Lesson video

Hello, geographers, and welcome to our new lesson.

It's part of our inquiry, Europe, how diverse are its landscapes and places? In this lesson, we will be building on our work so far, understanding some of the major cities and capitals in Europe.

In this lesson, we're going to look at the physical features of countries in Europe.

I love geography, and I'm really excited to be going on this journey with you today.

So, have you got your geography hats? Are you ready to pull on your explorer rucksacks, and are you ready to investigate Europe? By the end of this lesson, you will be able to use digital and atlas maps to identify and locate key physical geographical features of Europe.

As always, we have some keywords in today's lesson.

I will say the keyword first, and then I'll ask you to say it as well.

Are we ready? Our first word is map key.

Brilliant.

Our second word is scale.

Really well done.

Our third word is interpretation.

Really good.

And finally, physical feature.

Excellent geographical vocabulary.

So what do these words mean? Well, a map key is a box of information on a map that tells you what the lines and symbols on the map mean.

The scale on a map shows what size the area that is represented in the map really is, and interpretation is an opinion or explanation of the meaning of something.

And finally, a physical feature is natural and has not been built by humans.

We're going to be using these keywords today on our geographical investigation.

So by the end, you should understand what they mean and be able to use them.

Our lesson today about physical features of countries in Europe has three parts.

In the first part, we're going to be asking the question, what is an atlas map? In the second part of the lesson, we're going to investigate using digital atlas maps.

And for the final part, we're going to be investigating physical features in Europe.

So geographers, are you ready to begin by investigating what is an atlas map? Let's go.

An atlas is a collection of maps, and these maps might be bound together in a book, or they might be published online.

Look at that exquisite photograph on your slides.

You're looking here at an image of the first atlas that was ever produced, and it was published in 1570, which is over 450 years ago, and it was by someone called Abraham Ortelius.

Now Abraham Ortelius was a cartographer, and a cartographer is a person who designs, creates, and makes maps.

So, actually, when you're designing and creating maps in the classroom, you are cartographers.

That's exciting, isn't it? What a great word.

Obviously, in the year 1570, Abraham Ortelius didn't have access to the amazing mapping information we have nowadays, but if you look at the image, you can see they did a pretty good job, didn't they? Broadly, the shape of the continent of Africa and Europe is accurate.

When we look at North and South America, we can see that their mapping skills were not as highly developed, and that we know they're not accurate now, but it's fantastic and interesting to see how our understanding of mapping has changed over the years.

Atlases usually contain different types of maps.

On the left, you can see an image of a physical geography map.

We're going to be talking about those in a moment.

Now, physical geography maps show the landscape and rivers.

The next image is of a human geography map.

You could see it looks quite different, doesn't it? We've got lots of different colours, and we've got borders and names of countries on them.

That's because a human geography map shows things like country borders, cities, and towns.

In other words, things that humans have created, whereas a physical geography map shows natural features.

Atlases usually contain maps at different scales, from maps of the world, and we can see a globe map there, the whole world copy on the left, with the different continents in different colours, to more detailed maps of specific countries and regions.

So, in the image on the left, we can see the whole world, and we can see the continent of Europe in the middle, and it's green.

In the map on the right, we can see just a map of Europe, so it's in more detail, and it's a physical map 'cause it's showing natural features.

So we have different scales, usually, in atlases.

Okay, let's check what we've understood so far.

I have four statements for you here, and I'd like you to select three descriptions that make sense, and we're going to use what we've learned about atlases.

So atlases have, A, only been in use for the last 100 years, B, usually contain different types of maps, C, can be bound together in a book or published online, or D, usually contain maps at different scales.

Which three of those statements is accurate? Geography caps on, pause the video, have a think.

Some fantastic ideas coming in, and I think you've got it.

Yes, B, atlases usually contain different types of maps.

We saw earlier, didn't we? They may contain maps with human features on or physical features.

Atlases can be bound together in a book or published online.

So we might have physical atlases we can use in the classroom, or we might use the internet to look at a digital atlas.

And D, usually contain maps at different scales, so we might have maps of the whole world, maps of a particular continent, or maybe maps of a particular country.

So well done if you got those right, geographers.

A can't be right, can it? Because we saw an example earlier of a map produced in the 1500s, and that's a lot longer ago than 100 years.

Let's look again at this map.

This is a map of continent of Europe, and it's a physical map showing the natural landscape.

Of course, this map is showing the entirety of Europe, so it can't show everything because there isn't enough space on this particular map to show everything.

Does it show, and what doesn't it show? I'd like you to think about this question and perhaps talk to the person next to you.

What does this map show, and what doesn't it show? Pause the video and have a think.

Oh, yes, brilliant geographical thinking.

I can hear some amazing geography words being used there.

Now Andeep says, "It shows mountains and country names but not cities." Andeep's right, isn't he? If you look carefully, we can see the names of countries there, like the United Kingdom or Lithuania or Poland, and we can see some mountains if we use the key, but because the map can't show everything, it doesn't show other cities, it just shows the names of the country.

Another geographical question here, geographers.

How has the cartographer, now remember, the cartographer is the person who created the map, how have they shown the mountains? Look very carefully at the image, talk to the person next to you, pause the video, and have a think.

You might want to use the key.

Oh, brilliant, yes, I can really see some great discussions going on there.

Now Laura says, "They have used colours to show the height of the land." Laura's right, isn't she? If you look at that map, we can see some areas in green, and the key suggests that's land between 0 and 200 metres.

We can see some areas in orange, and that's 1,000 to 2,000 metres above sea level, and a small area of purple in Norway and in Switzerland and Austria and Northern Italy, and that's high mountains that are 2,000 metres and above.

So the use of colour helps us understand where mountains might be found in Europe.

So, cartographers use colour, lines, pictures or symbols, and letters or words to show the different features on a map.

Can you see some examples of these on the map? We've talked, haven't we, about mountains and country names? What else can you spot on that map? Pause the video, talk to the person next to you.

Now, when we look at a map and work out what is happening, we are using our interpretation skills.

We're saying, what's this map telling me? What might I learn about, in this case, Europe, from looking at this map? Interpreting of maps is a really important geographical skill.

So we're going to be doing some interpreting now.

Let's look again at this atlas map of Europe.

We've already established, haven't we, that the different colours help us understand the different heights of the land.

Looking at the distribution of the colours, what can you say about the height of land in Europe? Where might we find some areas of particularly high land? Where might we find areas of lower land? Talk to the person next to you, pause the video, and do some interpreting.

Oh, goodness me, I am overwhelmed by the amount of fantastic interpreting going on there.

So Laura says, and let's see if we agree with her, "It shows that there are high mountains in central Europe, whereas countries like Holland and Poland are low-lying." Laura's right, isn't she? Because if we look at the key, it shows that the highest mountains are going to be in purple.

And if we look at the map, we can see that places like Switzerland and Austria and Italy have got areas of purple on them, whereas the key of the map is showing us that the green areas are the lowest-lying, and we can see, across the middle of Europe, Poland, Northern Germany, Holland are much lower lying.

So we're doing some interpreting there.

Here's a true or false question for you now.

True or false, maps show all the features in a place.

Is that true or false? Pause the video, have a think.

Well done, geographers.

It's false, isn't it? Maps do not show all the features in a place, but can we think of why that's true? Why don't maps show all the features in a place? Which of these is the better answer? Is it A, because there isn't space on a map to show all of the features in an area, or is it B, maps can't show geographical features? Again, pause the video, talk to the person next to you, have a think which makes the most sense.

Fantastic, it's A, isn't it? There isn't space on a map to show all of the features in an area, so cartographers have to be selective and show what they think is the most important features of that area.

Great thinking, geographers.

So we're going to practise some of these skills now.

We're going to look again at this atlas map of Europe.

We've established that cartographers, people who create maps, use colour, lines, pictures or symbols, and letters or words to show the different features on a map.

I would like you, using this map, to find examples of all of these and label them.

So can you find some examples of the use of colour? Can you find some examples of words? Can you find some examples of labels? When you find them, label them to show what they are.

Good luck interpreting, geographers, and I'm looking forward to seeing the results of what you discover.

What a lot of amazing work that you've done.

Thank you so much.

So you may have found some things like this.

In the top left-hand corner, we can see a symbol that represents the compass.

Can we see, we've got a cross with four points, and we have the letters N, W, E, and S for north, west, east or south.

At the bottom of the map, we've got a scale from zero to a thousand kilometres.

We've got some lines on our map too, which show different rivers in Europe.

We've got different colours, and the colours shows us where the sea is, where land is, and where the mountains are in Europe.

And finally, we've got some letters and words.

For example, we've got the names of countries, such as Spain or Portugal, or the names of seas, such as the North Sea.

Well done if you managed to find all examples of those.

Brilliant geographical interpreting.

Okay, so our second part of this lesson is going to be all about using digital atlas maps.

Let's go.

Digital atlas maps can be used to investigate countries of Europe as well as physical atlas maps.

There is an example of a digital atlas map on your screen now.

Look very carefully, what is this map showing? Pause the video and have a think.

Laura says it's showing lots of features in central Europe.

She's right, isn't she? We can see a region of northern Italy.

I can also see the countries of Slovenia, Croatia, and the very, very small country of Monaco between France and Italy, as well as other countries.

Symbols are used on maps to show important features, and that's because there isn't usually space for maps to contain lots of writing or pictures.

It would be completely overwhelming, wouldn't it? If we looked at a map and it was just covered in writing, we wouldn't be able to see where we were going.

So geographers, cartographers, use a key, and a key is a guide which explains what the symbols on a map mean.

So, for example, you can see, on the key there, that a small purple triangle represents a mountain, or a small orange triangle represents a volcano.

It's much simpler, isn't it, to have mountains marked with the little purple triangles than to keep writing the word mountain each time.

It makes the map look clearer and simpler and easier to interpret.

You might also notice that place names can be written in different fonts or sizes, depending on their type.

So, if we look at the example here, we can see the word England, which, of course, is a country in the United Kingdom, that's been written in capital letters, and that's to show it's the name of a country.

Just to the left of England, we can see the city of Birmingham, and that's been written in lowercase writing with a capital letter to show that it's the name of a city.

It's also in bold to show that it's a large city.

Around it, we can see some smaller cities and towns, such as Northampton and Peterborough.

So when we look at this map, we can easily interpret it to see the name of a country, the name of an important city, and the name of some other towns or cities as well.

Another incredibly important feature is a map scale, and that shows how the size of the map compares to the actual places on the map.

Maps, of course, don't represent size accurately.

That would make no sense, would it? Because maps would have to be absolutely enormous.

And so a scale is used.

There's an example of a scale here.

You can see the number zero on the far left of the scale and a two, two kilometres on the right.

If we measured the distance between zero and two on a map, we would be able to establish that a place was two kilometres apart.

So scales help us understand how far apart places are on a map.

Lots of geographical learning there.

Let's just check what we've understood so far.

Why are symbols and a key used on an atlas map? Which two of these answers make sense? Is it A, to show important features, B, because it makes the map look colourful and attractive, or C, because they make the map clearer and easier to understand.

Why are symbols and a key used on an atlas map? Pause the video, have a think.

Good thinking, geographers.

Yes, A, to show important features, and C, because it makes the map clearer and easier to understand, and when we look at a map, we want to be able to interpret it and not be overwhelmed by too much detail.

Let's draw these skills together.

I would like you to look at a digital atlas map of Europe.

Whilst you're doing that, I'd like you to practise using the symbols and the key, so that you can identify different features you can see on the map.

I'd also like you to use the zoom function, and that means you'll be able to zoom in and out of the map to see more or less detail.

I'd like you to use the scale bar as well, and see if you can use that to estimate the distance between two different localities, so pick two towns or cities on a map, use the scale bar, and see if you can work out how far apart they are.

When you've done that, I'd like you to discuss with a partner where you visited on the digital map, and what you found easy or hard about using it.

This might be the first time you've used a digital atlas map before.

So talk to each other about how you found the experience, what was easy, what was difficult, where did you go? Right then, geographers.

Off you go.

Enjoy this task.

Well, I can see you've done an amazing amount of exploration, and you've really, really started to use your digital atlas skills.

Jun had a go at this too.

He said, "I looked at Italy, and then I zoomed in to see Venice." We could see Venice in the northwest of Italy.

He used the scale to estimate that Venice is nearly 250 miles north of the capital, Rome.

You could see the Rome down to the south of the map.

He found it easy to find the map that he was looking for, and as well as estimating and using the scale, he also could spot islands, canals, and a beach when he zoomed in to look at Venice.

I wonder where you decided to look.

What places did you investigate? Did you manage to use the scale? How easy did you find using a digital atlas map? Brilliant geographical work, geographers.

So our final section in this lesson is going to be investigating physical features in Europe.

Let's go.

Europe, because it is a continent, has a diverse range of physical features.

Physical features are natural features, such as mountains, lakes, and coastlines, and these are features that would be here even if there weren't any people.

However, almost all of them have been impacted in some way by human activity.

And we can see some photographs here, examples of mountains, lakes, and a coastline in the continent of Europe.

So what do we mean by physical features? Let's just check that we're on the right track.

Which two of these are physical features? Are physical features, A, river, B, bridge, C, mountain, or D, road? Pause the video, have a think.

Fantastic geographical thinking, geographers.

Yes, a river is a physical feature, and a mountain is a physical feature because they are natural and would've been there whether humans existed or not.

A bridge and a road, of course, are a human feature because they've been designed and built by humans.

One physical feature that we might note is a glacier.

You can see a photograph of a glacier here.

Doesn't it look like the most extraordinary thing? Well, a glacier is a large area of thick ice that stays frozen over time.

So unlike the ice in our ponds, it doesn't defrost or melt as it gets warmer, but it stays frozen all the time and has been there for a very long time.

Glaciers are found in northernmost Europe, as well as mountain ranges such as the Alps, which we find in Switzerland and Austria and northern Italy.

The largest glacier in Europe is located in Iceland, which is right up in the top northwest corner of Europe.

As glaciers leave an area, they leave behind different physical features, such as lakes and fjords.

A fjord is a narrow inlet of the sea with high, rugged cliffs on either side, and you can see a photograph of a fjord there.

You can see the remaining water at the bottom and the high, rugged cliffs.

Many of Europe's fjords are located in Norway, and you can see the arrow pointing to the country of Norway in red on the map.

The Alps and the Pyrenees are major mountain ranges in Europe, but there are also many other smaller ranges of mountains and hills in Europe.

Other mountain ranges include the Balkans, the Dolomites, and the Caucasus.

Now the highest mountain in Europe is Mount Elbrus.

It's located in the Caucasus mountain in Russia, and you can see the arrow pointing to where it's located, as well as a photograph of it, the highest mountain in Europe.

So let's check our knowledge of Europe from what we've learned so far.

Where is the largest glacier in Europe located? Now, remember, a glacier was a large body of ice that stays frozen over time.

Is it found in A, Finland, B, Iceland, or C, Norway? Pause your videos and have a think, geographers.

Let's hear, yes, you are correct, in Iceland.

Well done if you got that correct.

Try this one.

What is the name of the highest mountain in Europe? Is it A, Ben Nevis, B, Mont Blanc, or C, Mount Elbrus? Can you remember? Pause the video and have a think.

Excellent, geographers.

It's Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains in Russia.

Ben Nevis is actually the highest mountain in the United Kingdom, and that's found in the country of Scotland.

Now, as well as mountains and glaciers, Europe's home to many rivers.

Some major rivers include the Volga, the Danube, and the Rhine.

Many of Europe's major cities are located on rivers, and we're going to be talking about human features in another lesson.

The Seine is a major river in France.

In the photograph, you can see a building which I'm sure you all recognise, the Mount Eiffel, Eiffel Tower in France, in Paris, and you can see that it's on the banks of the river Seine.

As well as rivers, Europe also has many lakes, big and small.

Many tourists visit Lake Bled in Slovenia each year.

Arrow is pointing to the country of Slovenia, which is between Italy and Croatia, and doesn't that lake look beautiful? Look at the colour of it.

I'd quite like to get a boat and go out to that island, wouldn't you? Now Europe is bordered in the west by the Atlantic Ocean, the second largest ocean in the world.

Countries like Portugal, in the west of Europe, receive more rainfall than countries in the east of Europe because they are close to the Atlantic Ocean.

And you can see that photograph there of a Portuguese beach with the incredible Atlantic ocean.

And, of course, that helps to explain why it's so wet in our country, the United Kingdom, because we too are in the west of Europe and close to the Atlantic Ocean.

In the south, Europe is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, and you can see a fantastic photograph there of the Mediterranean, and doesn't it look exquisite? You've got that kind of aquamarine colour and really beautiful beaches.

Now seas are smaller than oceans, and they're usually located where the ocean and land meet.

So you can see, the Mediterranean Sea provides a border between Europe and Africa, and it's a lot smaller than the Atlantic Ocean, which is very, very large.

So let's check our understanding.

Which large body of water borders Europe to the west? Is it A, the Atlantic Ocean, B, the Mediterranean Sea, or C, the Pacific Ocean? Pause the video, have a think.

Excellent, geographers.

It's the Atlantic Ocean.

Well done.

So our final task is this.

I would like you to use either an atlas or a digital atlas map, and I'd like you to find some examples of these physical geographical features.

I'd like you to find an example of a fjord, a glacier, a lake, a mountain, or a river.

I've given you some examples.

You might want to use those examples, or you might like to investigate and find some of your own as well.

When you've found them, I'd like you to complete this table with the name of the country in which those features are located.

I can't wait to see what you find out.

Geographers, your task awaits.

Off you go.

Well, thank you for all those amazing investigations.

I've got some examples here.

So, a fjord, we might find in a place like Norway.

Glaciers might be found in a country like Iceland.

We can find an example of a lake in Slovenia, Lake Bled, if you remember.

We might find an example of a mountain, Mount Elbrus in Russia, and finally, we might find an example of a river such as the Seine in France.

I wonder if you managed to find different examples of these physical features.

Well done if you did, and thank you for your investigating.

So let's summarise what we've learned today.

We've been thinking about the physical features of countries in Europe.

We've learned that atlas maps can be used to investigate the diverse range of physical geographical features in Europe.

We've learned that the Alps and the Pyrenees are major mountain ranges in Europe.

We've learned that Europe is home to some major rivers, including the Volga, Danube, and the Rhine, and finally, we've learned that the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean both border countries in Europe but are very different in size.

I've really enjoyed learning with you today, geographers.

Thank you so much for taking part in this lesson, and I really look forward to seeing you at our next lesson.

Enjoy yourselves, and well done.