For the Geographically Challenged Among Us

Of which I am one. Here's one of the most enjoyable parts of the kids' school day:

Place the State.

 

You can also try and pick the right rivers or oceans or even try to find the right countries on different continents. Here's the main menu:

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm

Comments

[Laura]

45/50 with an average error of 16 miles. I misplaced Nebraska (!) a bit, and I told you I had trouble with some of the northeaster states. My question: Why is Rhode Island a state?

[Georg Thomas]

Absulutely faboulous.

I am not going to tell you about my overall score, but it is totally amazing and I am very proud of the fact that I positioned the states of Nebraska, Michigan, and South Carolina 100% correct at the first go.

[Georg Thomas]

Truth to tell: 36/50, average error 111 miles. Mind you, I dropped two states accidentally, and Alaska I misplaced for technical reasons, too, as I initially overlooked the separate box for it.

Wyoming and the northeastern states account for most of my errors.

[Brutus]

Not bad, Georg. Did you try to do one of the maps for Europe?

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Europe/Eur_G0_1280_1024.html

[Brutus]

"Why is Rhode Island a state?"

They must have been the most outspoken for a senate body when forming our government. ;)

I just gave the link to Georg to try an easier click-on-the-country map instead of of a drag-the-country kind, quizzing him on his European geography prowess. Give it a try and note the tiny countries which might even be smaller than Rhode Island:

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Europe/Eur_G0_1280_1024.html

[Eric Larson]

Tons of fun! I got 50/50 but definitely was assisted by the order of the states. Thankfully it had coastal and river bordered states first. Made it a lot more managable. I don't think I would have done as well trying to place their capitals.

[Georg Thomas]

This is really fun. I got 44/46 (96% correct) for Europe, having confused Macedonia with Montenegro, and mixing up Latvia and Lithuania.

[Laura Ebke]

I only managed a pathetic 59% in Europe--and much of that was just lucky guessing.

[Laura Ebke]

The order the states come up is definitely helpful--if you can get those coastal states early, that helps a lot. Which probably explains my 45/50 with 16 mile displacement average. Nebraska came up second on mine, Tennessee like third. I've lived in both of those places, know where they are, but when I "set them down" was "off" just enough to be counted wrong. Vermont and New Hampshire are easier to place, but I always have trouble remembering which one is which when I just seem them.

[Brutus]

Yeah, if you get one of the midwest states that doesn't have a river or coastal reference point, it's darn near impossible to plunk it down in the right spot.

But you can see why the kids like it so much. It's nice that they have easier ones too. That helped me to learn my capitols last year. I never knew my capitols. My brother always did. In fact, he knows the capitol of every country in the world as well, the show-off.

[Brutus]

"managed a pathetic 59%"

That's better than me! I don't even want to know how I would do with the maps for the other areas around the globe. I've never tried the South America quiz. Maybe I'll give that one a go.