Thematic Geo-Inquiry in Seventh Grade Geography

With the growth of globalization, geography is an important subject for students of the 21st Century to understand. Being adept in geography will aid our future generations to be able to use geographic skills to answer complex world issues. Unfortunately, geography has been a long-neglected subject of social studies; often considered boring and not worthwhile with teachers using teacher-centered curriculum methods and memorization. A teacher’s job is to provide appropriate experiences, materials, and context for students to construct and connect knowledge that is useful and beneficial to them. Through a constructivist lens, inquiry-based thematic units can be used by a teacher as a design tool to promote the construction of useful, relevant knowledge for the learner. This study reviewed the impact of thematic geo-inquiry units on geographical skill and interest. This study used a mixed-methods, action research design to explore the impact of implementing a unit based on thematic geo-inquiry. The research was conducted in a rural middle school in upstate South Carolina, using 51 7th grader as participants. The study found that both geographic interest and skill were increased from the implementation of a thematic geo-inquiry unit.