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Activity 5: Which is bigger?

You will need:

• map sheets J and K, 'Which is Bigger?'
• chart of land mass area

Preparation:

Print out and photocopy the maps and give half of the groups J and the other half K.

What to do:

1. Ask each group to compare the shaded areas of land on the four maps on their sheets and answer the questions beneath the maps. If you have transparent square grids, pupils can use these for greater accuracy.

2. Pair up groups who have worked on different map sheets (i.e. make sure that groups who use J work with groups who used K), and ask them to compare their answers.

• Are they the same?
• Which set of maps is better for trying to work out which land area is bigger?
• How could they check the accuracy of the area of each map?

3. Explain that when maps are designed, the globe (which is a spheroid) has to be flattened onto a piece of paper. This means countries are stretched, distorted, split, or left out. There are different ways of doing this, and these are called different projections. (See maps section for an explanation of the projections.) J shows Mercator map projections and K shows Eckert map projections. For this exercise, Eckert is the most accurate map to use; it is known as an 'equal-area-map', as it shows the least distortion of the size of countries. The Peters map (N) is also an equal-area map.

NB: In the top left-hand maps on sheets J and K, the eastern border of Europe approximates to the geographical boundary along the Ural Mountains.

> Activity 6: Which way is south-east?

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