Give Me 90 Seconds, I'll Show You the World!

Yet another really cool resource found via my PLN on Twitter!

Over the past 6 years I have taught everything from medieval Japan and South America to the Spanish-American War.  One commonality between all eras of world and U.S. history is religion.  Peoples' belief systems are the foundations for almost all of their decisions.

Mr. Gerome, a 7th grade history teacher from Aurora, Ohio (@mgerome3194) recently tweeted a link to this amazing find!



You can find the link and embed information for this map if you click here.

I could see a few uses for this:
  • I might use it with my 8th graders at the end of this year.  By the time we hit June we will have learned about Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, and native religions of Central and South America.  I might ask them to watch these 90 seconds and then post to their blogs about what they know already and what they could predict based on what they saw.  It would be a great way to link all of our medieval history units together using a common theme and help them consider what they might be learning in history classes as they enter high school.
  • I could use it with 9th graders next year as I teach about exploration and the influence of Christian missionaries in the Americas.  They could answer questions about which religions dominated the globe before Christian missionaries became prevalent and how these missionaries completely changed the religious identity of many peoples.  They could even hold a class debate about which religion might dominate the globe if Christian missionaries had not bee successful.
  • I could show it to 10th graders and ask them to do further research about certain religions featured on the map that they are not familiar with.  Our district lacks diversity and many are familiar with Christianity (we are clearly in the blue area on the map, after all) and a few are familiar with Judaism, but not much else.  This could be a great launching pad for a group research project on world religions.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated!  This short 90 seconds opens a door to so many social studies opportunities!

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