‘Geography Game Show’ host Neal Nichols interacts with kids in their classroom to help them learn about countries all over the world.

Children sit in amazement as a silhouette of the world takes shape on their classroom dry-erase board, the lines flowing quickly out of the marker in Neal Nichols’ hand.

This is the first step in the trucker’s “Geography Game Show,” a fun tool he uses to teach kids about the world.

“I can draw the whole world without looking,” says Nichols, 37, who drives for Magnum Moving & Storage, a division of Atlas Van Lines. After he draws outlines of the continents as we see when we look at a big map – and he draws it freehand using only his memory – he adds detail to fit kids’ requests, answer their questions or help them in what they are currently studying, including a compass with the points written in the language spoken in that country.
Nichols says he can identify most countries and major cities on all the continents because of his globetrotting travels.

His audience – students of all ages – learn about the world by guessing where different countries are. If they guess correctly, Nichols rewards them with souvenirs collected from all over the world, such as Filipino money or an Australian boomerang. All the students leave class with a hand-made print of the map.

Nichols’ interest in geography and art started at an early age, when he was growing up in North Eastham, Mass., on Cape Cod. “As a kid I grew up drawing,” he says. “My mom said I drew everything.” His first subjects were the trucks in his father’s collection of Overdrive magazines, but over time his interest turned to landscapes and seascapes.