During today's class, we began thinking about the topics of religion, geography, language and culture by looking at statistics that "shrink" the world into a single village of 100 people.
Students used the statistics to conclude that Christianity, Islam and Hinduism are the three most popular religions in the world. In Core 5, the students asked why certain religions have more followers than other religions -- and in Core 6, they began offering possible explanations!
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Several students pointed out that not all of the villagers would be religious, and that some villagers might identify themselves as religious without following a specific religion.
Here were some of the other interesting insights:
- Several students said they were surprised at the relatively large number of villagers who would come from Asia, compared to the relatively small number of villagers who would come from North and South America.
- Others students were especially surprised to learn that only five villagers would speak English as their first language.
Later in class, I loved the students' observations about our map of world religions! Several themes arose in their responses:
- Students pointed out that Asia has a great deal of religious diversity.
- They observed that a portion of the people in almost every country identify as atheist or agnostic (thanks to several students who asked about the meaning of these two words!).
- They also noticed that Christianity and Islam are both quite popular in Africa.
Finally, a big shout out to Core 2. After finishing the map assignment early, students in Core 2 took the initiative to keep themselves busy (or to daydream) without asking for my guidance!
Next week, we will talk about the various options for students who finish an assignment early. Today I was VERY impressed that the Core 2 students managed to anticipate this topic (and to stay far, far away from the infamous Land of Forbidden Questions!).
