Converting a Globe to a Map
One student wanted to know why Canada is so much larger on a map than on a globe. 
I took an orange and we pretended it was a globe. I sketched a rough outline of North and South America and Antarctica on it.
I took an orange and we pretended it was a globe. I sketched a rough outline of North and South America and Antarctica on it. 
Then we flattened the orange skin. He could easily see that it flattened out with notches both top and bottom (or on the sides in this photo.) 
(Student narration of geography page below)This show an Interrupted Projection map.
This map tries to depict the continents as accurately as possible by leaving blank spaces where these notches are. Then we talked about how people prefer cylindrical projection map, which fills in those areas with additional land area. Greenland, for example, appears to be many times larger than it really is. Areas close to the equator have very little distortion, however the closer to the poles that one travels the more distorted that the map becomes.
This map tries to depict the continents as accurately as possible by leaving blank spaces where these notches are. Then we talked about how people prefer cylindrical projection map, which fills in those areas with additional land area. Greenland, for example, appears to be many times larger than it really is. Areas close to the equator have very little distortion, however the closer to the poles that one travels the more distorted that the map becomes.
