What do we really want the next generation to know about our planet? Here is David Wright's personal list of ten key concepts about our globe:
Our globe is...
1. ... so beautiful
Most geography classrooms now have a globe, but fewer classrooms have a big poster with a satellite image of our beautiful planet, showing light and shade - day and night. The idea that we are privileged to live on this beautiful planet, and that we have the joy of discovering more about it in geography lessons, is so crucial, yet so often lost among the pressures of time, syllabus, assessment, and admin. A beautiful poster can help to lift our vision to what really matters, and in the process get some 'moral and spiritual development' into geography lessons.
2. ... so simple to understand
Every pre-school child has understood the shape of our globe: they all know how to play with a ball. The problems come when 2-D sheets of paper take prominence over a 3-D ball. We need to use globes as much as possible - and to see globe shapes in basketballs (the seams are good for lines of longitude), in satsumas (easier to peel than oranges), in Terry's Chocolate Oranges, and in balloons.
3. ... so complex to depict
Even if we resolve to use 3-D globes as often as possible, we still need 2-D world maps sometimes. We need to recognise that any flat world map has to make compromises with reality.
4. ... so small
A typical high mileage car has done 12,500 miles (20,000 km) in its first year: the same as the distance from North Pole to South Pole. So in two years, this car has 25,000 miles (40,000 km) on the clock - a 'Round the World' journey. The message is - 'everyone and everything is on a planet that has a smaller circumference than your car mileage...'.
5. ... so easy to calculate
Two hundred years ago, Napoleon (and friends) decided that there should be ten million metres from Pole to Equator: that's 10,000 km. Pole to pole is 20,000 km; round the world is 40,000 km. So simple! So there are 111 km between every line of latitude - that's 70 miles, merely an hour of motorway driving... yet few people have any idea at all of our Earth's vital statistics. Napoleon's figures are still correct to within 1%. European pupils know all this - it is time that the UK caught up!
6. ... so round
One 'fact' that most children know is that the Earth is not round. We all know this because it is a surprise - and we remember surprises. But the difference between the Earth's circumference round the poles and round the Equator is tiny - it is far less than 1% of the distance. 67 km difference in 40,000 km could not be seen on an accurate globe. So a perfect sphere is an accurate representation of the earth.
7. ... so smooth - yet so 'wrinkly'
Geographers are right to talk about great mountain ranges, but the tallest mountain is less than 9 km high. On a typical globe, that height is too small to show: it would be less than a millimetre high. The 'smooth globe' is correct after all!
8. ... so logical
There is a clear, simple logic to the movements of the Earth - but the movements are not understood by most students. We need a clear, simple, accurate diagram of the seasons - arguably the most important diagram in the whole of geography. And we need new ways of bringing it to life and making sense of it. Here is a simple starting-point: few people realise that each point on earth has 50% of the year daylight and 50% darkness - yet it's true (it has to be true - there is no other way of arranging it!). If we start with this simple concept, the question of who gets how much daylight - and when, becomes a much more manageable question.
9. ... so little known
All these globes and world maps haven't done very much, as yet, to increase our world knowledge and understanding. A hundred more ideas of how to bring our globe to life are needed.
10. ... so varied and so exciting
If our pupils still want to know about this wonderful planet, we have succeeded in a major aim - an education which becomes self-motivated, and will continue after school is left behind...
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