Table 2 Suggested guidelines for building a guerilla geography activity


■ Identify program learning goals and objectives ■ Investigate the local landscape you wish to focus on ■ Set forth parameters for the exploration (e.g. explorer oath, exploration rules) ■ Determine if the event will be a one-day task, multi-day task, or open-ended exploration ■ Decide if the exploration will be completed individually or in groups ■ Brainstorm a list of initial mission ideas ■ Vary the senses used in the missions (based on your learning objectives and feasibility of the landscape you are exploring) ■ Use multiple reporting methods (e.g., for some missions a learner documents their findings in writing while other missions are completed with a dance or through making sounds - this encourages students to take their learning outside of the box while simultaneously accommodating multiple learning preferences)


■ Create missions that have the learners explore things that meet your learning objectives but also include ones that will open the learner up to self-exploration and demonstrate to you what is important to them and what they learned/made sense of their local landscape all on their own


dialogue focusing on how place is special and often inter- preted differently by individuals. Assessment and Evaluation Measure #3: Ask learners


to create a set of missions and/or booklet as a way to docu- ment their expectations and planned learning events based on their own inquiry-driven interests as a journal or record of a lesson, unit, semester, or other time period; grade accordingly. This article serves as a call to action. All places, from


the bland-manila to the exotic-technicolored, hold the poten- tial for something new to learn. It is our job as educators to unlock these dimensions for our learners. We encourage you to do so by using the resources already available, develop- ing your own place-based missions, and by enjoying teach- ing and learning using guerilla geography. Start out small or GO BIG, but work your way up, regardless. If everything goes according to plan, you and your learners may be able to open yourselves to new vistas of your everyday world.


Thomas Larsen is a graduate student of geography at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. His research interests extend to geography education, environmental perception, and human-environment interaction. Lisa Tabor is an assistant professor at Georgia Southern University, Institute for Interdisciplinary STEM Education. Lisa’s research focuses on best practices in education, enhancing technology use through local authentic learning experiences in the classroom, and improving teacher edu- cation/professional development. Both are active members of the National Geographic Network of Alliances for Geo- graphic Education. They can be reached at tblarsen@ksu. edu and lkt7779@gmail.com respectively.


Notes


1. Larsen, T. and L. Tabor. 2015. Mission Explore Zoo: Call of the Wild. www.unexploredgeographic.com/guerrilla-geography.


2. Askins, K. and D. Raven-Ellison. 2012. Spotlight on… Mission: Explore Food. Geography 97(3): 163-166.


3. The Geography Collective. 2010. Mission: Explore! United Kingdom: The Can of Worms Kids Press.


4. The Geography Collective. 2011. Mission: Explore! Camping. United King- dom: The Can of Worms Kids Press.


Phone (800) 545-7475 R www.dawnpub.com Canadian Distributor R Fitzhenry & Whiteside R 800-387-9776 GREEN TEACHER 109 Page 27


5. Heffron, S.G., and R.M. Downs, eds. 2012. Geography for life: National geography standards, 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: National Council for Geo- graphic Education.


6. Kitchens, J. 2009. Situated pedagogy and the Situationist International: Countering a pedagogy of placelessness. Educational Studies 45: 240-261. See also Relph, E. 1976. Place and Placelessness. London: Pion.


7. Lehman, J. D., George, M., Buchanan, P., and Rush, M. 2006. Preparing teachers to use problem-centered inquiry-based science: Lessons from a four- year professional development project. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem- based Learning 1(1): 76-99.


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