Geography as a required Elective by Radjanie

Geography as a required Elective by Radjanie - January 2023 Scholarship Essay

There is a trend on American social media where someone with a microphone parades a college campus asking students questions to test their intelligence. Regardless of the student's grades or the prestige of their schools, they often fail to answer questions about geography. Sometimes they are unable to point to a specific state. The problem? In middle and high schools, social studies classes involving culture, history, political science, and geography do not spend enough time on the latter. Understandably World War 1 and 2 lectures which must include the location, participants, and reasons for each battle, take most of the learning time. Therefore, if American students are to get better at Geography, they need to take a required elective as part of their education focused solely on Geography.

Geography is a complex subject in which students learn about continents, countries, regions, states, and capitals. When a class is complex, students often cram a couple of days before examinations, take them and then forget what they learned. To avoid this, the geography elective should have small examinations, 3-point quizzes for example, on alternating class days. Some homework every week and a comprehensive exam on a specific region or country every month can help students retain the knowledge of their lectures. To make things fun and keep students' spirits joyful, professors can assign biweekly projects such as coloring or making the flag or the national flower of a region. Making the food of a region, even with playdough. Writing a short story in the language of the country. And lastly, researching to give out some fun facts about a location. These projects will educate students on geography and also teach them about different cultures providing them with the cultural awareness necessary to live in a diverse world.

Ultimately, American professors can help their students improve at Geography by teaching a required geography elective with quizzes, exams, and projects implemented in their lesson plans. To include this elective as part of the many classes that students are required to take may be difficult but not impossible. For example, the language classes that students are required to take can be cut in half so that they can take the geography elective before or after. The knowledge that the students gain from the elective will benefit them in many ways, one of which is the pride of acing the social media intelligence test trend.