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Keith McCord Reporting The pressure was on for 9th grade geography students at Albion Middle School today. It's finals time and the test they had to take carried so much weight, that if they didn't pass it, they'd fail the class.
Most adults would probably fail the test. Can you name all 200 countries found on a map? And the bodies of water? Now, without looking at a map, could you draw the world, with borders, and correctly label everything? That was the test and the kids loved it!
It's one thing to point to a map and name a certain country, but in Courtney Roberts' geography class, the students don't get that luxury.
"I'm going to hand out the paper, and you can get started as soon as you get the paper."
For their final test today, they got a blank sheet of paper and they had to draw, from memory, the world, with all 200 countries and eight bodies of water identified, freehand. And neatness counts!
Courtney Roberts, 9th Grade Geography Teacher: "Their countries have to be the right size and shape or it's not going to fit together like a puzzle, so if you're going to have a good map, they have to be pretty accurate."
Preparation for the final test actually began at the beginning the school year. On the first day of class, the students are asked to draw a map of the world. It's pretty basic. By the last day of class, they've all gotten a lot better.
Though some of these world maps were less precise than others, they were pretty impressive. After all, the students only had 45-minutes to sketch them.
Katie Best, 9th Grade Student: (Reporter: What is the hard part?) "Putting them together, 'cause we know the sections by themselves, but it's putting them all together is quite a challenge."
Besides knowing where all the countries are, the students also learn about the people and cultures of the lands that they've drawn. Teachers say the feedback from parents over the years is extremely positive.
Courtney Roberts, 9th Grade Geography Teacher: "And so we get a lot of comments, 'I wish I would have learned that in school,' or 'My kids, we were talking about Iraq at dinner the other day, and my kid understood where it was and the situations.'"
Larry Odom, the principal of Albion Middle School, says his staff gets feedback from high school teachers who say they know the students from Albion because they know their geography so well.
