GIS - comparing Mercator and Gall-Peters projections

A handout with self-guided questions with an accompanying PowerPoint to use in the lesson if desired.

Fully-resourced with enough activities for a one hour lesson.

Students follow the instructions and use a range of fun online mapping tools to explore the differences in map projections and the challenge of portraying a round earth on a flat page.

Activities include selecting and dragging countries around a world map to see how their projected size changes as they move it towards and away from the poles. Students also get the opportunity to to experiment with “mashups” by overlaying countries to see how they fit over another.