Feb 13, 2005
Oh... the horror, the horror
I just finished grading a set of map quizes for my Freshman World History survey. They were, dare I say, a bit on the frightening side. The students were given a line-drawing world map (with political boundaries provided) and asked to place the following 20 items on the map. Note that there were multiple possible right answers for several of the items.
1)India 2)Somalia 3)Peru 4)Brazil 5)North Korea 6)Russia 7)Nigeria 8)Iraq 9)Libya 10)Great Britain 11)China 12)A Rain Forest 13)An Oil Exporting Country 14)A Major Desert 15)An Area of Very Dense Population 16)A Sparsely Populated Region 17)A Food Exporting Country 18)The South China Sea 19)The Persian Gulf 20) Northern Kentucky University.
The results? I don't have enough time to provide a complete breakdown of the grades by item, but here are a few highlights:
1) Size appears to matter. China and Russia were the only items that every student got right. Brazil was a close runner-up.
2) The Anglophone Connection. The small country with the highest number of correct answers was Great Britain, with a 76% accuracy rate. Notably, however, Peru was only a couple of percentage points behind.
3) Things that go might go BOOM. North Korea scored a 69% accuracy rate.
4) We support our troops.. wherever they are. 58% of students placed Iraq properly. For all the Iraq-is-another-Vietnam types, you will be interested to know that nearly half of the incorrect answers for Iraq placed it in Southeast Asia.
5) The already disappeared Rain Forest. This one had the highest"we give up factor" -- where students simply didn't even bother to try. A toxic meme of Chad being predominantly rain forest did spread through one corner of the classroom, but that is another matter, methinks.
6) All Those Pointless Little Countries. African items on the exam fared very poorly, with my dear adopted second-home of Nigeria finding only a 12% rate of correct answers -- the worst showing on the exam. Somalia managed only about 16%, despite being featured in a major motion picture while most of these students were in high school.
So little time, so much to teach...
1)India 2)Somalia 3)Peru 4)Brazil 5)North Korea 6)Russia 7)Nigeria 8)Iraq 9)Libya 10)Great Britain 11)China 12)A Rain Forest 13)An Oil Exporting Country 14)A Major Desert 15)An Area of Very Dense Population 16)A Sparsely Populated Region 17)A Food Exporting Country 18)The South China Sea 19)The Persian Gulf 20) Northern Kentucky University.
The results? I don't have enough time to provide a complete breakdown of the grades by item, but here are a few highlights:
1) Size appears to matter. China and Russia were the only items that every student got right. Brazil was a close runner-up.
2) The Anglophone Connection. The small country with the highest number of correct answers was Great Britain, with a 76% accuracy rate. Notably, however, Peru was only a couple of percentage points behind.
3) Things that go might go BOOM. North Korea scored a 69% accuracy rate.
4) We support our troops.. wherever they are. 58% of students placed Iraq properly. For all the Iraq-is-another-Vietnam types, you will be interested to know that nearly half of the incorrect answers for Iraq placed it in Southeast Asia.
5) The already disappeared Rain Forest. This one had the highest"we give up factor" -- where students simply didn't even bother to try. A toxic meme of Chad being predominantly rain forest did spread through one corner of the classroom, but that is another matter, methinks.
6) All Those Pointless Little Countries. African items on the exam fared very poorly, with my dear adopted second-home of Nigeria finding only a 12% rate of correct answers -- the worst showing on the exam. Somalia managed only about 16%, despite being featured in a major motion picture while most of these students were in high school.
So little time, so much to teach...