THE JIGSAW MODEL

Country X

GALLERY WALK
Students will do a gallery walk around the roomthere will be enlarged versions of 5 maps in
different areas. Next to each map there will be
lined paper.
Each students will write one thing that they can
infer on the lined paper for at least one of the
maps.
Students sit back in their home group.

HOME GROUPS AND EXPERT

GROUPS

For a class of 20, there will be 5 people in each home

group.
Each person in each home group will be numbered off
by counting to 5.
The home group will separate into Expert groups by
meeting with all 1s, all 2s, etc.
Go to expert groups

EXPERT GROUP --1S

TYPES OF VEGETATION
What parts of the
country would be
good to live around?
Are there any parts
that would be good
to grow food?
What kinds of food?
Which parts might
hinder
transportation or
help?

EXPERT GROUP2S
DEPTHS OF RAINFALL
What parts of the
country would be
good to live around?
Are there any parts
that would be good
to grow food?
What kinds of food?
Are there certain
parts that would
make it hard to live
and why?

EXPERT GROUP3S
JANUARY MEAN TEMPERATURE
What parts of the
country would be good
to live around?
Are there any parts
that would be make it
hard to grow food?
What kinds of food?
Which parts might
hinder transportation
or help?
What would some of
the problems you would
encounter with this
type of temperature?

EXPERT GROUP 4S
JULY MEAN TEMPERATURES
What parts of the country
would be good to live
around?
Are there any parts that
would be make it hard to
grow food?
What kinds of food?
Which parts might hinder
transportation or help?
What would some of the
problems you would
encounter with this type
of temperature?

EXPERT GROUP 5S
ALTITUDE (ELEVATION)
What parts of the
country would be good to
live around?
Are there any parts that
would be make it hard to
grow food?
What kinds of food?
Which parts might
hinder transportation or
help?
What would some of the
problems you would
encounter with these
elevations?

HOME GROUP
Once you have answered questions about each map in
your expert group, go back to your home group.
In the home group, each person must share a
summary of their findings.
Each home group will pick a question to answer
(must be different than other groups).
Home groups will present their information in a
creative way on poster board. The group will present
the answer to their question to the class.

POSSIBLE INVESTIGATIVE
QUESTIONS
Where would the three largest cities develop, and why?
If there were major wars or ongoing conflicts in this
region, where might they have occurred and what issues
might have sparked them?
Over time, what would be the three biggest problems
working against the development of this country?
Pick any spot on the map and make a detailed prediction
of how human activities would have developed there.
Say the initial human settlement was established at the
foot of the potato shaped lake in the northeastern area.
As population grew and people needed more living space,
where would people migrate to and why?
How would the modern economic development of the area
look? What would be the three or four major industries
and where would they be located?

RESULTS
Teacher will show students a map of the former
Soviet Union.
Inform students that Country X was actually the
Soviet Union flipped onto the southern
hemisphere. How close were their answers to
being the truth about the Soviet Union?
What were the differences? The similarities?
Have a class discussion explaining why.

COUNTRY X MODELED AFTER SOVIET UNION

POSSIBLE INVESTIGATIVE TOPICS

Where would the three largest cities develop, and why?

What areas of this region would have the highest populations and why?

The least?

What would be the main foods eaten by the people in this region? How

would diet differ by location?

If there were major wars or ongoing conflicts in this region, where might

they have occurred and what issues might have sparked them?

How would the modern economic development of the area look? What

would be the three or four major industries and where would they be

located?

Over time, what would be the three biggest problems working against the

development of this country?

We have been referring to this area as a countrybut this large area might

well have turned out to be several different countries. What can you say

about the political development of this space? What tribes, clans, states, or

other forms of organization might have arisen?

Assuming that the human species did not originally evolve here, when

and how do you think people first arrived in this region? Were they apes,

modern people, or something in between? Where did they settle first?

Say the initial human settlement was established at the foot of the potato shaped