Can Kroger's website teach Geography?

I was recently searching for Geography WebQuests, and came across one titled, “From Sea to Shining Sea WebQuest,” which took students on a trip across the country to learn US Geography and History. I was intrigued by this quest because it allowed students to use travel websites, including Expedia and the Greyhound Bus website, to gather information for their trip.


When I was studying Geography myself, I was encouraged to use creative methods of finding the information I needed, and this WebQuest reminded me of the Geography projects I worked on in college. For a class on US culture, I developed a simple project that used the movie website, Fandango, to compare demographic and cultural differences around the United States.


I looked at a variety of different sized cities around the country, and compared what movies were playing in each. I then analyzed the differences to make my conclusions about each city’s population. For instance, since theaters in Miami and Corpus Christi, Texas offered many more Spanish-language films than most of the other cities I examined, I concluded that they had larger than average Spanish-speaking populations. This was a very simple project, and it could easily be tweaked for classroom use, especially if the findings were then compared to the Census information on those populations. I think lessons like this could provide a fun way for students to see real world indications of cultural and demographic variation, while encouraging their use of technology.


Remembering this project inspired me to think of other websites I could use to teach regional differences. Job sites would be a good source for information about regional industries, and could also be used to research differences in cost of living by comparing salaries. Real estate and grocery store websites could be other fun resources.


Now that so many of our grocery stores are countrywide chains, it would be easy to use their websites to compare food prices and availability across the country. I looked at Kroger’s website today, and by plugging zip codes into the “store locator,” and looking at the different weekly sales, I was able to compare food prices in two different cities.


In just my brief experimentation with the Kroger comparison, I was surprised that chicken in Houston was cheaper than chicken in Knoxville, Tenn., despite Knoxville having a lower cost of living. Surprising findings like this could be a great way to start discussions about other factors that bring prices down, such as distances from ports and distribution centers.


While sites like these may be more distracting because of ads or, even movie clips, I feel they are still great resources, and are an opportunity for students to learn how to responsibly sift through distractions to get the information they need. I am thrilled at the thought of having my students use common everyday websites to do Geographical research. Not only will it demonstrate how to creatively use our web resources, but it will also give students experience with websites that are practical for their own lives.


High school students would really benefit from learning about variations in salaries, food and real estate prices as they prepare for lives in college and beyond, but all students would benefit from gaining greater understanding about the practical matters of life. I think developing lessons with websites like these will help me to simultaneously teach my students their curriculum and technological competence, and will demonstrate how both apply to the world outside the classroom.