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Map projections: why does Greenland look so big?

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Set it as homework or classwork and every answer is marked as pupils go, with feedback on what they got wrong. The scores go straight into your mark book, so you can see who needs help before the next lesson.

  • 11 questions
  • 29 marks
  • about 30 minutes
  • marked instantly

Question types: multiple choice, true or false, matching, label the diagram, sorting.

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Identify what a map projection is.

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About this resource

Pupils compare how the Mercator and Equal Earth projections show the size of Greenland and Africa, and explain why every flat map of a round Earth distorts something.

15 slides.

Lesson outline

  1. Hook
  2. Do Now — Retrieval
  3. Keywords for This Lesson
  4. Teach — why every flat map distorts a round Earth
  5. Comparing Two Projections
  6. I Do
  7. Poll
  8. Discuss — think-pair-share: "Why might a shipping company prefer the Mercator projection?"
  9. Task — guided: match three projections to three purposes
  10. Task — semi: identify which countries are distorted most on a Mercator map, with reasons
  11. Task — independent: explain in two sentences why Greenland looks bigger than it is; extension: suggest a better projection for a world population map
  12. Self-Check
Unit bundleMaps, place and scale
Part of: Maps, place and scale: the whole unitEvery resource in the unit in one zip.

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