GLOBES AND MAPS: REPRESINTATIONS OF THE WORLD

GENERAL INSTRUCTONS

People create maps to describe spatial phenomena and their relationships, and maps are powerful tools of geographic exploration and explanation. But, as we will discover in class, maps (especially maps of the world) may begin as representation but they eventually become realities-even though they are Wien wrong-and they are powerful influences on our perceptions of the world and our place in it in relation to other distant places.

In this exercise, you will use online resources to exploit how everyday leaps influence your understandings of the world, often in flawed ways.
Instruction

Part I

• Review the septets of the TV show The West Wing about the political implications of world maps (on Blackboard). We may have viewed the clip in dais.

• (Consider. why are the -geographers" in the show so passionate about how the world is represented on a map?

• View additional film clips on Blackboard about Professor Jeremy Brotton, author of A History of the 'World in 12 Maps. In what ways have world maps served to project the power and dominance of certain peoples and cultures?

Part II

• Go to the webpage. The True Size of Africa http://kai.sub.blue/en/afrIca.html ). Compare the landmasses and countries represented on this document to the world map that we will use for the map portion of our exams (this documents is available at the General Resources bah on Blackboard). The world map that we INC is hued 4111 a "Robinson-projection that better represents the curved surface of the world bin still contains many of the same problems as the original Mercator map.

• Consider what do you observe about the presentation of the world on our "exam" map compared to the information on The True Six of Africa?(Take notes.)

Part 3

• Go to the webpage. The Time Sire of...(thetruesize.com).

• The world map that you see is a form of "rectangular coordinate" map like the one that Geradus Mercator first designed in the 16th century. This kind of world map severely distorts the size (area) and shape of features-such as landmasses and countries-especially in the northern and southern latitudes while presenting landmasses near the equator as much smaller than they actually are. Since most of the terrestrial earth is in the northern hemisphere, this distortion means that Europe, North America, and much of Asia appear much larger and more significant than all of Africa or portions of South America.

While we debate whether "size" matters in all aspects of human life. We understand that on maps, it has powerful symbolic importance.

• Read the "About" section (upper left corner) to learn about the rationale for the webpage.

• Type the name of a country in the northern hemisphere in the data field in the upper left of the past. Drag the 14on onto Africa and watch how it is transformed in size to represent its actual relationship to Africa.

• Do this for two or three other regions (for a real laugh, do this for Greenland!).

• Record your observations and reactions.

Part 4

• What do you think of the representation of the world that you have become accustomed to?

• Does this information champ how you think about world spatial relationships?

• The world mars that we are accustomed to-and usually don't even question-effectively Inject "northern" dominance over the global south, where much of the 'Thin' World" lives. Why might it be important to appreciate this cartographic fact?

Present your observations and thoughts for Pans Ito 4 in a brief paper that conforms to the course format, writing, and citation guidelines (see the course syllabus). You may organize your paper according to the four parts but he sure to summarize your experience with these map resources in Part 4.