Join OKAGE and your colleagues for a one-day workshop on geography in Oklahoma and beyond! Session topics include: how to apply geographic and spatial thinking, teaching with primary sources, understanding human-environment interaction with the Oklahoma Giant Map, the Five Themes of Geography, and more. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn from presenters affiliated with the University of Oklahoma Department of Geography & Environmental Sustainability, Putnam City Schools, Durant Public Schools, OKAGE, and DarkSky International.

Grade Levels: 7th and up; activities are adaptable to 6th grade and below
Registration Fee: $25.00 deposit refundable upon workshop attendance or 48-hour cancellation
Attendee Stipend: $50.00
Six professional development hours
Breakfast & Lunch included
Substitute teacher reimbursement available upon request

registration form

Deposit payments may be made online here. Purchase orders may be emailed to okage@ou.edu. Checks and purchase orders may be mailed to the OKAGE office at 100 E. Boyd St. SEC 684, Norman, OK 73019.

Contact us at okage@ou.edu with any questions.

Join the Oklahoma Council for the Social Studies and your colleagues for the annual OCSS Conference. Attendee registration is available here.

Geography Day is open to any groups of middle or high school students in 6th - 12th grade.

Students will have the opportunity to visit with exhibitors representing college programs in Geography and similar fields as well as those who will be able to provide information on geography and related careers available within the state. All attendees are invited to participate in an art contest. More information about the art contest can be found here. OKAGE will also be leading an interactive Giant Map activity, and will be providing lunch to all students and teachers in attendance.

Schools may request a substitute teacher and/or transportation reimbursement from OKAGE by sending an invoice to okage@ou.edu.

Registration for Geography Day is now closed.

Join the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education for a special one-day in-person workshop highlighting how geography can be used to enhance your upper elementary classroom instruction in the four major subject areas - Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, and English Language Arts! Participants will receive classroom-ready lesson plans for the elementary level and are eligible to receive five hours of professional development credit along with a $75.00 stipend to offset any costs associated with attending this workshop. Substitute teacher reimbursements are available to your school upon request. All workshop participants will receive free access to the museum galleries following the workshop from 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Register here by Tuesday, October 26th.

A $25.00 refundable deposit is due at the time of registration and is required in order for your registration to be confirmed. Any cancelations or no-shows will result in forfeiture of your deposit. OKAGE accepts checks, purchase orders, and online payments for workshop deposits. Checks should be made out to OKAGE and mailed to 100 E. Boyd St. SEC 684, Norman, OK 73072, and purchase orders can either be emailed to okage@ou.edu or mailed to us. Online payments are accepted here. If you are paying your deposit by check, please email okage@ou.edu when your check has been mailed.

The Sam Noble Museum is a large event space designed to hold hundreds of people - much greater than our typical workshop attendance of 15 - 45 people. As such, there will be socially distanced seating throughout the duration of this event. OKAGE will provide masks, hand sanitizer, breakfast, and lunch for workshop participants. Outdoor and indoor socially distanced dining will be available at the venue. Contact us at okage@ou.edu or (405) 325-5832 with any questions.

Join the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education and the State Department of Education for a professional development session titled “Using Science, Math, Social Studies, English Language Arts, and Geography to Understand What Really Happened to the Grid During the Last Snowstorm!”

We know the snowstorm last month exposed the sensitivities of the grid systems. What happened in Texas can and does happen elsewhere, for various reasons. The public view and the industry view differ. So, the question for us is: "What really happened?" During this presentation, we will highlight how elements from all subject areas can be used to explain the causes of this incident as well as understand implications for future service interruptions due to extreme weather events.

Kylah McNabb is a renewable energy specialist, policy advisor, and educator. She currently is the Principal of Vesta Strategic Solutions, LLC, in OKC. Prior to that, Kylah served as a Renewable Energy Specialist, Oklahoma Department of Commerce, 2008-2017, and as an Energy Policy Advisor, Oklahoma Secretary of Energy & Environment, 2016-2017. Kylah will share her unique insights and data regarding the recent events. Her perspective will not only include what did happen, but also, what did not happen!

Participants will receive one hour of professional development credit and will be entered into a drawing for a door prize!

Email us at okage@ou.edu to receive the password, or if you have any questions.

Join the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education, Oklahoma State University, and the State Department of Education for a session on Oklahoma's geography. Steve Stadler, Ph.D. from the Oklahoma State University Department of Geography will be discussing wind power and other sources of renewable energy as an illustration of Oklahoma's unique physical and human characteristics. The following Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies will be covered in this session:

6.5: The student will compare common physical and human characteristics of regions which create identity or uniqueness and influence people's perceptions of the Western Hemisphere
7.1.4: Integrate visual information and apply the skill of mental mapping of the political and physical features of the Earth’s surface in order to organize information about people, places, and environments.
7.1.5: Integrate visual information, draw conclusions, and make predictions from geographic data; analyze spatial distribution and patterns by interpreting that data as displayed on geographic tools.
7.2.2: Describe the distribution of major renewable and nonrenewable resources of each region.

Participants will receive one hour of professional development credit and will be entered into a drawing for a door prize!

Link to session: https://zoom.us/j/97502983748

Email us at okage@ou.edu to receive the password, or if you have any questions.

Join the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education and the Oklahoma Council for Social Studies for a session on the spread of Democracy and Authoritarianism around the world. This session will be led by National Geographic Certified Educator and OKAGE Teacher Consultant, Cody Sivertsen and the content presented will be aligned with the Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies and the National Geography Standards. Participants who attend the live session will be entered into a door prize drawing and will receive professional development credit.

Link to session: https://bit.ly/3adYAO8

Meeting ID: 961 8232 1778

Email us at okage@ou.edu to receive the passcode.

Join the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education for a special online professional development opportunity on Jerusalem. The first session will be led by Rangar Cline, Ph.D. and will provide an overview of Jerusalem then will cover archaeological research related to pilgrimages in the Roman and early Byzantine periods. Following Dr. Cline’s presentation, National Geographic Certified Educator and OKAGE Teacher Consultant Teresa Potter will discuss the significance of Jerusalem in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Participants who attend the live session are eligible to receive a $25.00 stipend, three hours of professional development credit, and will be entered into a door prize drawing. $50.00 stipends are available to participants who attend the live session and develop a lesson plan on Jerusalem to be made available on the OKAGE website following the workshop.

After completing the registration form here, you will receive the link and password for the Zoom meeting. Contact us at okage@ou.edu if you have any questions.

Join us on Tuesday, December 8th at 4:00 p.m. CST for the sixth installment of OKAGE’s online professional development series! This session will cover disaster preparedness and recovery and how these strategies differ across local, regional, and global scales. Impacts upon disaster response as they relate to existing socioeconomic inequities along with complicating factors due to COVID-19 will also be discussed. This session will be led by OKAGE Teacher Consultant Heather Braucher, and Dr. Mark Shafer with the Southern Climate Impacts Planning Program. The content presented will be at the middle and high school levels, but educators of all grade levels are welcome to attend. There will be a door prize drawing for five Nystrom Desk Atlases for participants who attend the live session. Attendees will receive one hour of professional development credit.
Link to session: https://zoom.us/j/97502983748
Email us at okage@ou.edu to receive the password, or if you have any questions.

The Middle East produces about one third of the world’s oil which makes the entire world reliant on that oil and natural gas. The goal of this lesson is to use map skills to gain an understanding of the effects of abundant oil supplies in the Middle East. Using maps, students will analyze data from a geographic perspective. They will increase their understanding of conflict and cooperation among specific groups over oil and religious differences, along with the impacts of COVID-19 upon global markets. They will also identify multinational peace-keeping efforts to stabilize relationships in the Middle East. There will be a door prize drawing for five Nystrom Desk Atlases for participants who attend the live session.

Link to session: https://zoom.us/j/97502983748
Email us at okage@ou.edu to receive the password, or if you have any questions.

Join us on Wednesday, October 28th from 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. CDT for a half-day professional development session. This session will cover writing exercises and activities centered around the Tulsa Race Massacre, and will be led by Quraysh Ali Lansana, who is a Professor and Teaching Artist at Oklahoma State University (OSU) - Tulsa and Taylor Woodard who is a National Geographic Certified Educator and OKAGE Teacher Consultant. Professor Lansana currently teaches a course on Black Wall Street: Greenwood’s Evolution and Reawakenings at OSU - Tulsa and Taylor Woodard currently teaches 5th grade English Language Arts at Moore Public Schools. The content presented will be at the upper elementary and middle school level, but educators of all grade levels are welcome to attend. Participants who attend the live session and complete an evaluation form will receive a $25.00 stipend, four hours of professional development credit, and will be entered into a door prize drawing. Participants who attend the live session and submit a lesson plan on the Tulsa Race Massacre to be added to the OKAGE Lesson Plan Library are eligible to receive a $50.00 stipend. After completing the registration form here, you will receive the link and password for the Zoom meeting. Contact us at okage@ou.edu if you have any questions.

Join us on Tuesday, October 13th at 5:00 p.m. CDT for the fourth installment of OKAGE’s online professional development series! This session will cover strategies for teaching geography online, and will be led by OKAGE Teacher Consultant and National Geographic Certified Educator Clayton Canon. The content presented will be at the middle school level, but educators of all grade levels are welcome to attend. Attendees should come prepared with a resource to share with other participants, or a specific question about online geography instruction that can be addressed in the session. Participants will receive one hour of professional development credit, and there will be a door prize drawing for five Nystrom Desk Atlases for participants who attend the live session.
Link to session: https://zoom.us/j/97502983748
Email us at okage@ou.edu to receive the password, or if you have any questions.

Join us on Tuesday, September 8th at 4:00 p.m. CDT for the third installment of OKAGE’s online professional development series! This session will cover the human and physical characteristics of East Asia, and will be led by OKAGE Teacher Consultant Susan Smith. The content presented will be at the middle school level, but educators of all grade levels are welcome to attend. Participants will receive one hour of professional development credit for this session.
Link to session: https://zoom.us/j/97502983748
Email us at okage@ou.edu to receive the password, or if you have any questions.

Join us on Tuesday, August 11th at 4:00 p.m. CDT for the second installment of OKAGE’s online professional development series! This session will cover Climate Change, and will be led by J. Scott Greene, Ph.D. The content presented will primarily be at the middle school and high school level, but educators of all grade levels are welcome to attend. Participants will receive one hour of professional development credit for this session.
Link to session: https://zoom.us/j/97502983748
Email us at okage@ou.edu to receive the password, or if you have any questions.

In our theme of Overcoming Tragedy through Triumph, we will start the day with a vibrant discussion focusing on the Oklahoma City Bombing and its impact in our state. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Karlos Hill, will speak with us as our state prepares for the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre to help prepare you and your classroom discussion.

Critical thinking, developing curiosity, problem-solving, and practical application are cornerstones in social studies education. There is so much to discuss with our students especially considering the current climate of events and upcoming historical anniversaries. 

Breakout sessions in geography, history, economics, and civics will provide you with ready to go tools for the new school year ahead.

Join us on Tuesday, July 14th at 4:00 p.m. CDT for the first installment of OKAGE’s online professional development series! The first session will cover Regions, and will be led by Gary Gress, Ph.D. Participants will receive one hour of professional development credit for each session.
Download the notes prior to the session here.
Watch a recording of the session here.

Breakout sessions include lesson plans and activities designed for Giant Maps of Africa, Europe, and Oklahoma.

Join OKAGE at the National Weather Center as we navigate the changes in Geography.

The 2019 Spring Geography Academy theme is Co-Existing with Animals: Human-Environment

Postcard contest entries must be postmarked by this date to be eligible for prizes. The form for entry is here . The postcard template is here.

Follow this link to the official site.

The 2018 WGA theme is Teaching Controversial Topics, Past and Present: Culture, Religion, Politics, and Our Environment.

This event is focused on elementary-level/middle-level curriculum but is open to all grade-level teachers.

The 2018 WGA theme is Teaching Controversial Topics, Past and Present: Culture, Religion, Politics, and Our Environment.

This event is focused on middle-level curriculum but is open to all grade-level teachers.