Understanding Geography: Continents, Oceans, and Map Skills for Students

1. Geography Basic Skills – continents, oceans, hemispheres, latitude, longitude, directions

2. The student will: • Understand how to use maps, globes, and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process and report information from a spatial perspective. • Demonstrate how to identify and locate major physical and political features on globes and maps.

3. Continents • Earth has seven continents, or large bodies of land. • They are: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America.

4. Oceans • Earth has five oceans, or large bodies of water. • The oceans are the: Atlantic, Arctic, Indian, Pacific, and Southern.

5. Oceans

6. Hemisphere • Like Earth, globes are spheres. A sphere is an object shaped like a ball. At any one time, you see only one half of a globe. • Another word for half a sphere or globe is hemisphere. “Hemi” means half. • Earth can be divided into 4 hemispheres.

7. Hemisphere • The equator is an imaginary line running halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole. • The equator divides the globe into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.

8. Hemisphere • Earth is also divided into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

9. Latitude and Longitude • Maps and globes use a system of imaginary lines to help us locate places. • Latitude lines run east and west. • Longitude lines run north and south.

10. Latitude and Longitude • Latitude lines are also called parallels. • Longitude lines are also called meridians. The starting line for measuring longitude is the prime meridian.

11. Latitude and Longitude

12. Using Maps • There are four main or cardinal directions. North, South, East, West • Intermediate directions are halfway between the cardinal directions. Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, Southwest

13. Using Maps • Most maps have a compass rose. A compass rose is a small drawing that indicates directions on a map.

14. Using Maps • Maps are much smaller than the actual places they show. The scale tells how much smaller. Scale explains the relationship between real distances on Earth and distances on a map.

15. Using Maps

16. Using Maps • A symbol is anything that stands for something else. Maps often use lines, colors, stars, and numbers as symbols. • Many maps have symbols in common. On most maps, a black dot stands for a city, a star stands for a capital, and a star in a circle stands for a national capital.

17. Using Maps • Not every map uses the same symbols. That is why it is important to use the map key. • A map key tells you what each symbol on a map stands for.

18. Using Maps • A locator is a small map inset in the corner of a larger map. A locator shows where the subject area of the main map is located. It may show an entire state, country, continent, or hemisphere.

19. Using Maps

20. Addition Sites • www.pwg.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/slatlong.htm • www.bcca.org/misc/qiblih/latlong_us.html • www.members.aol.com/bowermanb/games.html