graphic, patterns will emerge. Somehow we humans can do this on demand when the map is close, like on a computer screen. In other cases we can just take a few steps back to blur the details.

I don’t think about this skill too often any more; I think it’s become automatic. That said, I returned to the concept this past weekend while running in the woods in Georgia. I’d traveled there to tackle a 50 km (31 mile) run. Most of my running is done on the roads in and around Boston; I’m still rather inexperienced when it comes to trail run navigation and simply staying upright on the changing surfaces.

The course was marked with tiny flags on the ground, white chalk arrows and most helpful in the woods, pink survey tape tied to branches, poles, and fences at about shoulder height. I considered one section of the course “bushwacking” because it was quite difficult to see any trail. I ran with a small group on my first loop through this area. We carefully sought out each new piece of pink tape and stopped frequently when it did not appear. The vegetation was thick with brambles and the ground cover included a mix of leaves, rocks and roots. I enjoyed the “hide and seek” aspect of that section on that first loop, but didn’t feel I ran it as well as I might have.

When I returned to the “bushwacking” area the second time, I was alone. I realized if I tried to find the big picture, that is, the general trend of the trail ahead, I could find each new marker more quickly. Further, focusing on finding the “line” of the trail distracted me from looking down at my feet and worrying about falling. I ran lighter and more confidently. My mantra was “see the trail, be the trail.” It was a lot like “blurring the map” to see that big picture. I felt I ran that section far better using this method.

On the second loop, I also began to get inside the race director’s head about how he laid out the course. If there’s a choice between up, down or flat, the course goes up or down, never flat. If there’s an edge, you run along it. We ran along edges of forests that abutted meadows and property lines marked with rebar. A corollary of the edge principle relates to linear features: If there’s a linear feature, you run along it. We traveled along barbed wire fences, creeks and climbed up a gravel road for probably a mile and a half  to the local water tower.

I developed a decent amount of intuition, which pleased me. I tested it regularly when the next pink ribbon was no where to be found. I’d head in what I thought would be the right direction and more often than not found the missing ribbon on the ground or well hidden by spring leaves. Only a few markers were actually missing, testament to our out of the way course shared by private land owners in the area.

While I’m sure I could have learned about these spatial tactics of trail running from books and other runners, it was sure fun learning it on the trail.

A Very Spatial Day At Montessori

Last week I was a "special guest" of five year old twins Max and Theo at their suburban Boston Montessori school. Their mother has been explaining the how and why of their "work" through this, their first year.

As I spent time with each boy and they selected, then showed me each "work," I found myself drawn to the spatial aspects of the activities.

Theo first chose to write his brother a letter. He took out the paper and explained to me the four lines that guided his printing: the sky line (cloud), the plane line (airplane), the grass line (grass) and the worm line (worm). At the far left of each group of four lines there were indeed tiny icons to identify the lines. He spoke aloud how to craft each letter. "You start at the sky line, then go to the grass line..."

This was all new to me but his teacher later explained it was part of a writing method. She used a specific name, but I see it on the Web as Fundations. Here's a graphic if this is new to you, too. A quick Internet search suggests I'm way behind the times and many, many schools are using at least some of the ideas of this approach. It all seemed so natural to Theo, this idea of putting a grid on the paper and using it to guide his letters. I'm sure he had no idea the spatial literacy skills he was building!

When I joined Max he was doing a puzzle of sorts. He had 16 or so colored blocks. He was arranging them to match a picture on a card. I'm not sure if he or I started to refer to the picture as a "map," but we both used that term as we worked. When unsure of what to do next, he started to say, "It's time to look at the map!" And, when he became frustrated and could not form the four blue triangles into a diamond as the map illustrated, I tried to help. "Are all three sides of the triangle the same length?" We decided two were the same, but on was longer. "Which side, a long one or short one, touches the yellow block?" It took a while but we did finally get it using both the map and our own language to describe the blocks and how they were arranged. Like his brother, I'm sure Max had no idea of the spatial literacy skills he was building.

I do hope they get to practice and use them for many more years of their education.

Response: Geography is About Memorizing Capitals

Elmhurst College's "Quick Studies" blog offers a very nicely written article on the crisis in geography. It's titled "Off the Map." The author, Andrew Santella, includes data from the NAEP study, bemoans limited geographic literacy, and points to budget cuts as evidence of the situation. He even elicits the classic and still current understanding of what geography is from Elmhurst associate professor Rich Schultz from the department of geography and geosciences: "Ask people what they think geography is about and they’ll talk about memorizing state capitals."

Such articles are important, especially if they offer some hope for enhancing the situation. The positive news in this post is Schultz and a colleague's effort to tie geospatial technology to science in a new course for non-majors. I'm excited to learn more about that.

In the mean time, we need to start telling new stories about geography. We need stories that can help distance geography (pun intended) from the state capitals comment above and what was once called the "capes and bays" visions of the discipline. So, what stories do we tell?

We can all tell the John Snow cholera story. But we need more like it. We need simple to tell, simple to understand stories that define what our discipline is, how it works and why it matters in memorable, bite-sized pieces. I'm sorry if this sounds a bit like marketing, but in all honesty, geography needs marketing.

I am a geographer with two degrees in the subject. I only know that one story. What are the other stories should we be telling? What stories do you tell to explain what geography is? Should they be part of our communal storytelling? Please share them in the comments.

- HT to @josephkerski 

Social Mapping in the Classroom

The Huffington Post offered up what it called an infographic titled "'Community': A Map Of All The Dates, Sex, Hookups, Sexual Harassment And Other Intimate Relationships" to celebrate the return of the TV show "Community." The show, which I do not watch, is about a community college and the wacky people there. Really, like any good comedy, it's about how those wacky people connect. Thus it makes sense to build such a map.

What I like about this map is the non-standard types of connections defined. There are some adult ones, but there are other intriguing G-rated ones including "sang mall karaoke with" and "delivered a baby." Different colored lines connecting pairs of people distinguish the 12 different kinds of connections. I have to believe the types of connections selected for the map are particularly relevant for this TV show. If I chose to map, say Law and Order SVU, I'd have 12 different types of connections. I wonder what they would be?

Which brings me to a mapping exercise about which I'm daydreaming. Depending on the student population/subject/topic students might map the connections of their classmates or the characters in a book or those in a movie or TV show. The assignment might go something like this:

1) Select a group of people to map;  a group of people you know well (from school, from a book, tv, movies, sports, your family, etc.)

2) Define the key types of connections within this group. They might be familial (sister/brother), interest based (both play baseball) or silly (both have fallen into the pond). Make sure some are geographic (they ride the same bus, live nearby, attend the same church).

3) Assign each type of connection a different color/symbol and map out the connections.

Reflection:

1) Count how many times each type of connection is represented.

2) Which type(s) of connection do you think is/are the most important? Is it the most common one? Why or why not?

3) Are some people more connected than others? Why?

4) How would you create categories of "connectedness?" How many categories would there be? What would you call the categories?

5) Can you draw any conclusions about the more connected people? The people with fewer connections?

6) Are geographic connections correlated with other types of connections? Which types of connections seem to "go together?" Why do you think that is?

Lesson Objectives:

1) understand and use the definition of a map: a representation of a set of elements and connections between them

2) define and evaluate the various types of connections between people, including geographic ones

3) identify connections that might be correlated ("go together")

Spatial and STEM: Can we add some geography?

Jonathan Wai wrote about spatial intelligence in Psychology Today. His article was titled Why We Don't Value Spatial Intelligence. He doesn't explicitly answer the question but does point out that as a society we don't test for spatial ability and hence miss the chance to grow it in our students. Those who do have it, research suggest, can do great things in physics and engineering.

He concludes:

We need to learn to value these beautiful minds.

We need to identify them. We need to provide a tailored education for them. And we need to place the tools in their hands so that they can help invent our future.

Tom Baker addressed this topic at the Esri GIS Education Community blog. His post is titled STEM Education's Critical Dependence on GIS. He cites the National Research Council's Learning to Think Spatially document from 2006 that suggests GIS is a tool for learning to think spatially.

I have to point out that there's a bit of a disconnect here. Wai speak about spatial intelligence as about 3D visualization and "in your head" processing. He ties it to physicists and engineers. That makes me think immediately of Tim O'Reilly and the Maker Movement.

While the NRC report starts out with Watson and Crick and their discovery or visualization of the double helix structure of DNA, I think most people can't or won't or don't connect that type of hard science to geography and geospatial technology. As someone who studied chemistry, I'd use the visualization of the benzene ring as a spatial thinking example.

What's missing? One or more great stories of well-known geospatial scientists that solved a real world problem with spatial thinking. We as a community know they are out there, but those stories are not told as frequently as the well-known ones above. I just heard a great story from my former colleague at Esri Boston, Peter Girard, now CTO at AppGeo. He explained how he used some high level math to solve a complex bounding area problem for a spatial index needed for a client.

The trick is we need to identify these stories and tell them. That's how Watson and Crick's double helix got famous. That's how Kekulé's benzene ring got famous. What are our geospatial stories? How do we make them part of everyone's education the way these two stories currently are?

What story do we tell? John Snow and cholera. What other real life, true stories of spatial thinking do we as geographers have to tell? Once we get that book of short stories written (has it  been written?), we can make a better case for both spatial literacy education for the next generation, and the great things they can do with those skills in their jobs in later life.

Can you Compare a GIS to the Periodic Table?

Last week Joseph Kerski, @josephkerski, tweeted:

For a geography, environmental, or earth science teacher not to teach with GIS is like a chemistry teacher not using the periodic table.

This idea seems to track back to 2009, when he wrote:

One might argue that for a geography educator not to use maps is like a chemistry teacher not using the periodic table.

I am not comfortable with the first, "newer" iteration since I do not feel GIS and the periodic table are parallel. One is interactive, the other passive. I think the older version, with map in place of GIS, is a particularly apt simile.

I can't imagine a chemistry teacher who does not use the periodic table. The HUGE periodic table was the focal point of Mr. Mark's classroom. He was my 10th grade honors chem and 12th grade AP chem teacher. The first day of tenth grade he let us know that we'd have quizzes every few days in the first two weeks on the elements (name, atomic number and symbol). Then he handed each of us a blue bordered "Go Navy" cardstock periodic table, pre-punched with three holes to fit in our binders. I kept that periodic table until I finished college with a chemistry degree.

I didn't know it then, but learned later, when I studied geography in college, that the periodic table is a map. (It's a representation of structure. A structure is a set of elements and relationships between them. That's so very correct to say the periodic table is a map.) Between grade 10 and college graduation I learned that the periodic table was my grounding, "my basemap" to making sense of the properties of elements and compounds. I suppose that's why I kept that "Go Navy" one for so long.

As much as I love the idea of GIS appearing in all kinds of courses including environmental and earth science and new interactive chemistry tools appearing in all kinds of chemistry and related courses, let's not put the cart before the horse. GIS and all its analytics and cartographic tools are not valuable unless students and teachers know how to interpret the maps it creates. (What is where? Why? So what?) Similarly, an interactive periodic table (there are many of them now, online and for your favorite desktop and mobile platform!) does demand some understanding of the static version. (How are elements in the same row alike? How about the same column? What do those numbers mean?)

What I'm suggesting is that interactive tools like these demand some measure of literacy, spatial or chemical, for them to be valuable. If GIS or interactive chem tools are a more appealing way to introduce these ideas, that's fine. But, these basics must be instilled too, perhaps at the same time, and maybe, just maybe, before the interactive tools are introduced, to enable learning.

Tech in the classroom is definitely appealing (and big business!). But if students do not have the basic literacy it can be no better than static versions. I'm hopeful geographers are selling geographic literacy to environmental and earth sciences teachers along with GIS.

Spatially Unaware (and Dangerous!)

Last night I went to indoor track practice. The coach is really good about asking if we have new people because he wants to be sure they understand "track etiquette." These are the rules on where to be on the track so every can do their work and be safe. There are just a few pretty straightforward rules.

1) When you run your "hard/timed" parts of the workout, you run in the first lane, the inside-most lane. And, you run single file. We typically runs in packs that are about the same pace, so there might be a group of five folks in a line.

2) When you want to pass, you look behind you to be sure no one is coming. Then you move out to lane two, the lane outside of lane one, pass, then move right back into lane one. You do not pass on the inside of lane one.

We had about 60 people on the track from our club and maybe another 15 from a second club, so the tiny (200 meter) indoor track at Tufts University was pretty full. It's fun running with that many people since you get to say "hi" and "good job" to your fellow runners and hear it back from them (when they are not out of breath).

My group was only two last night - me and Aaron. As we worked through our several mile repeats (run a mile, take a short break, run another mile...) we found ourselves behind the "Bobsy Twins." The two very pretty girls had pony tails and ran together, side by side, one in lane one and one in lane two. They chatted continuously during the miles. Aaron and I chat, but not continuously, and not much at all by the last few laps of each mile. The Bobsy Twins were a bit faster than us, so we didn't catch up to them, but the faster runners in the club did.

A big pack of runners, mostly men, but with a few ladies passed me and Aaron.  I called ahead "Train coming!" suggesting it was time to get out of the way or be run down. I then said, "Tuck in," a term we use on the track and one I've heard cycling as well. The idea is to get in a single line so runners (or cars) can pass safely. The Bobsy Twins, to my shock, moved out to lanes two and three, where they were nearly run down by the startled leaders of the big group. Some fancy footwork and clever use of hands and arms prevented a pileup.

I wondered if the Bobsy Twins even noticed that everyone else was running single file? I wonder if they noticed no one was running in lane two, except when they passed? I was disappointed and a bit angry, when on the next mile, the Twins returned to running side by side, across two lanes.

These ladies didn't seem to be fully aware of the space, the rules of the space, and more concerning, didn't learn from their near collision. I wonder if these ladies are good drivers. Do they keep right when going slower and pass on the left? Do they watch traffic and how it behaves to learn how to navigate it safely? Do they tease out the rules if for some reason they do not know them already?

I asked the coach to talk to them and be sure they knew the rules. But I fear something more basic is missing for these ladies.  They don't seem to have the awareness and ability to learn to operate in a "new" geography.

Observations on Young People and Wayfinding

To Hill and Back

Over the holiday weekend I attended one of my favorite local races. It's a four mile trail race including a long, rocky, exposed hill. The event is called "To Hill and Back." This was probably my fourth attempt and I was happy to finish in the middle of the pack (64/139, results).

In past years the race director (RD) introduced the course just before the start. I recall announcements explaining that after a short section on the paved road, we'd head into the woods where it would quickly turn to single track. Single track refers to a thin trail where it's very hard (or impossible) to pass. The RD suggested  that we try to "seed ourselves," that is arrange ourselves, so the fast folks would be first to the single track and not be trapped behind the slower runners. In past years it worked very well and I carefully hung back so as to not get in the way of those who run the trails like deer. The other information I recall from past races related to the volunteers on the trail pointing the way at every turn and survey tape on trees and survey flags on the ground marking the way.

This year the RD only mentioned the volunteers in her briefing. I chatted with a few folks new to the event who asked me key questions: Where is the hill in the four miles? Is there single track? I was happy to share my knowledge. At the start, several runners new to the race assured one another there was no single track. I was not sure whether to correct them or not.

What interested me most about the event was a pair of young people who ran. I want to share my observations (some second hand) about them and their navigation of the trail.

Son

I found myself behind Mom, who was wearing an iPod, and Son, about nine or ten. Mom, from the start, tried to slow down Son. It did not work. Once into the woods, Son came to a screeching halt on the trail to wait for Mom. She informed him he could not do that with other runners behind him. He continued to weave unpredictably through the long snake of runners. Mom would call out to coach him fairly regularly. She did not take off her iPod's earbuds.

I decided it was a good time to model good trail etiquette for Son and others. I let the folks behind me know that if they wanted to pass to just let me know. They didn't let me know, but they did pass me, sometimes on my left, sometimes on my right. Once I was in a position to do so, I modeled what I hoped to see. I called out "passing on your left" and passed two runners. I thought, "now Son, and maybe Mom, have seen and heard how it's done."

I confess I was ecstatic to see Mom helping Son take off his track pants alongside the trail within the first 3/4 of a mile. It was quite warm; I'd started in shorts, a rarity for me this late in the season. While tugging on his pant legs, Mom chastised him about wasting time. I never saw them again.

Fast Kid

Up at the front of the entire race, I was told, was pack of about five men. Two of them are in my running club and one explained how the race played out from his perspective. My friends were third and fifth respectively in the standings, sandwiching a 13-year-old who took fourth. The young man had run with them from the start and at times got ahead of them. When he was leading and came to an intersection, he'd stop short waiting for guidance on which way to go. The other runners would call out "left" or "right" from behind based on their knowledge of the course or seeing the survey tape. Then the kid would get going again.

Questions

Pondering these young people trying to navigate the trails got me thinking. If Mom knew Son was new to trail racing, why did she not prep him about the rules? And, if she expected to coach him on the trail (which I fully support), why did she wear headphones that limited her ability to hear his questions and perhaps the key information other runners shared? Did Son not observe that most runners were "staying in line" and not weaving in and out? Could he not decipher this was how we behave on the trail?

Clearly the teenager is a great runner. Why then did he not have the trail navigation skills he needed? Had he not seen survey tape used to mark a trail? Even if he had not (and as I noted the race director did not mention it) could he not have seen and deciphered its meaning in the early miles? Had someone (a coach, fellow runner, parent...) not spent some time teaching him some of these skills?

Frustration

Seeing young people in these situations without the basic geographic skills to navigate our world saddens and frustrates me. As much as we hang our heads when students can't find countries on maps or recoil about another story of a driver following GPS directions too literally (such as into a lake or tree),  I think we need to worry more about simply navigating ourselves, under our own power, in our natural and manmade world. Spatial literacy may well begin in the woods.