[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Page 3454]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 TEACHING GEOGRAPHY IS FUNDAMENTAL ACT

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise in strong support of the Teaching 
Geography is Fundamental Act, introduced by Senator Cochran and myself 
last week. Increasing geography literacy is essential to STEM 
education, and investing in our children's science education is 
essential to making America smarter and more innovative. This bill 
would authorize the Secretary of Education to meet that critical need 
by doling out competitive grants to proven nonprofits with a track 
record of promoting geography literacy in our schools through 
activities such as teacher professional development and research. As 
chairwoman of the appropriation subcommittee that funds National 
Science Foundation, NSF, I have directed National Science Foundation's 
education team to work with experts like National Geographic to 
strengthen geography education. NSF is now working with National 
Geographic Society to explore new ways to improve geography teaching, 
training, and research in our schools. This pilot program has proven 
successful and deserves national support.
  For a number of years, I have promoted geography locally in my home 
State of Maryland by working with geographic trailblazers like National 
Geographic Society's Chesapeake watershed education programs and Pat 
Noonan's Chesapeake Bay Interpretive Buoys--bringing real-time 
environmental information to Maryland schoolchildren in a meaningful 
and understandable way. I can tell that making geography education 
local is where to start. Hook a child's interest with what they know, 
and their geographic knowledge will open up to the rest of the world.
  I strongly support this bill because I know it can enhance tremendous 
work already being done. National Geographic is a great example of an 
organization that could partner with the Department of Education to 
provide schools with the intellectual and organizational capacity to 
effectively teach geography literacy. It is an institution whose 
members have explored the world's tallest peaks and discovered our 
ocean's deepest depths. They support exploration and discovery--from 
Peary and Hanson's expedition to the North Pole in 1906 to Ballard's 
discovery of the Titanic in 1985. But they also fund geography 
education programming through grants to educational organizations and 
by providing professional development to classroom teachers. Their 
magazine alone has an incredible impact because of its loyal and 
massive readership of more than 360 million people. There is no need 
for the administration to reinvent the wheel when there are willing 
geographic partners ready and willing to take this Teaching Geography 
is Fundamental bill and run with it.
  We live in an age when our innovative economy is becoming ever more 
global and new cyber technology connects schoolchildren not only to 
their friend across the street but to their friend across the ocean, 
Better geography literacy at a young age--along with an understanding 
and appreciation of other cultures--is so important nowadays. I think 
it is both fitting and appropriate that we continue to encourage that 
curiosity with our children, and this bill helps us get there. That is 
why I am proud to cosponsor this bill, and I encourage my colleagues to 
support it as well.

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