Uses for an Old Globe

Not sure how helpful this will be for most people but we have an old globe in the house, and besides making the homeschool room look educational, I got to thinking about the various uses it can still be put to even though the geography on it is a little out of date.

Our main use for it so far has been as a prop when demonstrating a mix of astronomy concepts, such as eclipses and how the Earth tilts during the seasons. Add another ball as the moon and a light for the sun, and you can show off a number of important solar system ideas that are clearer to understand with a globe.

A similar idea goes to help teaching about time zones. When you have a light shining as the sun, it’s much easier to understand how the time would be different in other parts of the world because of where the sun is.

You can do some historical geography too, but that will depend on the age of your globe. In our case, mine is pre-USSR breakup, so it’s very nice to illustrate a major change in world geography that came about in the early 1990s. We have been able to explore how countries and borders changed, and clearly understand how many countries have developed independence since then.

What about lines of longitude and latitude? They are much easy to visualize and work with when on a proper sphere (especially the longitude ones).

See, there are lots of ways to use an old globe in your homeschool. If you can think of any other ways you’ve used an otherwise out-of-date globe for a homeschooling project, leave me a note in the comments.