Audience

Add content here for a discussion on the audience of out atlas.


 * What age group?**

I don't know if you guys would agree but it seems that many high schoolers are a bit ignorant to the real world surrounding them as a result of contemporary mainstream entertainment such as the show "Real World" and other superficial models of our world. I don't mean to generalize and say that all high school kids are ignorant but this observation is one that I've considered since I left high school and one that interests and somewhat concerns me as, well, an American. If we were to target high school aged kids with this Atlas it seems that we have an opportunity to reach out to an interest they may not know they had. Especially since Geography isn't a core subject or study in high school which is a shame given Geography's expanse as a discipline. It seems that Geography has something to offer everyone and with that in mind maybe we could cover enough bases with our Atlas to hit an interest for most people out there. If we presented our Atlas in the right fashion that was informative, interesting, and easy to interpret perhaps we'll have somewhat of an influence at bringing them, if you will, closer to home. If you have some other perspective to this, please post it, I'm interested in other ideas towards this. [Brett]

Though I do agree with Brett that many high schoolers are not as well educated about Geography as most of us would probably like them to be, I think that by highschool age students should be able to use a standard atlas and should not need an atlas targeted directly to them. Therefore highschool could use the full atlas of Nevada when it comes out. Since the idea is to create an age specific atlas, I think we should perhaps go a little younger, and target an elementary school age group, 12 and under or so. At that age they would perhaps have a hard time understanding a full atlas and could benefit from a modified/simplified version. [Astfgl]

I agree with you Brett I think an atlas for high school kids will be a good idea. First it will force us to design an atlas that will be able to keep a pretty hard audience both visually and informatively. More importantly though it will allow us to go into more depth and allow us to diversify the topics that we plan on using in the atlas. If we limit ourselves to pre-high school kids, we are only going to be able to produce simplified maps of pretty basic topics, we would be able to focus on more aspects of physical, political, and cultural geography. I think we can do a little better than maps of just basic state information. [jesse rodrigue]

I agree with Brett that high school students are not educated enough when it comes to geography but I think Irene is right when she said that high school student should be able to read a regular atlas. We only really have four weeks to create this atlas, so I don’t think we have time to make an atlas appropriate for high school students, with detailed maps and text. If our target audience is as Irene suggested 12 and under, it will have less detail and text and we might be able to create a better product in the time frame that we have. [Posted by Abbey]

I agree with Abbey and Irene. I don't think it would be wise to invest time in a high-school level Atlas as we are indeed short on time. I also think that by the time you get to high-school you feel pretty over whelmed with so many subjects forced on you. I think there is a tendency to push aside subjects like this for more interesting aspects of puberty. If we target a younger audience we will not be competing with so many subjects and stand a better chance of making a bigger impression. [Posted by Nathan]

The point is well taken concerning the time constraints for an Atlas for high school students and I agree that there is a potential fun element in focusing on the creative aspects of a children's Atlas. [Brett]

High School kids are at a point in their life when all they want to do is get out of school. At least younger kids are still enjoying learning and will hopefully enjoy reading our atlas. Making an atlas for younger kids should be a lot more fun. We can spend less time on text and more time on graphics. The better this atlas looks, the more a younger audience should enjoy it. (cole)

I share the sentiment that an Atlas specifically for high school students is a poor idea. Being able to read a regular atlas should be a standard expectation at the high school level. I think that an atlas for younger children is more appropriate in this case. It makes more sense to target a group that has limited knowledge about the world and its geography. Plus, creating an atlas for a younger crowd poses new cartographic challenges we haven't faced yet, specifically audience adaptation [Kimmay].

I believe that young children (K-4) are the most impressionable and are at the right age for exposure to the environment. Children starting in the 2nd grade learn about their state of residence and get fully exposed to their state in the 4th grade. Children within this age group are also more interested in their natural environment, such as animals, landforms, climate and history. [Gretchen]


 * What standards must be hit?**

I went to high school in Australia and we had a very good geography program. The school I went to was in New South Whales. The Board of Studies sets all the standards for each subject. I went to the website and I found the final exam that 12 grade students have to take, as well as the syllabus. This site was the standards for all grade levels. Even though it is Australian, I think it could be a good resource for us to use when we are deciding in the standards or content [Posted by Abbey] [|http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au]

Looks interesting Abbey, I think this is a good place to start to come up with what standards we should aim for. It good that they have all the information up on this site that takes you to others that give all kinds of information. I think it is a really good start since most other countries focus on geography more than U.S. schools do so I think is good to look up what type of standards these countries set for there own students. (mfindley) >>

The Geography Standards and Age Groups Back to the The Atlas Pages