Children's Free Recall Sketch Maps of the World on a Spherical Surface

Abstract

Seventy-two children from six primary schools were invited to draw the Earth's land masses on a blue sphere, representing a globe. The results confirmed a typology of children's freehand sketch maps of the world described in a previous paper, but some characteristic differences were noted, including a tendency to represent Europe-Africa as a single land mass and Europe-Asia as separate land masses. These effects are thought to be a result of the partial viewpoint obtained from a globe, compared with the view of the whole world obtained from a map. The results also confirm findings from other studies which indicate children's misconceptions about the locations of Europe and Africa.