You may not know the crisis of geographic literacy for Americans: the average American adult could identify less than 6 of 10 U.S. states. That's why President Ronald Reagan signed Geography Awareness Week into the law in 1987.

National Geography Awareness Week is initiated by the National Geographic Society's Geography Education Program, and celebrated every 3rd week in November. Each year, Geography Awareness Week occurs with a new theme selected. Take 2010 as example, the subject from National Geographic is "Freshwater!".

Actually, it's better to learn geography from the beginning, whatever for you or kids. Let's start with 50 states and capitals game, in order to celebrate this Geography Awareness Week.

States and Capitals Game Online

It's definitely more fun to kids for interactive States and Capitals Game online. Students in primary and secondary schools will appreciate games to play online.

States and Capitals Jigsaw Puzzle

To play States and Capitals Game in traditional ways, You can buy a blank United States map with/without outliners, or any similar physical USA states jigsaw puzzles.

No matter how you learn 50 states and capital, just try being aware of this little geography knowledge.

Ref. I: Origin of Geography Awareness Week It came about in 1987 after the NGS conducted a geography survey among adults 18 years and older in the United States. The findings revealed such facts as: the average American adult could identify less than 6 of 10 U.S. states; 3 in 10 adults could not use a map to tell direction or calculate the approximate distance between two points; only 57% of adults could identify England on a map of Europe; and Brazil was the only South American country correctly identified by even half of the respondents. The United States was in a crisis when it came to geographic literacy.

Then the government officially launched the Geography Awareness Week. For the week every year, from local schools to the White House, it has been a top priority to focus on the geographic education of the country.

Ref. II: Geography Awareness Week 2010: My Wonderful World by National Geographic http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/gaw.html