Trekking around the globe in Geography Project Class at JRHS

By Christopher Knecht, Faculty

The world is a big place! There are so many different types of places that one can discover, from tropical islands in the Caribbean to the sand-strewn countries of the Sahara to the frozen tundra of Russia. In the second-ever Geography project at JRHS, I led a group of three students to discover what countries exist in the world as well as catch a glimpse of what those countries look like.

As we trekked across the globe, we used the nation's banners (flags) to help us gain insight as to what makes each country unique. The students learned that a flag contains a wealth of information if you know how to interpret it. We analyzed the flags of many nations from all six continents (Antarctica doesn't have a country on it) and found many interesting things! For instance, Uruguay actually "borrowed" a sun symbol from Argentina's flag when Uruguay gained its independence from larger Argentina. We also learned that stars can have significant meanings on flags: whether they represents a nation's states/provinces/parishes or a single star can represent a nation's main religion of Islam. We were also able to see how some flags (such as Dominica's) have symbols representing Christianity, despite an oppressive history from Western colonists earlier in their history; an encouragement that the redemptive Truth of Christ has power over evil! As we delved deeper into the meaning of each symbol, color, stripe, and line, we were able to appreciate the cultures and traditions, as well as the history, of our global neighbors.

God has made a beautiful world with many people of many backgrounds, but we all have the same need. As we considered the incredible differences of each nation, we also considered the religions that are practiced in many countries. One thing we discovered was that out of the approximately 1.7 billion people in South Asia, only about one percent of them are Christians. That alone is a quarter of the Earth's population who don't believe in Christ! By gaining a clearer picture of the world around us (they were able to identify about 100 countries!), these students were hopefully given a clearer glimpse of why the Great Commission is important.

It was great working with you Annika, Joey and Rebekah!