Bouncy Maps

 

Maps of the world showing energy, minerals, agriculture, livestock, economy, population, religion, conflict and health.  When you select a category such as livestock and then subcategory like pigs and then select bouncymaps it will show you a map of the world scaled to by country that has the most pigs.  See the image below.  Also all data for each country is listed in descending order. See the example embedded below.  Move the toogle from regular map to bouncy map.   To see the website click here.

Common Geographic Misconceptions

 

The National Geographic has a nice article online titled, "Why Your Mental Map Of The World Is (Probably) Wrong".  According to their article, "These are some of the most common geographic misconceptions that are both surprising and surprisingly hard to correct."    For example, "Most of Africa is north of the equator, though on many mental maps it is mostly in the southern hemisphere directly across the Atlantic from South America."  To see the article click here.

Glen Weibe suggests asking these questions:
Based on your mental (or actual) map of the world, answer a few simple questions:
How much of South America is east of Miami, Florida?
How much of Africa is north of the equator?
Which city is further north – Paris, France or Montreal, Canada?
Venice, Italy is located at the same latitude of what major American city?
Which is bigger? The lower 48 United States or Brazil?

Glen suggests having your students use "The True Size Of" website for the last question.  I have blogged about this map website in March of 2017.  To see that post click here.

He also suggests Bouncy Maps which  "connect locations with data. Maps become bigger or smaller to show differences in the data."  To see Bouncy Maps, click here.