Lesson video

Hello, my name's Miss Gilliette and I'm going to be your geography teacher for today.

Today we are going to be looking at the continent of Antarctica.

We're gonna be looking at what the climate is like there, where the South Pole is located, and how the continent changes throughout the year.

We've got loads of exciting things to be looking at, so I can't wait to be teaching you.

The lesson outcome, so what you should be able to do by the end of the lesson is use a range of geographical sources that includes photographs, maps, and graphs to describe Antarctica, which means to say what it is like there, and particularly to describe its extreme weather and the climate of the continent.

So, our key words for today, first of all, I would like you to just say the keyword to make sure that we are pronouncing it correctly, and then I will go through the definitions.

So the first one is Antarctic Circle.

Second, ice cap.

And lastly, climate.

Throughout the lesson, the words highlighted are keywords, will also be highlighted in bold throughout the lesson.

So the Antarctic Circle is an imaginary line around the earth, which surrounds the southern polar region, known as the Antarctic.

There is also one in the Arctic Circle as well, which would, if you are within that line, you are classed as being in the Arctic Circle.

Second, ice cap is a large permanent covering of ice on land.

The word permanent means it stays there, so the ice is always on that piece of land.

The third key word, climate, is the average weather conditions for an area.

So that can include looking at things like how much rainfall, the hours of sunshine, what the wind is like, and also what the temperatures are like.

Now, because it's the average weather conditions of an area, we tend to say the climate, if you are looking at the climate, you're talking about what it's been like there for the last 30 years.

It's not just the day-to-day changes in the amount of rainfall or the strength of the winds.

It's the long term average weather for an area.

There are two key learning cycles for today's lesson.

The first one we are going to be looking at is where and what is Antarctica like.

So we're going to find out where it is on a global map.

We're going to say what the continent is like in terms of what it looks like, what things you may be able to see there, but also what it feels like, what the temperatures are like, what kind of weather you get in the area.

And then for the second learning cycle, we're going to look at how Antarctica changes throughout the year.

So, Antarctica is a continent.

Now, that's where some people get a little bit confused.

Some people think Antarctica is a country, which it is not.

It is a continent, which is one large land mass.

It is located in the Southern hemisphere, and that means that it is south of the Equator and it is surrounded by the Southern Ocean.

Now, Antarctica is a very special continent because it is the only continent in the world, which is uninhabited full-time, which means that nobody lives there permanently.

The only people that go to visit really are scientists who collect research there, and tourists now visit throughout the year as well to see the social sites there.

Now, as you can see by looking at the world map here, the closest continent to Antarctica is South America.

Now, the Antarctic Circle is an imaginary line which surrounds the continent of Antarctica.

So I've highlighted it on the slide here in red.

So that dotted line basically is the boundary of where you'd be classed as being in the Antarctic Circle.

So if you were below that line that you can see on the map, you're in the Antarctic Circle.

If you were above it, you would not be.

There is also a similar line, as I said earlier, for the Arctic Circle as well.

Now, can you remember the name of the ocean which surrounds Antarctica? I just said it.

It's the Southern Ocean.

Easy to remember because it's the most southern point on earth.

Now, the South Pole is the most southern point on earth.

It was first, the first person to get there was a Norwegian explorer called Roald Amundsen, which took quite a long time to get there, is was quite an epic journey for him.

Now, we can see here on my map of Antarctica that the South Pole isn't actually located exactly in the middle of the continent.

It's actually a little bit to the left.

Now, the South Pole is very special because it's at the point at which the Earth's axis, which is another, an imaginary line, would meet the surface of the earth.

So if you weren't sure, the earth isn't straight up, it's actually tilted on its side and it's tilted on something called an axis.

Now this axis would come out in Antarctica at the South Pole.

So that's why it's very, very special.

The photograph on the right here, we can see the location of the South Pole.

So somebody's put a flag there to show that they have been.

But yeah, surrounding the South Pole is actually quite flat.

So, let's check our understanding of this so far.

True or false, Antarctica is located in the Southern hemisphere.

Is that true or is it false? That's true, well done.

It's south of the Equator, which means it's in the Southern hemisphere.

If you are north of the Equator, which is the imaginary line going around the earth, you'd be classed as being in the Northern hemisphere.

So can you justify your answer? Is it A, because it is south of the Equator, or B, because it is close to South America? The answer's A, because it's south of the Equator.

Now, it is also close to South America, which is also in the Southern hemisphere, but that's not the reason it's classed as being in the Southern hemisphere.

So we're gonna have a look at what Antarctica's climate is like.

Now, as I said when we went through the keywords, the climate is the average weather conditions for a place.

So that includes what temperature there is, how much rainfall or how much snow there is in the area.

It also includes about the wind okay and what kind of things you may experience to do with the weather for that area.

In general, because it's the average weather of an area, not just the day-to-day changes, we tend to think of climate as a 30 year thing.

So we're looking at what it's been like there for the past 30 or more years really.

Now, Antarctica is a very large area.

It's a large continent, and it is the coldest and the windiest climate on earth.

So there is no other place, even in the Arctic or the top of Mount Everest that is cold, is as windy as Antarctica.

The coldest temperature ever recorded there was minus 89 degrees C.

Now that is pretty cold.

The strongest wind ever recorded was 203 miles per hour, which is also extremely fast.

Now, if you were to be in those conditions or experience something like that, you would not last very long without very special equipment.

Most of the continent is covered in something called an ice cap, which is a permanent cover of ice.

That means that the ice doesn't melt and come back, it just stays on top of the land.

Because Antarctica is so cold, it means that the ice stays on most of the continent all year round.

At the edges of the continent some bits of the ice do melt in the summer when it's a little bit warmer.

But in general, most of the continent is pretty much always covered in ice.

Now because again, it is so cold and the ice has been there for such a long time, it's had time to build up.

Now, in some places the ice is four kilometres thick on top of the land.

So if you imagine there's the, Antarctica as a continent, as land.

On top of that, you have got four kilometres, just of thick ice.

There's not many places like that, or if any places like that on earth really.

Now, if you have a look at the picture I've got on the board, you can see part of an ice cap.

So the thick bit of ice on the land is the ice cap.

And you can see some mountains sticking out of that as well.

Now, Antarctica is also very special because there are lots of very high mountains in the continent.

Unlike the Arctic, which is sea ice, which means that there's no land there, Antarctica is land, so you get mountains.

Now the highest mountain in Antarctica is called Mount Vinson, which is 4,892 metres high.

Some people have managed to climb to the top of it, and some mountaineers visit Antarctica, especially just to climb up that mountain.

But it is a very dangerous mountain to climb up because the weather conditions are so extreme and so cold within that area.

Let's check our understanding.

So what is an ice cap? Is it A, a sheet of ice floating on the sea? Is it B, an icy mountain.

Or is it C, a permanent cover of ice? So the answer's C, a permanent cover of ice.

Did you get that right? For you to practise what you have learned about Antarctica and the climate for the area, I would like you to describe what Antarctica is like.

Now, on the board or on this slide, I've got some things to help you out.

I've got an image of Antarctica, so you can use that in your answer if you would like to help you out.

Think about the things that you can see.

Think about the temperature it would be like.

Think about what you'd feel in the continent.

I have also put some facts on the slide here, which you could include in your answer as well.

So there's the coldest temperature ever recorded a whopping minus 89 degrees C, the strongest wind, 203 miles per hour, and the highest mountain, which was called Mount Vinson, which is 4,892 metres.

So, pause the video and have a go at describing what Antarctica is like using the picture and the facts to help you out.

On the slide, I've got an example paragraph.

I'm going to read this out to you.

I'd then like you to pause the video and see if you can add any extra information to the paragraph that you have written.

Antarctica is the coldest and windiest place on earth.

The coldest temperature ever recorded was minus 89 degrees C.

The strongest wind ever recorded was 203 miles per hour.

There are some tall mountains in Antarctica.

The tallest one is called Mount Vinson, and it is 4,892 metres high.

Most of Antarctica is covered in ice, and in some places it is more than four kilometres thick.

As I said, pause the video.

Can you add in any extra information to your own answer? We are now moving on to our second learning cycle, which is looking at how Antarctica changes throughout the year.

The earth doesn't just sit straight upright.

It is actually tilted on something called the axis.

If you have a look at the picture I've got of the earth on the right here, the blue dotted line, which is diagonal, is classed as the axis.

As I said earlier in the lesson, the South Pole is located where the axis meets the surface of the earth.

Now, because earth is tilted on an axis, that means that some points of the year, the South Pole and Antarctica is tilted towards the sun, which means it's warmer and that it's more sunny.

But at some points of the year, it is tilted away from the sun.

Now, the diagram on the right here shows a period of time when Antarctica is tilted away from the sun, and that means there are some months of the year where it is completely dark all day.

On the left, I've got a picture of Antarctica in its winter when you don't see any sunlight there.

That makes it really, really hard for the people that are visiting there or the scientists that are doing research because they have to use their head torches all day, and all day round because there's no sunlight.

So it can get quite hard work sometimes.

Now, as it is tilted away from the sun in their winter, it also means that it is colder in that period.

Now, the Antarctic winter is classed as between the months of March to October.

Now you might think, oh, that's weird because that's when we have our summer.

We have our summer, well, I say we, that means in the UK we have our summer between the months of June, July, August.

Now because we're in the Northern hemisphere, that means that we have our winter when they have their summer and vice versa.

As I said, because it is, there is less sunlight in the Antarctic winter that means it is much colder.

Now, because it is colder in the Antarctic winter, a lot of the ice actually grows and expands.

On the slide here, I've got a picture of what Antarctica looks like.

Now, surrounding Antarctica is ocean, but in the winter, the parts of that ocean actually freeze because it is so cold there.

And that actually means that the continent in winter expands.

Now in the summer when it gets sunnier and warmer again, the ice will melt and the continent will shrink again.

But it's quite a cool thing that every year the continent gets bigger in the winter and smaller in the summer as the ice freezes and melts.

Let's check our understanding.

Antarctica doubles in size in the winter.

Is that true or false? Correct, that's true.

Can you justify your answer? Is that because A, it is colder, or B, because the ice moves more easily? The answer's A, because it's colder.

Summer in Antarctica starts in October and ends in February.

That's when we have our winter in the UK.

The days are very long, and for part of the summer, the sun never sets, and that's called midnight sun.

On the slide here, I've got a picture of some emperor penguins, which are very special penguins as they stay on Antarctica the whole year round, which other penguins don't, they decide to leave in the winter.

Now we can see here this photograph was actually taken at 11:00 PM at night, usually when there would be, if you were in most places of the world when it would be dark.

However, because it's tilted towards the sun in this period, it means that they've got light all day round.

Now, if I was to visit Antarctica in the summer, I'd need to make sure that I brought my eye mask so I could go to sleep.

As the days are longer and there's more sun, that also means the temperature gets warmer in Antarctica.

And as I said earlier, the ice surrounding the continent can start to melt.

Places next to the coastline are generally warmest, and that's because the ocean absorbs heat and it keeps that coastline a bit warmer than you would do in the middle of the continent.

Now, the coldest, sorry, the warmest temperature ever recorded Antarctica was 18 degrees C.

Now, sadly, because of climate change, the temperatures we are recording in Antarctica are getting warmer and warmer, which is having negative effects on some of the wildlife and the animals that live there.

That temperature was recorded at the coastline.

Now, as we can see here and as I said, the continent actually shrinks during the summer because the ice starts to melt as it gets warmer.

Now, because some of the ice melts and because it is a little bit warmer, it means that some plants are able to grow in places.

However, the only places that the plants are able to grow really are on the coastline.

They tend to be very, very small plants that you don't get big trees there.

They're quite low lying.

The majority of them are located on the Antarctic Peninsula, which is, if we have a look at the picture of my, of the continent there, is the bit on the left, which is sticking up, which looks a little bit like a beak.

Okay, so that's classed as the Antarctic Peninsula, where you would find most of the wildlife on the continent.

Let's check our understanding.

So which of these does not happen in the Antarctic summer? Is it A, the continent shrinks.

B, small plants can grow.

Or C, the days get shorter.

The answer's C, the days get shorter.

They don't get shorter, they get longer.

On the slide here, I've got a few questions for you to have a go at.

You could either complete these on the worksheet or in your book or on paper.

So the questions are, 1A, when is it winter in Antarctica? Can you remember which months? If you can't remember which months, just say roughly when in the year you think is.

Question 1B, why is it colder in the Antarctic winter compared to their summer? What happens? And question 1C, why might you need a torch in the middle of the day during the winter in Antarctica? So pause the video and have a go at the questions.

Let's do some feedback.

So, my answers, so for 1A, the answer is March to October.

For 1B, because it is tilted away from the sun and that means it doesn't get the sun's heat.

And question 1C, why you might need a torch is because sometimes the sun never comes up in the winter months because the continent is tilted away from the sun.

Next task, on the slide, I've got a picture of a ship which is located, or which is sailing near the coastline of Antarctica.

Now, tricky question.

Why do you think the ship might get stuck? Think about what happens to the sea ice in the winter.

Pause the video and write down your answer.

Let's see what we've got.

The ship might get stuck because in winter, the sea surrounding Antarctica freezes, this could mean that the ship gets stuck in the ice.

Now, that would not be a good thing for that ship if it happen to happen to that ship, but that has happened in the past.

So, the people that are on the ship have to be really, really careful to make sure that they don't get stuck in any frozen sea ice.

Here we've got a summary of today's lesson.

We have learned that Antarctica is located in the Antarctic Circle, which is in the Southern hemisphere.

Antarctica has the coldest and windiest climate on earth.

Antarctica is mostly covered in ice.

The continent grows in size in the winter as the sea surrounding the continent freezes.

I hope you've enjoyed today's lesson, I have.

And I hope you've learned lots of cool and interesting facts about Antarctica.