World Geography is essential to the proper understanding of the planet we inhabit. A study of this subject must take off with lessons starting from the origin of the earth, its development, its features and its current geographical details.
The term Geography is derived from the Greek words Ge or Gaea, both meaning “Earth”, and graphein meaning “to describe” or “to write” or “to map.” Geography is the study of the Earth’s characteristics and distribution of life and habitat on it.
There are four traditional approaches to the study of World Geography:
- Spatial examination of natural and human phenomena or Geography as a study of distribution.
- Study based on area (places and regions).
- Analysis based on man-land interactions and activities
- Earth science, which involves the study of the planet, its water world and the atmosphere.
Originally, Geography had been equated to the subject of cartography and the study of place names. Though both topography and cartography studies are a vital chapter of Geography, they are not synonymous with the subject itself.
The subject must include the study of spatial and terrestrial distribution of planetary occurrences and activities and the correlation between humans and their environment. At the same time, it must also involve the study of economics, health, climate, plants and animals of a particular region. This is what constitutes the interdisciplinary subject of World Geography.
Another important aspect of World Geography is to divide lessons about the world according to its continents. The seven landmasses of the earth and their neighboring islands are generally referred to as the continents. They are North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and Antarctica.
However, there may be some variations as well. For instance, North and South America are often merged into a single continent and Asia is often combined with Europe. Then there are cases where Antarctica is not considered a continent and Australasia or Oceania replace one Australia.
In order to make World Geography an entertaining subject you can follow these tips:
- You can initiate students to make their own dummy passports (with their photographs) just for the fun of it and think of countries they would love to visit while exploring the world map. While they do this, they can check out travel routes, transport details, places of interest etc. of a particular place.
- You can use the Internet effectively to impart information about a particular place and encourage students to surf the web for colorful graphics as well.
- Students can also have great fun while packing a suitcase with clothes and essentials for the place they plan to visit. While doing this, they can learn about the weather and travel necessities of the countries they are checking out.
- Students can design postcards after a study of the tradition, culture, society and history of the place.
All this and much more can add a lot of fun to the study of World Geography and increase interest in it.