How to Make a Model of the Earth's Surface

Put on rubber gloves so your hands don't get dirty. Tear several old newspapers into strips and put them into a bucket. This will be used to make the model of earth's surface.

Add enough warm water to the bucket so the paper is moist, but not saturated. Use both your hands and scrunch the paper and mix it about in the bucket. Add a little more water if the paper absorbs all the water.

Use a separate bucket and mix some powdered glue and water together using an old wooden spoon or a stick. Read the instructions on the back of the powdered glue packet so you get the correct consistency.

Pour most of the glue mixture into the bucket and then mix the contents of the bucket using your hands. The mixture is ready once it's sticky, thick and you can't recognize the paper as paper. You need to be able to pick up lumps of the mixture and mold it into shapes.

Wash a soccer ball in warm soapy water to remove any dirt and grease. The ball is the template for the model of the earth's surface.

Rub a sheet of sandpaper all over the ball. This removes the shine and roughens it, so the paper mixture adheres to the surface better. Use your hand and rub a little of the remaining glue over the ball's surface. Let the glue dry slightly so the surface is tacky.

Put a layer of paper mixture over the ball using your hands. It needs to be about 1/4-inch thick. Leave for a day for it to harden slightly. Cover the bucket with plastic film so it doesn't dry out.

Open the world map, or print one off the computer. Draw the shapes of several large countries onto the ball's surface using a pen. You can draw the American, European, Asian and Australian continents. Locate a couple of large islands and draw them onto the surface at the appropriate places on the ball.

Look at the contour lines on the world map. This gives you the height of the land on the different continents. Use the paper mixture and start to build up the continents inside the shapes you've drawn. Keep referring to the map to make the paper mixture thickness different, depending on the height of the land. Continue until you've made the continents reasonably accurate and they look similar to the map.

Let the model of the earth's surface dry. This may take several days. The model is best left in a warm, dry place so the water evaporates quickly. The surface will get very hard once it's dry. Turn the ball around each day so the drying process is fairly even.

Use a paint brush and color between the land on the earth's surface using blue paint. This is the sea. You can use different shades of blue to indicate shallow and deep water. Refer to the map again to find out which areas are deep and shallow. Use light blue for shallow water and darker blue for deep water. Let the paint dry.

Use different paint brushes and different color paints to color in the land areas. Look on the map to find fertile areas; these are green. Find deserts; these are yellow or brown. Completely paint the land areas and then let the paint dry. You have completed your model of the earth's surface.