Blast from the past!

Something that I'm continually amazed about in my elementary and junior high school students is their serious lack of geography.  Most of my students can easily find Japan, but then asking them to find South Korea, or China is difficult.  I've heard that geography is a weak subject in the US as well and I wonder where and why my interest in other countries and maps came from.   Instantly I could think of three things.  

1. National Geographic Magazine: Which my grandfather religiously subscribed to for decades.

2. An illustrated history of the world:  A great book that was a present from my Grandparents, that had lots of changing maps and current events happening simultaneously throughout the world. This book is I'm sure the reason I can take Japanese History and quickly compare it with historical events around the world at the same time.

3.  The computer game, "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego", Which I first played on the apple IIe in elementary school.  Carmen was a great game that allowed kids to take on the role of a detective trying to catch the international criminal Carmen Sandiego as she ran around the world stealing things.  

You would need to go to a new location and gather clues by talking to people.  People would tell you things like 

"I heard Carmen is going some place cold" and " She must be headed to a big country" and finally  "I'm pretty sure they don't speak English where she is headed" 

You would then talk to your travel agent and have several options of destinations.  A. Canada  B. South Africa  C.  Russia (or the U.S.S.R as it was known then).  

You would then chose your destination.  If you chose wrong it wasn't a big deal.  You would fly to the place and people around town would say "No, Carmen hasn't been here"  You would then fly back and try again.  Eventually you would get the correct answer, but you were racing against the clock to catch her, so every wrong flight cost you precious time!  

The game has gone through several updates and a variety of subjects.  Her most recent game is a Math game that is available on the Nintendo Wii.  I would really love to see an updated version of this game or a mobile app.  Geography and maps change so often it is really important to have current data.   For now, we can all just wonder  "Where is Carmen San

dieago really?"

Here is a funny picture of Waldo, or Wally from the "Where's Waldo/Wally" books.  It got a laugh out of me.  Poor Carmen :(