Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyMaps: finding anywhere on Earth30 min★★ difficulty

Latitude, longitude and the globe

Every spot on Earth has an address made of two numbers. Learn to read them and you can find anywhere — a snow leopard reserve, a volcano, your own house.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Build on knowledge of globes, maps and atlases and apply and develop this knowledge routinely in the classroom and in the field

Key learning points

  • • Latitude: the ladder
  • • Longitude: the segments
  • • Writing an address
  • • Globe versus flat map

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 19 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

knowledgeglobesatlasesroutinelyclassroom

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 19 · Discover5%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 19

Watch first

Latitude, longitude and the globe

An English teaching video on this topic from Peekaboo Kidz. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Build on knowledge of globes, maps and atlases and apply and develop this knowledge routinely in the classroom and in the field

2

What you already know

Part 2 of 19

Before we start

What you already know

You can read coordinates on a grid, across then up.

3

Key words

Part 3 of 19

Key words

Words you'll need today

latitude
Lines running east–west, measuring degrees north or south of the Equator.
longitude
Lines running north–south, measuring degrees east or west of the Prime Meridian.
hemisphere
Half of the Earth — northern, southern, eastern or western.
4

Learning cycle

Part 4 of 19

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 — The lines

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

5

Explore the idea

Part 5 of 19

Learn

Latitude: the ladder

Latitude lines are like rungs on a ladder (think 'ladder-tude'). The Equator is 0°. The North Pole is 90°N, the South Pole 90°S. London is about 51°N — just over halfway from the Equator to the Pole.

6

Explore the idea

Part 6 of 19

Learn

Longitude: the segments

Longitude lines run pole to pole like segments of an orange. The Prime Meridian through Greenwich, London, is 0°. Places go up to 180° east or west. New York is about 74°W; Tokyo about 140°E.

7

Quick check

Part 7 of 19

Quick check

The Equator is at latitude...

8

Quick check

Part 8 of 19

Quick check

The Prime Meridian passes through...

9

Reset break

Part 9 of 19

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
10

Learning cycle

Part 10 of 19

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 — Reading an address

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

11

Explore the idea

Part 11 of 19

Learn

Writing an address

Give latitude first, then longitude, each with a direction: Mount Everest is about 28°N, 87°E. Snow leopards in Hemis National Park, India, live around 34°N, 77°E.

12

Explore the idea

Part 12 of 19

Learn

Globe versus flat map

A globe is accurate but awkward to carry. Flat maps stretch something: the common Mercator map makes Greenland look as big as Africa, when Africa is about 14 times larger. Always ask what a map is distorting.

13

Quick check

Part 13 of 19

Quick check

Which is written the right way?

14

Quick check

Part 14 of 19

Quick check

On a Mercator map Greenland looks...

15

Investigate evidence

Part 15 of 19

Evidence 1 of 1

primary

The Prime Meridian conference record

International Meridian Conference, Washington DC, 1884

Twenty-five nations voted on where the world's zero line of longitude should run. Greenwich won by 22 votes to 1. France abstained and kept using its own Paris meridian on maps for decades afterwards.

Latitude has a natural zero (the equator), but longitude's zero line is a human choice — and the vote shows that even map-making is about politics and national pride.

Think like a historian

Why was there no argument about where zero latitude should be, but a real argument about zero longitude? Use the vote to explain your answer.

Source: Official conference proceedings, a matter of public record.

View the archive record ↗
16

Common mix-ups

Part 16 of 19

Common mix-ups

Things people often get wrong

  • Giving longitude before latitude.
  • Forgetting the N/S/E/W letter.
  • Trusting sizes on the Mercator map.
17

Challenge round

Part 17 of 19

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

18

Mastery quiz

Part 18 of 19

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Latitude, longitude and the globe

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Lines of latitude run...

  2. 2. A place at 34°S is in the...

  3. 3. The Equator is at latitude...

  4. 4. The Prime Meridian passes through...

19

Lesson round-up

Part 19 of 19

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
  2. Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
  3. Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

Source for this lesson

Use this for the source work task below.

The Prime Meridian conference record

primary

International Meridian Conference, Washington DC, 1884

Twenty-five nations voted on where the world's zero line of longitude should run. Greenwich won by 22 votes to 1. France abstained and kept using its own Paris meridian on maps for decades afterwards.

Latitude has a natural zero (the equator), but longitude's zero line is a human choice — and the vote shows that even map-making is about politics and national pride.

Source: Official conference proceedings, a matter of public record.

View the original record ↗

  • Case study notes

    Writing

    Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.

    Half a page

  • Explain answer

    Writing

    Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.

    8–10 sentences

  • Map or sketch

    Diagram

    Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.

    1 map with a key

  • Data work

    Working out

    Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.

    1 graph + 1 sentence

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 19 · Watch & discover

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