Analysis of socioeconomic differences in the development of the World

Subject:

Duration: 90 minutes
Level: Junior & Senior (14 - 18 years)

Main goals

• Increasing awareness of differences in the socioeconomic development of various countries of the world.

• Understanding what measures (indicators) are used to describe socioeconomic development.

• Understanding the reasons behind classifying countries into different groups, depending on the level of their social and economic development.

• Acquiring skills on using GIS to analyse the socioeconomic development of the world. 

Tools

Quantum GIS, Google Earth anddatabases available in the Internet

Description

First of all, students are introduced to the topic through a moderated discussion.

Next, they formulate a research hypothesis together. Students are then divided into 3 groups. Each group collects data on different International Human Development Indicators: HDI (Human Development Index), GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita in USD and the average life expectancy at birth. They convert the data to dbf files (database files). The next step includes downloading vector data with administrative boundaries (countries) and various data from the GEO Data Portal UNEP.

The students merge the data from the attribute tables with the data in the .dbf format. They work together in teams. Finally, the students create maps presenting selected indicators and they determine the geographical distribution of countries with different levels of development. They also try to provide causes of the uneven socioeconomic development of the World. In the summary phase some of students present results (multimedia presentation) of each group. They show their research hypothesis, analysis of development indicators and they finish with the conclusions and evaluation of the research hypothesis.

Click here to see the complete lesson plan for the project: Analysis of socioeconomic differences in the development of the world with the use of GIS.