#worldmapproject

“Today, we used our map to play a game, locating countries and continents using longitude and latitude.” 

First, you need to decide, "is making a giant world map at my school really an undertaking I want to tackle, and will my school really appreciate it?" Hopefully, the answer is YES!!! Congratulations, you're ready to start. 

Next, you need to make sure that you have a strong team behind you.  You are not God, you can't create a whole world by yourself in seven days. I had a strong backing from my students, my co-teachers, and even the volunteer who will be replacing me at Luwazi, who happened to be on site visit when we started working.  

Now, you should read up a little bit on how this will actually happen. The World Map Project is an endeavor that has been undertaken by volunteers in Peace Corps countries all around the world. The first was created by a volunteer in the Dominican Republic in the 80's, and she has shared the blueprint of that process, which involves enlarging a small copy of a map onto a larger grid.  So you'll need to print out the manual, and check out what it entails. Can your students handle this? Maybe, you think? Good enough!

You can't paint a map without paint and junk! So gather that stuff up.  I bought red, blue, yellow, green, and white paint along with a bunch of other supplies like pencils for drawing, markers for labeling, erasers, brushes of different sizes (some countries are small!), a paint roller, cups for mixing paint, towels, a scraper (still not sure why, it seemed necessary at the time), candy to give out to helping students, and some other little things. I wrote a very small and painless grant (APCD grant) to help out with the cost. A larger contribution towards our expenses came from friends back home! To those who donated to the cause: this wouldn't have happened without you.  Really.  Thanks. You know who are.  Once you have your supplies, get at it!

Some of the map "pieces." The manual divides the world into 19 different gridded areas, which will be redrawn on a larger scale 

Now that you have your swag, the first thing you need is to find a location for your map. We decided to construct ours on the side of a school building that holds the staff room and head teacher's office, a high-traffic area that students walk past every day en route to their classes. Choose a place where your map can be admired!

Is your chosen wall location a brick wall? No probs! Hire somebody to plaster a smooth surface over the section of the wall so you have a easier area to draw and paint.  Our area was 2 meters by 4 meters:  

Our blank canvas

Next, you should put down a base coat(s) of paint.  I chose to just put down a layer of white paint, but if you want you can put down a layer of ocean blue over that to make it easier for yourself later when you're drawing ocean borders and small islands.

This. is how. we doooo it

Once the base coat dries, it's time to draw a grid across the space.  Remember those pieces of the world? Well all of the countries on those pages are laid over a grid.  You need to draw the grid system over the larger painting surface, so that you can use the numbered boxes as a reference system for when you replicate the map.  What you see on the pages, you'll be redrawing, larger, onto the wall.  You get it?

  Mr. Mwale helps to draw the grid

Students take over the drawing of the grid

Okay! Nice job! Now it's time for the tricky part....drawing the shapes of the countries.  Using the numbered grid boxes, you'll correspond the sections of the map pieces with the same area on the map, and copy.  It sounds difficult, but with a little practice anybody can do it (there's some sample worksheets in the manual to help).  Check out Thekson here and see how it is done:

Theckson rocking the heck out of South America

  James takes a break from drawing to strike a pose

Master pencil sharpeners Bertie and Sharon make sure no pencil is ever dull!

It's starting to look like an Earth! Yay!

Now comes the messy part...paint! So like I mentioned above I only bought 4 colors of paint, but in case you didn't know....you can mix some colors together to make new colors!

Jaryt, who will be replacing me at Luwazi at the end of August, was on site visit while we made the map.  Here Jaryt, AKA Sir-Mix-A-Lot, mixes up some new colors to differentiate between different countries. 

Now it's time to color the countries.  The more paintbrushes you buy, the more people you can have help! It's a good idea to buy different sizes...some of the countries are really small, whereas a thicker brush is better for the larger ocean areas.  

We be paintin, we be paintin

Luke consults the map to see which color he needs next

Geography teacher, Mr. Chinula (blue pants, painting Africa), embraces every teachable moment

Okay, so now you've finished painting?  All done with the map, right? Nope! How will you be able to tell the countries from each other? Now you need to label the countries...we used a black permanent marker.  This can get tricky, especially with the small pacific islands and tightly compacted eastern European countries. We only had two markers, so not a lot of people could label at once, but we had several "spotters" making sure that the writers followed the map perfectly and had correct spelling.

George attempts to tackle the Pacific islands

Home sweet home!

Wow! Looks good! You're pretty much done! Now, decide if you want to add any designs or finishing touches.  We decided to write the name of our school, a Malawi flag, a compass, and a dedication to our donors in the corners of our map.

Watson working on the compass rose

Thanks to these special people for their generous donations to the cause. We couldn't have done it without you!

(Lebron) James centers up to his Malawian flag

 The finished product

You did it! See, it wasn't that hard! You can work at whatever pace you want to...it's possible to knock it out over a long weekend if you go all-out, or you can go at a more leisurely pace.  Once we actually started physically working on the map, it took about four days.  The work ethic, talent, teamwork, and capabilities of the kids blew me away. They were absolutely fantastic.  What rock stars.  Thanks to them, my co-teachers (especially Mr. Mwale and Mr. Chinula), Jaryt, and the donors for making this all come together!  This was one of my greatest experiences at Luwazi, and a great way to end my time there.