World Regions Lab teaching guide
Choose a lesson, story or short game that fits your course. Learners can explore in English or Spanish, save a record and submit it through your usual course system. No full-course sequence is required.
Find a unit for class
Open Find a unit to assign on Home or in the footer. The catalog has nine geography units, twelve story investigations and eight optional map games. Cards state Covers, Learners do and Checks. Open a unit or copy its link; geography cards also offer a separate quiz link. Some game links open the library, where learners choose the named game.
Start with geography
Learn world geography opens Level 1. Choose a learning level or Learn & quiz shows all nine. Level 1 starts with map basics; Level 2 introduces countries through coasts and neighbours. Every level offers independent Learn this level and Practice questions routes.
Learn before answering
Learn this level opens a guiding question, map notes, evidence and a worked example. Learners can move between sections, revisit an idea and compare their explanation with a model. Practice is a separate choice. At the example, optional My explanation and A question to follow fields support writing; Keep my learning saves a learning record in My work. The model stays separate from the learner’s writing.
Use a short practice attempt
Take a practice quiz opens the levels with practice highlighted. Each level has 24 questions; an attempt selects eight across its objectives. Later attempts prefer questions not yet used in completed practice. Read the evidence before answering. Give me a clue and Show me first offer support; answers with help are recorded separately. Pause & save preserves an unfinished attempt.
| Levels | Focus | Minutes each |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Find your bearings Continents, oceans, directions, and map insets. | 10 to 15 |
| 2 to 3 | Places capitals and scale Locate countries, connect capitals, and read distance. | 15 to 25 |
| 4 to 6 | Regions connections and social data Explore regions, routes, counts, rates, and gaps. | 15 to 25 |
| 7 to 9 | Map views sources and arguments Question a map, read historical sources, and defend a claim. | 15 to 25 |
Times are planning estimates. Learn for fun opens optional games about places, routes, data and map views. Each can stand alone. Read a description, Read aloud and reduced motion in Preferences offer other ways to use the material.
Explore a country with dated facts
Select a place on Home and choose Learn about [country], or open Countries, search and select a country or area, then Read the country facts. World Bank metadata and twenty measures cover 217 reporting areas; some map areas have no profile. People, Economy, Everyday life and Environment group the facts. Check each value’s year, unit and source: different rows can use different years. Missing is not zero.
Source and chart opens the provider’s country-filtered graph; definitions and underlying sources are available in English. Refresh facts checks for newer values on the hosted app; downloaded copies keep bundled facts. More to explore links to Wikipedia background and Wikimedia Commons images. Check a photo’s place, date, creator and licence before reusing it. These links are optional.
Connect geography to stories
Follow a story on Home opens Permission to work. Stories or Browse stories opens all twelve episodes. Start with one question rather than requiring the whole collection.
- Try Permission to work. Read Salma’s job-offer case and the introduction to feminism. Salma is fictional; attributed source cards help investigate real rules and conditions.
- Choose a first thought and try the puzzle. Ordering investigation questions has no uniquely correct political answer.
- Read the evidence and its limits. To save a story record, add an explanation, a limit and a next question. A person reviews the argument; saving does not grade it.
Choose a story thread
Gender and everyday choices includes Permission to work, Who owns the clock, and Girls graduate. Then what?
History and power includes The abolition settlement, Land and labour options, and Repression and resistance.
Money markets and the planet includes Who receives prosperity?, A budget shock, and Whose carbon ledger?
Race identity and belonging includes The census boxes changed, The mortgage map line, and Born here. Recognized here?
Read history in its period
Historical investigations distinguish promises from implementation, recommendations from enacted boundaries, and events from later recollections. Present-day maps locate places; they do not reconstruct historical borders.
Ask for a supported argument
Review the learner’s claim, evidence, reasoning and limits. Different evaluations can be defensible. Saving records participation, not argument quality. Avoid requiring personal family or migration disclosures.
Build a comparative question
Open Compare to use Become a social scientist. Its separate edition has twelve World Bank measures for 38 countries and areas across 2000–2024. These dates and values may differ from the latest country facts. Open a population comparison, where offered in Countries, opens this edition; Population over time · World Bank opens an external provider graph.
- Choose two to five places, a measure and a period. For a first activity, compare internet use in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
- Read What are we counting? and What the number leaves out. Identify the unit, group counted, source date and data edition.
- Use Compare the same year for a description across places. Latest shared year finds a year with values for every selected place. See the data opens the numbers.
- Write One thing I noticed with a place, year and value. Turn it into a question and a hypothesis, an idea to test. Name another possible explanation and the evidence that could separate them.
- Choose Save to My work to keep the comparison and notes. Download CSV keeps the comparison data for a spreadsheet.
Original values compares levels. Compare change starts each place at 100 in a shared year; 120 means 20 percent above its own starting value, not equal levels across places. A gap means no reported value, rather than zero. Within a country helps plan an inquiry; answering it needs more detailed evidence than national totals. A chart alone does not establish a cause.
Collect and share a useful record
Share a unit link in Canvas or your usual course system and specify what to hand in. The lab has no assignment builder or in-app submission. In My work, they can add a Name on report, choose This session or All my activities, then use Print / save PDF or Download report. The downloaded report is an HTML file that opens in a browser for reading or printing. Each activity also has its own export actions. Learners submit the file through Canvas or the school’s usual system.
All my activities includes up to the latest 200 saved records. Add draft reflections includes unfinished historical or map writing only when selected. Download table (CSV) exports activity records. Practice details distinguish answers without help from supported practice; clicks, completion stamps and editable reports do not establish independent mastery or authorship.
Help learners return to their work
Check the save status. Optional ChatGPT sign-in supports saving across devices in the hosted app. Guest and account workspaces are separate: back up guest work before signing in, then import it if needed. Back up all my work downloads restoration JSON, not a reading report. Import backup replaces the current workspace after confirmation. The downloaded HTML saves only on its browser and device; external links need internet. Export before closing a temporary device draft or a paused cloud session.
Questions or classroom ideas: yduman@greenriver.edu.