Interactive Geography Lesson

July 24, 2005 11:07 PM

Fellow Americans: Tired of feeling ignorant of where our own states are? Have some fun doing something about it.

The rest of you aren't off the hook either:
Canada, Mexico, Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, Middle East, Australia, Other/Oceanic

Warning: Educational flash games.
posted by rubin (47 comments total)

All 5 of you who do remember your grade school geography, go ahead and rub it in.
posted by rubin at 11:10 PM on July 24, 2005

cool
posted by Dean Keaton at 11:18 PM on July 24, 2005

...so thats where texas is!
posted by Dean Keaton at 11:18 PM on July 24, 2005

Heh... just did the U.S. one. The rivers helped a lot.
posted by strikhedonia at 11:19 PM on July 24, 2005

47/50, average 9 mile error. Kentucky, Wyoming, and Kansas. I'm not really ashamed, those had very little context to go by.
posted by invitapriore at 11:20 PM on July 24, 2005

Wait a minute... this game is educational!

*throws iBook*

Teach you to teach me!
posted by sindark at 11:21 PM on July 24, 2005

40/50 on the US States, gave up in irritation after getting Liechtenstein,Andorra, Monaco and Vatican City on the European map. They're all the size of pinheads on the map!
posted by boo_radley at 11:25 PM on July 24, 2005

Am I seriously the only person edumacated in the U.S. who can identify all 50 states? Damn, we weren't allowed out of the 3rd grade without knowing how to tell Vermont from New Hampshire. (hint: Vermont is shaped like a V. Yay for mnemonics!)
posted by scody at 11:32 PM on July 24, 2005

or possibly I am just a total mapgeek because I like staring at atlases for hours on end.
posted by scody at 11:34 PM on July 24, 2005

Wyoming with no context is a little difficult. Colorado would have been hard to place if my glaring red Wyoming weren't there to light the way. The rivers and coastlines make every other (non-rectangle) state pretty easy though.
posted by jaysus chris at 11:45 PM on July 24, 2005

The order you get the states in makes a huge difference, scody. For example, I know where Kansas is but I got it first and dragged it about 50 miles out of place on a big blank map.

I feel very good about my Europe score though. 41/45 with 12 mile average error. That's not too shabby given all the little places like Andorra and Monaco on that map!

20/20 on South America, 29/32 on Asia. The Asia map made me realize I had absolutely no idea where the hell Brunei is. I was off by like 300 miles.
posted by Justinian at 11:48 PM on July 24, 2005

Curse you, New England, Dakotas! Curse you!
posted by zardoz at 11:49 PM on July 24, 2005

Yeah, jaysus hit the nail on the head. A perfectly square state right off the bat with no context is tough even if you know your geography. For the record, I did 48/50 with 11 mi error.
posted by Justinian at 11:50 PM on July 24, 2005

As a former Rand McNally employee, I'm proud to say I got 38 of 50... Woah.

Scody, the states themselves were easily identifiable. It seems more of a spatial thing. Thats really all I can blame.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:50 PM on July 24, 2005

Try the Oceania one --- it's less of a geography quiz and more of a shape hunt.
posted by nathan_teske at 11:51 PM on July 24, 2005

KevinSkomsvold, Cool, that makes me feel a lot better.

Jaysus, I have trouble with just about every eastern state, and they aren't square at all. Guess thats what I get from growing up in Oregon :)

The 'average miles off' is a cool stat to look at too, in addition to the overall score. Not that it really helps me.
posted by rubin at 12:06 AM on July 25, 2005

Geography was my favourite subject at school, excellent site for younglings and adults of course.
posted by Chimp at 12:10 AM on July 25, 2005

You have no excuse for getting the coastal states wrong. Just align the friggin' state with the coastline. Same for river states (obviously the test creators considered this, which is why they included the rivers on the map). But square, landlocked states are a whole 'nother ballgame.

I got 48/50, and goddamned Colorado and South Dakota can suck my nads. I had those two in almost the right spot (my answers overlapped more than 75% of the correct locations, but no dice).

I can also name all the states in alphabetical order, but that's because I had to memorize a song about it in the 5th grade.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:16 AM on July 25, 2005

C_D: They teach you the animaniacs song?? *envious*
posted by state fxn at 1:31 AM on July 25, 2005

I thought the Animaniacs song was for the countries of the world? I wish I knew that one. I still have a recording of a Danish friend of mine singing the entire Countries of the World song while high on shrooms, and he was able to do the whole thing in about a minute. It's not even his goddamned language! Much respect.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 2:25 AM on July 25, 2005

I was just playing around with this the other day (Saturday?) - I got the link from Fark of all places... who'd a thunk something this educational would appear there...
posted by Chunder at 3:04 AM on July 25, 2005

Double, but it's a good'un and the present post is better formed.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:34 AM on July 25, 2005

43/45 on the European map. Damn you, San Marino and Vatican City!
posted by psmealey at 4:19 AM on July 25, 2005

There are Animaniacs songs for the countries of the world (inaccurate), the states and their capitals (accurate) and the Presidents of the US (accurate when it was done).

Did anyone else have the fun bit where after you dropped a country correctly it would disappear, so you were back to a fully blank slate?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:39 AM on July 25, 2005

Yeah, the blank slate confused me at first, but soon I had a read square or two to show me that the map knew I was there.
posted by OmieWise at 5:50 AM on July 25, 2005

Someone really ought to do something about the Balkans, way too many -enia's and -akias for my liking.
posted by mandeville at 6:29 AM on July 25, 2005

Someone really ought to do something about the Balkans and Baltics, way too many -enia's and -akias for my liking.
posted by mandeville at 6:29 AM on July 25, 2005

I tried Canada first and thought it was lame: so obvious! But then I tried Africa and got a sense of how the game could actually be useful. I've been trying to improve my African geography (I got 70%--Africa has a lot of itty bitty countries! And countries that sound like each other), and this might actually help :)
posted by carmen at 6:47 AM on July 25, 2005

Fifty nifty United States, from thirteen original colonies
Fifty nifty stars in the flag that billow so beautifully in the breeze
Shout em, scout em, tell all about em, one by one, till we've given a name to every state... in the USA....

Alabama, Alaska Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut......
posted by sdrawkcab at 7:12 AM on July 25, 2005

Sure, this is easy on level 6, but can you handle Level 9?

Too hard? Try some of the other USA Levels
posted by ahughey at 7:24 AM on July 25, 2005

Wow. I'll be using this to help teach US Geography in the fall - it's better than the flash games I've used in the past. Thanks for the great find.

Oh, and 48/50 with 3 mile error on US States - couldn't quite get North Dakota and Wyoming on the right spots. Totally need to practice with Europe. I'm proud of my 49/53 on the African countries, though.
posted by Chanther at 7:36 AM on July 25, 2005

Damn, and I always thought I was the shit when it came to US geography. I got all 50, but with an 11 mile error. How'd you manage 3, Chanther!?
posted by dmd at 8:03 AM on July 25, 2005

Let's not talk about me and Rhode Island... West Virginia wasn't exactly perfect either; if we had to rotate them, I probably would have put it upside down :)
posted by cleverusername at 8:14 AM on July 25, 2005

Fifty nifty United States, from thirteen original colonies

That's the song!
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:49 AM on July 25, 2005

can you handle Level 9?
See you in hell, Rhode Island! *Spins and flings*. Seriously, Wyoming was 1 size too small and upside down. Do you know the difference between right side up Colorado and upside down, slightly too small Colorado?
posted by boo_radley at 9:22 AM on July 25, 2005

I aced Canada, but of course there are only 13 provinces/territories to worry about and it's really, really hard NOT to get Nunavut right even though it was formed well after I was taking geography.

I'll have to try the US one next...
posted by WinnipegDragon at 9:34 AM on July 25, 2005

Wolfdog: Doh, wtf?
Chunder: I don't read fark anymore, got it from a friend on IRC actually, and yeah, this is exactly the type of thing it seems like they would never post. :)
posted by rubin at 9:35 AM on July 25, 2005

anyone figure out how to play Canada Level 3? I completed the map 100% but the only options I get are to play again or to quit
posted by seawallrunner at 9:49 AM on July 25, 2005

I'm great at Geography.

I'm not great at mouse skills.

I gave up after it told me that I mislaid Georgia because I let up on the button 1 mm away from where it was EXACTLY supposed to be. Damn you, Flash games!
posted by spinifex23 at 10:03 AM on July 25, 2005

Should moving North Dakota east or west by 20 mi. really be counted an error?
posted by Zurishaddai at 11:25 AM on July 25, 2005

46/50 average error 10 miles. I dropped Georgia early by accident, and the plains states are impossible without references. But I was surprised at how far south Colorado is. This would have made elementary school more fun.
posted by dness2 at 12:42 PM on July 25, 2005

brilliant. just stole an hour of my time.
posted by Frasermoo at 3:05 PM on July 25, 2005

I'm pretty proud of my 49/53 in Africa.
posted by WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot at 4:06 PM on July 25, 2005

Did better than I expected on the US map — the only states I dropped not mostly overlapping their true boundaries were Rhode Island and (IIRC) Delaware. <westcoaster>and those states don't really matter anyway</westcoaster>
posted by hattifattener at 5:23 PM on July 25, 2005

15/17 middle east, with 14 mile average error. I guess I am doing okay there. But they don't include any of the *stans, so it really wasn't that hard.
I was off with Kuwait by 8 miles (I forgot Iraq has some gulf coast) and with the Golan Heights by 19 (which is amazing, I was just guessing that it had to be up there somehere -- I've only heard of it once or twice.)
posted by blacklite at 5:24 PM on July 25, 2005

I was proud of my pretty decent score on the Intermediate Europe map so I tried the Genius level where you have to rotate the countries, resize them, and put them on the map.... where they then disappear if you get them correct.

Holy crap that is hard. I got 25/45 and I actually don't think that's too damn shabby.
posted by Justinian at 6:37 PM on July 25, 2005

Some US History to go with the geography. I found the questions interesting.
posted by bjgeiger at 7:13 PM on July 25, 2005