South Carolina ETV

South Carolina ETV
1101 George Rogers Boulevard
Columbia, SC 29201-4761
Phone: 803-737-3545

Where in the World (Grades 4-5)

Master Teacher

Phillip Dean

Time Allotment

Two 45-minute lessons

Overview

Early explorers faced great difficulty navigating the earth. Relying on the stars or landforms proved to be unreliable. Not until the system of lines of latitude and longitude was developed could an explorer find a spot on the globe with any accuracy.

Through the activities in this lesson, students will realize the historical importance of the development of the global grid system. Also, they will become familiar with terms associated with latitude and longitude. Students will estimate the coordinates for their town and use Internet resources to find the exact coordinates. Students will be able to describe how latitude and longitude can be used to identify any spot on the globe.

Subject Matter

Geography and Mathematics

South Carolina Standards

Visit the South Carolina Department of Education for the South Carolina Mathematics Standards.

Mathematics— Grade 5

II. F. 1: The student will use rounding, estimating, mental arithmetic, and/or calculators to predict results and determine the reasonableness of computations on whole numbers, fractions, and decimals.

IV. B. 1: The student will identify and describe the diameter, radius, chord, center, and circumference of a circle.

IV. B. 2: The student will classify angles and triangles as right, acute, or obtuse.

Mathematics— Grade 4

IV. B. 3: The student will identify lines which illustrate intersection, parallelism, and perpendicularity.

Visit the South Carolina Department of Education for the South Carolina Social Studies Standards.

Social Studies— Grade 5

5.9. 1: Describe the purposes and characteristics of geographic representations such as maps, globes, graphs, diagrams, photographs and satellite-produced images.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

describe the historical importance of the global navigation system
describe how latitude and longitude can be used to identify any spot on the globe
use estimation to determine the location of their school
for any given city state the hemispheres in which that city is located, the closest lines of latitude and longitude (as shown on the globe) and the approximate degrees and direction from the Prime Meridian and equator.

Materials

beach ball
globe(s)
hemisphere handouts (Activity Sheets 1 and 2)

Equipment

computer(s) with Internet access
LCD projector/TV in classroom to display Internet sites
TV and VCR to play video clips

Media Components

Video

Geography Skills, Lesson 3: Latitude and Lesson 4: Longitude

Web Sites

Astrodienst. Students can enter any city and find its coordinates.

Make Your Own Globe. Step by step directions for making a globe.

Prep for Teachers

Inflate beach ball and draw a dot on it at any location for the discussion in Introductory Activity, Step 2.
Bookmark Web sites on computers that will be used by students.
Duplicate and distribute Activity Sheets 1 and 2.
Have videos cued to the correct starting point.

Introductory Activity: Setting the Stage

Step 1

Vocabulary: Review the following words with students.

latitude
sphere
North Pole
South Pole
equator
circumference
Northern Hemisphere
Southern Hemisphere
Tropic of Cancer
Tropic of Capricorn
Arctic Circle
Antarctic Circle
parallel
longitude
Right Angle
Prime Meridian
Eastern Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
Greenwich, England

Step 2

Establishing the Importance of Latitude and Longitude: Show students the inflated beach ball with the dot drawn on it with a magic marker. Ask, "How would you describe to a friend how to find this spot on the ball?" Listen to student responses and guide the students to the realization that it is much easier to find a point on the ball if the ball is divided into sections. Point out that the ball is already divided into halves (simulating the Northern/Southern Hemispheres) and into sections created by lines running from the top of the ball to the bottom of the ball (simulating lines of longitude).

Step 3

Establishing the Practical Usefulness of Latitude and Longitude. Focus for Media Interaction: Before viewing the video, instruct students to listen for the answer to this question: "Why was travel hard [for early explorers]?" Answer: It was hard to tell where on earth you were and hard to find anywhere else.

Play the clip from Geography Skills, Lesson 3: Latitude. START at the beginning of the video and STOP when you hear "From here, how do we get there, or even describe where there is."

Learning Activities

Step 1

Play a second clip from Geography Skills, Lesson 3. Focus for Media Interaction: During this clip students will complete Activity Sheet 1, "Lines of Latitude." Pause to allow time for students to complete their Activity Sheets and for discussion as needed.

START the clip when the narrator says, "What we really need is some kind of super street system—a grid painted on a globe to help locate ourselves." STOP when the narrator says, "These lines were meant to divide the world up into climate zones."

Step 2

Students will watch a clip from the video, Geography Skills, Lesson 4: Longitude. Focus for Media Interaction: During this clip students will complete Activity Sheet 2, "Lines of Longitude." Pause to allow time for students to complete their Activity Sheets and for discussion as needed.

START the clip when the narrator says, "But everyone agreed, the grid of latitude lines needed improvement." STOP when the narrator says, "The Prime Meridian was drawn through Greenwich, outside the city of London."

Step 3

Ask students how they would tell someone to get to their house. Guide students to discuss how each of their houses has a unique address that no other house in the world shares (street, city, state, country). Explain that just as each house has an address, that each spot on the globe also has a unique address. Use the globe to show students the lines of longitude and latitude. Have students identify the the major lines of longitude and latitude closest to their town.

For example, all of South Carolina would be closest to the 30° N parallel and the 75° W meridian (note—some globes display lines of latitude and

longitude in increments of 10°—others in increments of 15°). Explain that there are infinite lines of latitude and longitude—not just the ones shown on the globe.

After locating the approximate location of their town on a globe, and observing its position relative to the closest lines of latitude and longitude, ask students to estimate the exact coordinates of their town to the closest degree. For example, students at Clinton Elementary in Clinton, SC, might estimate the coordinates as 35° N, 80° W.

Access Astrodienst and type in your town and state and click search. The site will then provide the coordinates for that city. Write the coordinates on the board for all students to see—for example, 34:28:40N 81:51:58W.

Students should question question why there are so many numbers, not just 34 and 81. This question leads to the next step.

Step 4

Focus for Media Interaction: Students will learn how degrees are divided into minutes and seconds by viewing the site Degrees, Minutes and Seconds (http://www.enoreo.on.ca/introcts/sld017.htm).

*The Web site for Step 4 in this lesson is no longer available.

Step 5

Focus for Media Interaction: Students should be assigned 2-3 cities to research. Students will access Astrodienst again and enter their cities. For each city, students should determine the hemispheres, the latitude and longitude coordinates, and the distance (in degrees) and direction from the Prime Meridian and the equator.

You will have to tailor this activity to your situation depending upon the number of computers available. Ideally, students will work in pairs, taking turns entering information into the Web site and recording information.

Culminating Activity/Assessment

For a given city selected by you, students should provide the following:

hemispheres
closest lines of latitude and longitude (as found on the globe)
degrees from Prime Meridian

Cross-Curricular Extensions

Reading and Language Arts: Read a book about an explorer.

Community Connections

Invite an airline pilot or a surveyor to your class to learn about practical applications for the system of latitude and longitude in navigation and measurement.