The first stage was to get the students interested in the topic of maps and countries, get them
standing up, moving around, having a laugh, that sort of thing.
So the maps were on the walls and I would call out a country name and they had to find
it and the first team to find the country won the game.
Bulgaria! Here?
No that's Algeria! Look, Bulgaria. No that's Bolivia. No...
Yes! Mexico! Um, Greenland. Which is bigger - Greenland or Australia?
Look at the map. (all) Australia!
So these are the sizes of these countries on the map.
This is Australia, maybe this way round, it's hard to see, and this is Greenland, hard to
know the orientation. But you can see Greenland is significantly larger on the map, on the
map we're looking at, on the map they know and they trust.
Which one's bigger, Greenland or Australia? (all) Greenland
Is it two times bigger, three times bigger? (together) Two times! About two times.
Okay, who can catch? Edwin...very good! Curtis. Which is bigger? Greenland or Australia?
Let me have a look...Greenland? Very good. In reality, however, when you look at the
globe, this is the accurate navigation device of course. The umm...you look at Australia
here, and you look at Greenland here, and you consider the relative size, then you can
see very clearly that Australia is the size of my thumb, and that Greenland isn't even
the size of my little finger. So you know Australia's bigger than Greenland.
Actually something like four times bigger. Well that's interesting, isn't it? So you've
got on this thing Australia's bigger, and on this thing, Greenland's bigger. Anyone
know why? (student) The map may be wrong!
Ah! So you think..so one of them...well they can't be both correct.
Because the earth is round but the map, the map is flat.
Very good! Excellent! This orange, what shape is it?
(students) Sphere! Circle! So if I think this is like the earth, if I
want to make a map like this, well let's see if I can do it. I'm just going to take that.
How about that! Magic? I think so! Now is this flat?
(students) No. Okay so how can I make it flat? What can I do?
Very good! What happens? Is that a nice map?
(students) No! Why is it different? Which is better? Which
is more accurate? And it's a difficult question for them to answer initially because some
of them think the map is more accurate, they see it every day, it's treated as a fact,
it's true as far as they're concerned at school. But they also know that this the correct shape
for the earth. So, what's true? And it's that which forms
the basis of the lesson. So that's a ball, that's round like this.
Let's see what happens. We can make a flat thing, we can make a map.
(student) But it will turn different! It will turn different, exactly!
This map, is it the same as the other one? No.
Okay let me just show you then...so, this is the map we know and here's the one on the
thing. Is this is a nice map? Do you like this map?
Yes! No! This one's a little bit different from this
one. Have a look, tell me what's the difference? This is longer.
So this one's longer, and this one's fatter. So this map is fat Africa...this map is
long Africa! (student) Or maybe both are wrong!
Wow! Very nice! Both of them are wrong! So what's the problem with this one? What's
wrong with this one? The shape has changed!
Amazing.Very good! But what's the problem on this one?
(students) The shapes are still wrong I guess. The shape of Greenland is too big and Australia
is too small. I'm not a geography teacher. My knowledge
is limited but without stretching it or changing the shape of some of the countries you can't
take a sphere and open it up and make a single flat surface. There's an inherent distortion.
And that's fine, it's just the way it is. And that's a nice thing to understand as well
because it's an understanding of shapes. It's...is that topography? Topography? If that's not
the right word don't put it in! Topography and relative shapes and sizes.
How many do you need? Five. There you go. Four thousand? Four thousand? I can't give
you...four million? Man, don't be greedy! Look at the questions here, watch the programme
and then answer the questions, okay? (Video) So let's welcome my guests on the
show! First up it's a Flemish map-maker from the
16th century, Mr. Mercator! Please also welcome a German historian from
the 1970s, Mr. Peters! Take it away Mr. Mercator!
Hi audience! Well I drew my map in 1596 to help sailors explore the New World. It shows
compass bearings as straight lines, which help the sailors to end up in the right place.
See? All the sailors think my map is the business. Mr Peters has got the shapes all wrong on
his map. His countries look all stretched. Look at Africa! It's meant to look like this.
But on Mr Peter's map Africa is all long and stretched.
Hang on a minute! The sizes are all wrong on your map. You make Africa look tiny when
in real life it's enormous. Which of these maps do you think is the best?
Hold up your scorecards to vote for Mercator or Peters!
Okay so I want you to think, which map do you like best?
(students) Peters! Which is the one you like best? Alright now,
you can come to the board and vote. Which one do you like best, thank you? Come
come! One Mr. Curtis! Which one do you like best? Very good answer!
(students working together)
Number four over here when did Mercator make his map?
1596. The north is bigger than the south! Why did
he do that? Very good.
Because the rich countries up here, he makes them bigger because he thinks they're more
important. (student) But if he makes the rich countries
like bigger and it seems that they're more important it's not fair to the small countries.
That's amazing. That's such a good answer. (student) Of the real, the Asia is more than
at least more bigger than the Africa but now Peters' map...
I think it's really important that we do focus on critical thinking questions from time to
time. We ask questions which aren't obvious and perhaps challenge their existing ideas
of the world. I think every element of education should
have the potential to exploit critical thinking ideas and to promote critical thinking in
our students to help them look at the world and just see it through clear eyes and ask
the questions which help them understand what's true and not just accept everything blindly
that they hear.
As a format for a lesson, yeah I can use that every time. Together we discover the question,
effectively. So we looked at something, we looked at a map. From that basic
examination, finding countries, looking at it, laughing about it, a question emerged.
Obviously it's a question I had before the lesson, but it emerged, as far as the class
was concerned, this question emerged, which is bigger, Greenland or Australia. And then
the rest of the lesson is looking into that question, understanding the question, and
maybe looking at some answers as well.
The hook is the question and if you've got that fascinating question then as long as
the question stays interested, interesting sorry, then you've got the attention of the
learners. And I think so much of effective learning is about motivation, wanting to be
there, wanting to listen, wanting to understand.