KS3 Geography › Geography: what makes a geographer?
KS3 Geography › Geography: what makes a geographer?
These are the points the worksheet questions are built around.
On many flat world maps, the Pacific Ocean appears twice, once at the far left and once at the far right. This happens because the round Earth has to be cut and spread out to fit on a flat page. In reality the Pacific is a single ocean, so large that it stretches all the way around the back of the globe. Locational knowledge is about understanding where places are and describing their position clearly.
The Earth's surface is divided into seven continents, which are very large areas of land: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania. Asia is by far the largest, and Oceania is the smallest. Between the continents lie five oceans, which are huge areas of salt water. These are the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, the Southern and the Arctic. The Arctic is the smallest ocean, and it is so cold that much of it remains frozen throughout the year.
Maps are drawn at many different scales. The scale of a map shows how much the real world has been reduced to fit onto the page. A map of a single county can pick out individual towns, roads and minor rivers by name. A map of the whole country loses that detail but shows where the county sits. On a map of Europe, a scale bar only a couple of centimetres long might represent around a thousand kilometres, which is roughly the distance from the top of the UK to the bottom. On a world map, a bar of the same length can stand for five thousand kilometres. This is a small-scale map: it covers a huge area with little detail, so it would be useless for planning a walk.
It is a common mistake to think all maps show the same things. Political maps mark where one country ends and the next begins, usually giving each country its own colour. Crossing a border means entering a place with a different government and laws. A physical map shows the shape of the land itself, including mountains, rivers and the height of the ground. Colour shows height, from green for low ground to brown and grey for the tallest peaks. Europe's physical map makes the Alps obvious, stretching across France, Switzerland and northern Italy.
To describe a position precisely, geographers use lines of latitude. These are imaginary lines that run around the Earth from side to side, and they are given in degrees. The key one is the Equator, which circles the planet's middle. Everywhere north of the Equator is in the Northern Hemisphere, and everywhere south of it is in the Southern Hemisphere. Two further lines, called the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, enclose a hot zone on each side of the Equator.
A useful way to describe exactly where a place is uses the letters CLOCC. The letters stand for continent, latitude (north or south of the Equator), the nearest ocean or sea, countries or cities nearby, and compass directions. Mount Everest shows how the method works. Its continent is Asia, and it lies above the Tropic of Cancer, so it is in the Northern Hemisphere. Its closest sea is the Bay of Bengal, far to the south. It straddles the Nepal–China border and belongs to the Himalayas, which rise north of India.
Closer to home, the UK consists of four countries, and every one has a capital. England's capital is London, Scotland's is Edinburgh, Wales's is Cardiff and Northern Ireland's is Belfast. London is also the capital of the UK as a whole. The Republic of Ireland is a separate country, with Dublin as its capital. Although it shares an island with Northern Ireland, it is not part of the UK.
The UK sits in the north of Europe, like Norway, Sweden and Finland. These northern countries tend to have cooler climates. Countries further south, such as Italy and Greece, are much warmer because they are closer to the Equator. Ukraine lies further east. Europe is a fairly small continent, yet it holds 44 countries. Russia is the largest country on Earth and stretches across two continents, Europe and Asia. Most of its territory is Asian, although Moscow, the capital, is European.
A physical map of the whole world reveals some of the planet's largest features. White areas show the great ice sheets, which blanket nearly the whole of Antarctica and the majority of Greenland. Antarctica has no permanent population, only scientists staying for a while at research stations. Yellow areas show deserts, the largest hot desert being the Sahara, which spreads across northern Africa. Darker shading marks mountain ranges, such as the Andes along South America's west coast and the Himalayas, home to Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. No river on the planet moves more water than South America's Amazon.
In short: the world is made up of seven continents and five oceans, and maps show them at different scales and for different purposes, with political maps showing borders and physical maps showing the land. Latitude, including the Equator, describes how far north or south a place lies, and the five-part CLOCC method brings continent, latitude, ocean or sea, nearby countries or cities and compass directions together to describe exactly where any place on Earth is.
These are the words that appear as key term cards in the video — worth knowing cold before the test.
Short clips from this lesson. Good for a quick refresh before a test.
Revising for a test? Key terms, objectives and quiz questions on one printable page.
The 3 questions from the video, one at a time. See if you caught them.
1. True or false... a small-scale map shows a large area?
Why: A small-scale map shrinks a huge area onto the page, so you see more ground but far less detail.
2. Roughly how many countries are there in Europe?
Why: Europe has 44 countries, far more than most people guess.
3. Which continent is Russia part of?
Why: Russia stretches across both Europe and Asia, making it the largest country on Earth.
Score: 0 out of 3 —
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Geography: what makes a geographer?
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