On April 26, 2005, the Geography 3080-Geography of Latin America class held a symposium "Celebrating Indigenous Peoples of Middle and South America." The students put themselves into groups of two and chose a country from Middle and South America with a significant Indigenous or native American population. They then spent the semester exploring their country and the indigenous population, focusing on language, house types, ways of life, foodways, religion, and other aspects of cultural life. The judges for the projects were from my Geography 1010 and 1020 classes, as well as Dr. Fagan's classes. The judges got extra credit for coming to the symposium. The projects were very good, reflecting the growing academic strength of the student population at NSU. A good time was had by all!!

Students waiting in the hall to judge the projects.

Well over 100 students came to judge the projects.

Students listening to the team from Peru discuss the Inca.

The team from Honduras did a great job with their project and had a tremendous amount of information
about the country and the peoples of Honduras.

With its population of Guarani, Paraguay was a well done project.

Despite misspelling "Mayans," the project on Guatemala was well done, with very nice graphics and maps.

The team on Venezuela did a nice job on the very interesting peoples of the Orinoco River basin.

One of the best projects was on the Inca of Peru. The board was very well done,
and the presenters knew a tremendous amount about their country and the people.

The team from Panama did a great job, and seemed to really enjoy talking about a country they had learned a great deal about.

The team from Ecuador had one of the best maps, showing where the indigenous peoples in the country are concentrated.

The best board and presentation was for Colombia. The team knew a tremendous amount of information
about the two groups that they explored, and communicated the information very well.

The team from Colombia did an outstanding job presenting their indigenous groups.

The Geography 3080 class from Spring 2005, one of the best groups that I have had at NSU!