Last month I introduced the AQA module Germany 1918-1945 (Democracy & Nazism) by looking at maps. Although maps are usually hogged by Geography classrooms they play an important part in the study of History. We need to know the lay of the land to help provide contextual meat on the bare bones of history.
And so, the task was simple: draw a map of Europe without recourse to a map or other materials. Draw it from memory and attempt to include as many countries as possible.
The results were interesting. Here they are, roughly in order from most incoherent to the most accurate (as judged by Geography lecturer Mr BS):
Of course, I had a stab myself (with a little help from the class):
So, what was the point in all of this? Well, yes, some of it was to see how the class would react to such a task. I was expecting some dodgy maps and was interested to see what their knowledge of basic geography was. But as stated earlier, there is a bigger aim here: to help us create the maps in our mind to prepare to stack and order the influx of new information in the months ahead. Perhaps we’ll return to this activity later in the year to see if our understanding has improved!
Dave Does History 