Globetracker's Mission: Finding Dewey

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Teacher Edition | View the Map

Week of April 9, 2023

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Late Wednesday Night

We are in Geneva, Switzerland, preparing for tomorrow morning's Global Warming Conference. In our last post, we asked you to vote about what we should do next. Most of you voted that we should trace Phoebe's credit cards to figure out where she might be with Dewey. We did find a clue. Phoebe is staying at the same hotel/conference center where the Global Warming Conference is being held tomorrow! She made purchases at the hotel restaurant and gift shop. Earlier tonight, we visited the hotel, hoping to spot Phoebe and Dewey. We went to the front desk and asked what room Phoebe Equator was registered in. Well, with security laws nowadays, that certainly didn't work!! However, they did offer to phone her room. They connected us to her room; the phone just rang and rang. No one ever answered. So we sat in the lobby and did some "people-watching." No luck! We waited about 3-hours in the lobby and then returned to our hotel.

When we returned to our hotel room, I researched Geneva and Switzerland. This country differs from any other countries we visited on this mission. Switzerland is known as a "neutral" country. During its amazing history, Switzerland has settled many political disputes. There have been Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners and many end-of-war Treaties. And did you know that Geneva isn't even the capital city of Switzerland? The capital is Bern. The United Nations has a big presence in Geneva. It has a long history of international diversity and neutrality. It is so cool. Did you know you can take a BOAT in Geneva like you can take buses, trains, or taxis in other parts of the world? In fact, the lake boats are actually part of the transit system.

The climate in Switzerland is fairly temperate, but it really varies with the altitude. Do you remember what altitude means? Speaking of altitude, boy, does Switzerland have some amazing mountains! There are the Alps in the south and Jura Mountains in the northwest. Central Switzerland has plateaus and rolling hills. And there are beautiful large lakes (remember - part of the transit system). The main natural resources of Switzerland include hydropower, salt, and timber.

Switzerland has some natural hazards too - landslides, flash floods, and avalanches. I know what a flash flood is, but I am unsure about a landslide or avalanche. Meri researched and found that a landslide is when the earth, rocks, or debris flows on slopes due to gravity. I guess they are more common here because of all of the hills and mountains. An avalanche is very similar to a landslide, but instead of just earth, rocks, and debris sliding down slopes, an avalanche involves SNOW. When an avalanche occurs, a very large slab of snow slides down a mountain.

- Geo

Switzerland Information
This link provides a ton of information about Switzerland.

Switzerland by Train
This map shows the train routes through Switzerland. Can you find Geneva? Can you find the capital city? What is the capital city of Switzerland? What countries border Switzerland? What cardinal direction do you travel going from the capital city to Geneva?

Switzerland Virtual Tours
Click on one of the red dots to take a virtual tour of several cities in Switzerland.

Thursday

Holy Idaho! I don't know what to tell you first. I guess I will start at the beginning of the day today. We left the hotel very early to arrive at the convention center and keep our eyes out for Phoebe and Dewey. Uncle GT had done some investigating during the night and found out that Phoebe was registered to attend a seminar all about Palmer Station. We have no idea what Palmer Station is. Do you have any ideas? Anyway, since Phoebe had seen us in Oceania, we didn't want her to see us here. So we purposely registered for a different seminar that was held in the room next door to the one about Palmer Station. Since Phoebe had never met Uncle GT, he registered for the seminar about Palmer Station. So the seminars began. We had shown Uncle GT a picture of Phoebe. So he knew who he was watching for.

In our seminar, we met two teenagers who were there as student ambassadors from their countries. Ania was a girl we met from Poland, and Angelo was from Florence, Italy. During our morning break, we got to talk to Ania and Angelo about their home countries. It was so exciting to learn about places we have never been to. I wish we could see Italy and Poland, but we must continue our mission to find Dewey, the truth-sniffing dog. We did post some pictures in our blog that Angelo and Ania shared with us.

Ania taught us some pretty cool stuff about Poland. Many of my friends have ancestors from Poland, so I found it all fascinating! Poland is found in central Europe (east of Germany). Unlike Switzerland, a lot of Poland is mostly a flat plain. There are some mountains on the southern tip of the country. Poland has a wealth of arable land - over 40%! Holy Idaho! This might be the most "arable" country we have learned about so far. Ania's family is actually farmers. In fact, 16% of Polish people are farmers. I wonder what percentage of Americans are farmers? Ania explained that many products are grown in Poland, including fruits, wheat, vegetables, potatoes, poultry, pork, eggs, dairy, and others.

Then Angelo showed us pictures of his hometown - Florence, Italy. Holy Idaho! It is beautiful, maybe the most beautiful land we have seen yet! Italy is located in Southern Europe on a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea. The city of Florence is located in central Italy (not on the coast). The capital of Italy is Rome. Holy Idaho! The country of Italy is about the same size as Arizona (a little larger). It is shaped differently (a "boot" instead of a rectangle), but the overall land size is very close. Angelo told us that Italy has many natural resources - natural gas and crude oil reserves, pumice, fluorspar, mercury, coal, zinc, marble, feldspar, and numerous others. He was very proud to tell us that Florence is considered a treasure in art because of its history of many famous Renaissance artists. Do you know any?

- Meri

Pictures of

Here are some pictures of Poland that Ania shared with us.

- Meri

The Tatra Mountains in Poland

The Chapel of Madonna (the church Ania attends)

The Lublin Castle in Poland - isn't it amazing!

Pictures of Florence,

Here are some pictures of Florence, Italy. Angelo showed us an entire album of his hometown!

- Meri

The skyline of Florence, Italy

The beautiful landscape of Florence, Italy.

The water and a bridge in Florence, Italy

Thursday Afternoon - Still at the Convention Center

We quietly sneaked out of our seminar when we received Uncle GT's message. He explained that blonde-haired women were in the seminar, but none looked like Phoebe. He had saved the picture of Phoebe on his phone and hadn't seen her at all. While we were chatting with Uncle GT, we came up with a plan. We visited the "Registration" table and asked if Phoebe Equator had registered that morning. She had and was supposedly in the seminar about Palmer Station. Meri went to get a drink; her face was extremely pale when she returned. She said she was certain she saw Phoebe Equator in line for the vending machine. Phoebe had dyed her hair jet black, but Meri was positive it was her. We immediately walked towards the food/beverage area. When we arrived, we saw a woman (in a long fur coat with jet-black hair) running the other way towards the exit door. She must have seen Meri and recognized her. We tried to catch her, but she was already in a boat and driving away when we got out the door. About ten minutes later, Uncle GT received a call. It was from his European office. They were calling to tell us that Phoebe had just made a purchase on her credit card. She bought an airline ticket. We don't know where she is flying, though. So what should we do? Our only clue is Palmer Station. Phoebe has something vested in Palmer Station. Can you look at the link below about Palmer Station? What is it?

- Geo

Tour Antarctica\'s Palmer Station
Watch this short video to learn more about Palmer Station.

Vocabulary Terms:

altitude - how high land is above (or below) sea level.

arable - land that can be used to grow crops.

avalanche - a massive movement of large slabs of snow that slide down the sides of a mountain.

landslide - the downward flow of earth, rocks, and debris from a slope or hill due to gravity.

Natural hazards - extreme weather and/or other conditions caused by nature. Some examples include volcanoes, earthquakes, blizzards, tornadoes, droughts, tsunamis, and typhoons.

natural resources - any substance that is made by nature and used to enhance the lives of living things. Some examples of natural resources include sunlight, minerals, soil, and water.

Oceania - A region that is made up of many islands and countries. Oceania is divided into four sub-regions. Each of the regions includes numerous islands. The regions are Australasia, Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia. Australia is the largest country in Oceania.

peninsula - a piece of land that is bordered by water (on three or more sides), but is not an island. A peninsula is attached to a larger body of land but sticks out into the water.

temperate - a climate that provides warm summers and mild winters. The temperatures do not typically get extremely hot or cold.

United Nations - established in 1945, after the end of World War II. There are nearly 200 countries from around the world represented in the United Nations. The goals of the U.N. are to protect and promote peace, security, and economic stability throughout the world.

Standards for this episode:

Understands the characteristics and uses of maps, globes, and other geographical tools and technologies.

Grade 3-5: Knows the basic elements of maps and globes (title, legend, cardinal, scale, grid, meridians, time zones, etc.).

Knows the location of places, geographical features, and patterns of the environment.

Grade 3-5: Knows major physical and human features of places as they are represented on maps and globes. Knows how to read different maps: road, relief, globe, etc..

Grade 3-5: Knows the approximate location of major continents, mountain ranges, and bodies of water on Earth.

Grade 6-8: Knows the location of physical and human features on maps and globes (e.g., culture hearths such as Mesopotamia, Huang Ho, the Yucatan Peninsula, the Nile Valley; major ocean currents; wind patterns; land forms; climate regions).

Grade 6-8: Knows the relative location of, size of, and distances between places.

Understands the characteristics and uses of spatial organization of Earth's surface.

Grade 3-5: Understands how changing transportation and communication technology has affected relationships between locations. Ease of travel between some and difficulty getting to some others because of transportation and how people move and shop from one to the other because of the ease (trains, road systems, ferries, etc...).

Understands the physical and human characteristics of a place.

Grade 6-8: Knows the physical characteristics of places (soil, vegetation, wildlife, etc..).

Understands the concept of regions.

Grade 3-5: Knows the characteristics of a variety of regions (climate, housing, religion, language, etc..).

Grade 6-8: Understands criteria that give a region identity (such as Amsterdam as a transportation center or the Sunbelt's warm climate and popularity with retired people).

Understands that culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.

Grade 6-8: Knows how places and regions serve as cultural symbols (Opera House in Sydney or Tower Bridge in London).

Knows the physical processes that shape patterns on Earth's surfaces.

Grade 3-5: Knows the physical components of Earth's atmosphere (weather and climate), lithosphere (land forms such as mountains), hydrosphere (oceans, lakes and rivers), and biosphere (vegetation and biomes).

Grade 3-5: Knows significant historical achievements of various cultures of the world (e.g., the Hanging Gardens or Babylon, the Taj Mahal in India, pyramids in Egypt, temples in ancient Greece, bridges and aqueducts in ancient Rome).

Grade 6-8: Knows the consequences of a specific physical process operating on Earth's surface (e.g., effects of an extreme weather phenomenon such as a hurricane's impact on a coastal ecosystem, effects of heavy rainfall on hill slopes, effects of the continued movement of Earth's tectonic plates).

Understands the characteristics of ecosystems on Earth's surface.

Grade 3-5: Knows plants and animals associated with various vegetation and climatic region on Earth (i.e. kinds of plants and animals found in the rainforests of Africa).

Understands the forces of cooperation and conflict that shape the divisions of Earth's surface.

Grade 6-8: Understands the symbolic importance of capital cities (such as Canberra, a planned city, as the capital of Australia).

Understands how physical systems affect human systems.

Grade 3-5: Knows how communities benefit from the physical environment (e.g., people make their living by farming on fertile land, fishing in local water, working in mines; the community is a port located on a natural harbor, a tourist center located in a scenic or historic area, an industrial center with good access to natural resources).

Grade 3-5: Knows natural hazards that occur in the physical environment (floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, etc..).

Grade 6-8: Knows how the physical environment affects life in different regions (e.g., how people in Siberia, Alaska, and other high-latitude places deal with the characteristics of tundra environments; limitations to coastline settlements as a result of tidal, storm, and erosional processes).