TEMPORARY BUILDINGS - WHERE ARE THEY GOING, WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN

There's a whole lot of movement going on out there! This paper looks a t the theme of movement in the human landscape as it is expressed by t he phenomenon of temporary buildings. Temporary buildings, for whateve r their use, come and go like the wind. But they contain a signature t hat nearly always conveys information about who made them and why. Thr ough their composition or structural appearance, clues can be derived about the people who construct them and the intentions for their use. The article may serve as a guide for teachers interested in researchin g temporary structures with their students. It poses a simple inquiry model that can be used to identify the main characteristics of tempora ry buildings and provide a scaffold for further study. Location and en vironmental interaction play robust role in understanding the nature o f these structures. Temporary structures are wonderfully ubiquitous! F rom the moveable all-aluminum espresso bar and the lemonade stand on t eh beach to the bright red plastic port-a-potty out by the new highway construction site to the Fourth of July fireworks stand; we even buil d our houses with a temporal idea in mind, these structures are everyw here. The recent National Geography Standards encourage students to ob serve the human landscape and interpret how geography is expressed in the manipulation of environments. The teacher is encouraged to conside r looking at the wandering geographic nature found so interestingly ex pressed in these structures. A word of caution however, do your observ ations and analysis quickly, because tomorrow your building may be gon e!