Science and Inquiry discussion

I'm very interested in where our group members hail from, on a global scale, and so I want to set up a poll.

When I started making the list of "regions" around the world, I discovered my shortcomings in geography and culture. I don't imagine a long list of countries, but I don't want to forget anyone either. I'm trying to decide what the list of representative regional areas should be.

Please help me develop this by sharing your ideas!

East Asia (how to break this down?)
Central Asia
Southeast Asia
Polynesia
Australia/New Zealand
North America
Central America
South America
North/Western Europe
Eastern Europe
Middle East
West Africa
East Africa
North Africa
South Africa

Good list !

east asia can be further divided as south and north asia

Thanks Lindsey! And Filza, I've updated the list with your suggestion, and added a few more areas.

Keep helping me here . . . What (or where) is missing?

Why is Malaysia (a single country) on the list? Polynesia or perhaps Oceania might be added.

Ibis3 wrote: "Why is Malaysia (a single country) on the list? Polynesia or perhaps Oceania might be added."

Um. . . excellent. This is the help I need! I've made that change.

Middle East?

Yes, I wondered about Middle East. Adding it.

As a Bostonian, New England would prefer not to be associated with the rest of the US. Have you met those guys? They have weird ideas.

Kidding. I like the idea here. I'm interested in the results.

I think it's better to keep East Asia, since this will cover the far east countries from Korea to Taiwan. I doubt North Asia is really useful, since only half of Russia and Mongolia seems to fit the description. The whole Central Asia is missing from the list though.

'Mediterranean' can also be confusing for those who live around the Mediterranean sea, but also on different continent such as Middle East Asia and North Africa side of the Mediterranean. If you are referring to only European countries in the Mediterranea, I think Southern Europe is clearer.

Northwestern Europe and Northern Europe are also ambiguous, why not have it as North/Western Europe instead?

I agree with the comments about ambiguity of Mediterranean, Coqueline. Also, North/Western Europe does seem more clear.

I've been struggling with Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union. So maybe Central Asia is the easiest way to pull that in.

East Asia covers such a large area. I like breaking it down a bit more. Perhaps Pacific Asia?

Would it work to lump Middle East/North Africa?

Politically speaking, Russia has always belong to Europe, while the ex-Soviet Union countries in the Asian side is best lumped with Central Asia.

East Asia does cover a large area, but the countries on that sides are also quite sizable, so the number of countries in east Asia is actually not many (half of East Asia is already taken by China, afterall). On the top of my head, I think East Asian countries are: China, Mongolia, the two Koreas, Japan, Taiwan, Macau. Everything else southern than those is South East Asia.

Middle east and North Africa, on the other hand will cover a huge swath of land, all the way from Morocco to perhaps Iran (not sure if Iranians define themselves to be Middle Eastern or Central Asian), definitely lots of countries in between.

Thanks to all of you for you input. I've set up the poll and I hope we see good participation!