Survey Finds Students Lost in Geography : Education: Study finds weak understanding of globe. About 13% could not locate Canada and 50% did not know purpose of Panama Canal.

U.S. high school seniors have such a weak understanding of geography that most are unable to find Southeast Asia on a map and many do not know which parts of the world are hot and which are cold, the government reported today.

The results of the first Education Department test of geography knowledge follow a series of troubling reports showing that American students have “dreadfully inadequate” reading and writing skills, and lag behind their counterparts in other industrial countries in math and science.

In releasing the report, officials stressed the importance of geography in a world economy, saying students not only need to know where places are, but to understand how environment, topography and demographics influence events.

“Knowing basic locational facts is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Delaware Gov. Michael N. Castle, a member of the board that oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the government’s testing project.

“The limited grasp our students have of world geographic concepts will limit this nation’s ability to be full partners in the world economy. You can’t do business with a customer you don’t know,” he told a news conference.

The scientific sample group of 3,030 seniors at 303 public and private schools correctly answered only 57% of the 76 multiple-choice questions on the test given in 1987-88. Whites answered 60.5% correctly, compared with 48% for Latinos and 42.5% for blacks.

Ina Mullis, NAEP deputy director, said there was a “generally low performance” by seniors in all four areas tested--locations; map and graph reading skills; economics, environment and other factors in cultural geography, and topics in physical geography such as climate and weather.

“Students generally have a weak understanding of geography and . . . the amount of geography instruction provided across the high school grades is quite low,” concluded the report, which also asked about students’ geography studies.

Most seniors could locate major countries but had more trouble identifying cities and other landmarks. Only 50%, for example, knew the Panama Canal cuts the sailing time between New York and San Francisco.

But the report found “puzzling” gaps even in the most basic areas--13% of the seniors could not find Canada on a world map and 29% did not know where Latin America is.

Only 37% could locate Southeast Asia, which the report noted was “surprising given the recent U.S. involvement” in the region. Thirteen percent thought either Brazil or Saudi Arabia was part of Southeast Asia.

Asked what kind of change in climate a traveler headed from northern Europe to the Middle East would experience, 32% failed.