Elevating Geography’s Relevance: A Collaboration with Secondary Teachers and Students in Southeast Texas

In the 2020-21 academic year, 324,000 Texas high school students enrolled in World Geography and 63,500 students enrolled in AP Human Geography. While AP Human Geography has grown exponentially since 2001, little of this growth has translated to sustained geographic interest in college. Moreover, many Texas high school graduates struggle to understand the breadth of geography when arriving on college campuses. This may be partially attributed to a lack of place-based learning that is key for engaging underrepresented minority students. The goals of this project were to: 1) equip high school teachers in the Houston metropolitan area with content and technological tools to aid in the development of place-based lessons and activities to engage students, while also meeting required Texas Essential Knowledge and Skill (TEKS) standards; and 2) cultivate place-based geographic awareness among primarily low-income and minority high school students to foster a greater understanding of southeast Texas’s distinctive environment and culture in daily life, higher education, and the workforce.