Mayor Bill McMurray issued a proclamation to Missouri Western recognizing Nov. 15-21 as Geography Awareness Week and Nov. 18 as GIS Day in the city of St. Joseph. Each year, since 1987, National Geographic and the Missouri Geographic Alliance has worked together to promote Geography Awareness Week throughout the state of Missouri. More than 100,000 Americans participate in Geography Awareness Week each year. As the proclamation states, the world is increasingly interconnected and interdependent, but too many students lack understanding of the world’s geography within and beyond our country’s borders; and Geography Awareness Week promotes geo-literacy and education in the nation’s schools and communities, which is an essential part of a 21st century education, and has been a congressionally-mandated week since 1987. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technologies are a powerful tool for supporting emergency services, homeland security, economic development, environmental protection, crime mapping, healthcare, long-range planning, and much more; and teachers, students, and community members across St. Joseph will gain further understanding about how our world is made up of interconnected human and natural systems using resources developed by the National Geographic Society, the Missouri Geographic Alliance, Missouri Western State University, and other committed organizations during Geography Awareness Week and throughout the school year. This year’s theme is geo-literacy – the understanding and application of geographic concepts and reasoning, and recognizes the vital role that geography plays in many of the world’s current challenges, including climate change, global trade, race issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, geographers moved to the forefront of the news, mapping and tracking the pandemic, providing historical place-based context to discussions of systematic racism, measuring severe climate events, and monitoring election results. By incorporating geo-literacy in education at all levels, we can create a culture that is spatially aware and able to process the variety of visualizations and maps that are increasingly used to communicate stories of space and place.
Missouri Western offers minors in geography and earth and environmental science, complimenting many majors, and helping students prepare for future careers in a variety of fields. For more information on Geography or GIS, contact Dawn Drake in the department of biology at ddrake4@missouriwestern.edu.