Education

Don't know much geography

By |

By STEPHANIE HERNANDEZ McGAVIN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Three-quarters of eighth grade students in the U.S. aren’t proficient in geography and their test scores have shown no improvement since 1994, according to a new report by the General Accountability Office (GAO), an investigatory arm of Congress. One reason is middle school geography has an image problem: the stereotype of students coloring in maps and labeling state capitals. And that often leads people to ask, “What are you going to do with that?” said Benjamin Ofori-Amoah, chair of the Geography Department at Western Michigan University. Ofori-Amoah said the study of geography in middle school and beyond goes further than finding places on a globe, but many people don’t understand the importance of the subject. “Most of the time we get students coming into the major after they’re here and they take a couple of general education courses and they’ve realized that this is more than state names and capital cities and mountains and rivers.

Business & Economy

Where you live affects your economic opportunities

By |

By MATTHEW HALL
Capital News Service
LANSING – Access to better economic opportunities depends largely on your Michigan ZIP code, according to Opportunity Nation, a Washington-D.C.-based coalition that researches economic issues. A band of lower-opportunity counties stretches from Muskegon County by Lake Michigan northeast to Oscoda County, along with islands of higher-opportunity ones in the Southeast and Northwest Michigan. “Communities really matter, geography matters and for far too many people, where you are born has way too much input in how high you can climb in life,” said Russell Krumnow, the managing director of Opportunity Nation. The group’s Opportunity Index grades counties on their local economies, quality of education and community life. “Generally, opportunity is closely tied to things like unemployment rate and the income of an area,” said Carsten Hohnke, vice president for strategy and policy at the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

Environment

New film highlights worlds of Great Lakes ice

By |

By MATTHEW HALL
Capital News Service
LANSING — The shaping of the Great Lakes’ geographic, economic and cultural history by ice is revealed in a documentary set to be finished in late April. Producers of “Project Ice” used high-definition cameras to capture spectacular scenes of ice on the lakes, as well as intimate portraits of residents’ connection to the wonders of winter, said William Kleinert, executive producer and director of the film. “Ice has been involved in so many aspects of the Great Lakes, right from its original creation from glaciation, on through the present and the development of its culture, economy, shipping, navigation and commerce,” Kleinert said. He began the project two years ago to document the historic car ferries on the Straits of Mackinac. But it evolved into something bigger and more illustrative of the entire Great Lakes region.

Government

Inaccurate floodplain maps targeted

By |

By ANJANA SCHROEDER
Capital News Service
LANSING – After the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released floodplain maps, effective April 17, homeowners started receiving letters from their lenders giving them 45 days to buy additional insurance because they were in a flood zone. Floodplain maps for counties statewide were determined by FEMA, but officials in Gladwin and Crawford counties were concerned about the accuracy and impact of the maps. Approximately 350 homes in Gladwin alone were placed in a newly created flood zone, U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Crystal Falls, told FEMA in a letter requesting that Gladwin County have until Oct. 31 to draw new maps. State Rep. Joel Johnson, R-Clare, contacted the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) about remapping Gladwin’s floodplain.