Lesson video

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

Today is the first lesson of the Hot Places topic, so we're gonna learn about lots of interesting places around the world which are really hot.

I'm looking forward to teaching you.

I hope you're looking forward to learning some interesting things.

So our lesson outcome for today is that you can locate hot places in the world using an atlas and a globe.

Hopefully you've got either an atlas at home or one in school.

If you don't, you can easily find a world map online.

We have three keywords today.

First of all, I'm going to say them, and I'd like you to repeat them back to me to make sure that we are saying them correctly.

Our first keyword is Equator, temperature, hot desert.

The Equator is an imaginary line circling Earth at zero degrees latitude, and is an equal distance from the North and the South Pole, right in the middle of our planet.

Temperature is the measure of how hot or cold something is.

And hot deserts are areas on Earth which are very hot and very dry.

They have less than 25 centimetres of rainfall in a whole year.

We've got two key learning cycles for today's lesson.

The first one is we're going to learn why it is hot at the tropics, okay? And the second learning cycle, we're going to learn where the hottest places of the world are located.

And we're gonna look at two different types of hot places: hot and dry places, but also hot and wet places.

So let's get started on learning circle 1: Why is it hot in the tropics? Some of you may already know that the hottest places on Earth are near the Equator and the tropics.

we're gonna learn about what the tropics is actually classified as later in the lesson, but it's near the Equator for this slide.

Now, you may have wondered, "Well, why is it so hot at the Equator?" Now, that is because the sun's ray at the Equator are really, really concentrated, whereas nearer the poles, the sun's rays are less concentrated.

Now, to understand this, if we have a look at my diagram, we can see that at the poles or further north, a sunray is having to spread out over a larger area; that's because of the curvature of the Earth, and that means that the heat's rays aren't as hot and intense.

At the Equator, the sun's rays are only having to heat up a smaller area because the Earth isn't as curved there.

And that means that the suns rays are more concentrated and they are hotter.

So that's why it's hotter at the Equator than it is at the poles.

It's a little bit of a tricky concept to get your head around.

Sometimes what I find handy to make sure that I understand this is have a go at drawing a circle and show some heat from the sun coming in at the centre, so near where the Equator is, and then show a heat ray coming near the poles.

And you can see that if it comes at the poles, because the Earth is circle, then it's having to spread across a larger area at the north and at the south.

Along the Equator, the sun is high in the sky all year round, and that means that it's hot and warm all year round there too.

That's different to places like the UK.

In the winter, we are actually tilted away from the sun, which means that the sun isn't as high in the sky; and when it's not as high in the sky, it doesn't give as much heat off.

If you're at the Equator all year round, the sun is really, really high.

The world's hottest temperature that has ever been recorded was 56 degrees Celsius in Death Valley, California.

That's incredibly hot.

It's too hot to be stood outside.

You basically overheat and become very, very ill.

Do you know what the hottest temperature you've ever experienced was? Mine was two years ago in the UK where it reached nearly 40 degrees, which felt incredibly hot then.

Let's check our understanding of what we've learnt so far.

So why is it hot near the Equator? Is it A, because the sun's rays are less spread out and are stronger? Is it B, because the Equator is closer to the sun? Or is it C, because heat from the centre of the Earth escapes at the Equator? <v ->That's right, the answer is A:</v> The sun's rays are less spread out, and therefore they are stronger and give off more heat energy.

On this slide, we have task A for you to complete.

What you need to do is you need to read the sentences and look at the diagram and complete the words that have not been filled in.

Now, to help you out, we've put the words to the right of the diagram that need filling in.

So pause the video and have a go at filling in the gaps.

Let's check the answers.

The sun's rays at point A are not as strong: this means it is colder.

At point B on the diagram, so that's near the Equator, The sun's rays here are strong: this means it is warmer.

We are now moving on to learning cycle 2: Where are the world's hottest places located? To help us locate the hot places of the world, we're going to use something called lines of latitude.

Lines of latitude are imaginary lines.

You can't see them, but we will see them on maps.

Now, these lines help us locate places around the world.

They're a little bit like grid references almost.

Now, they run horizontally, and there are some special ones that we are going to use today to help us locate hot places.

Now, the one that we've already spoken about is the Equator.

Now, the Equator is a very special line, because it's equal distance from the North and the South Pole.

So it runs right across the middle of our planet.

Now, we already all know that it's really, really hot at the Equator.

Now, there are also two other special lines of latitude that we're going to learn about today.

These are called the Tropic of Cancer, which is further north than the Equator, and the Tropic of Capricorn, which is further south from the Equator.

If you have a look at the map now, can you spot any countries that you know of which either run through the Tropic of Cancer or the Tropic of Capricorn? Let's check our understanding.

Which of these lines is not a line of latitude? Is it A, the Equator; B, the prime meridian; or C, the Tropic of Cancer? The answer is B, the prime meridian.

Now, the prime meridian is actually a line of longitude, which means it runs vertically across our planet.

We're going to learn about this special line in a later lesson.

It's also special because it runs through the city of London.

Now, we should now know that the Equator is a horizontal line which is equidistance from the North and the South Pole, and the Tropic of Cancer is just a bit further north than the Equator.

The hottest places on Earth are found near the Equator and the tropics.

And when I say the tropics, I mean the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Now, hot places, they can actually be wet or dry.

So you could be in an environment where it's really, really hot, but it's raining.

You could also be in an environment where it's really, really hot but experiences very little rain.

We class these places as as hot places, even if they receive rainfall or they don't.

Places that are hot and wet we class as tropical areas.

Places which are hot and dry we class as deserts.

Now, I want you to have a think.

Do you know any famous tropical places or tropical rainforest that you've heard of? And have you heard of any examples of hot deserts from around the world? Around the Equator it is very hot, but there is also a lot of rain.

Now, plants need a few different things to be able to grow.

They need sunlight, but they also need water.

Now, at the Equator, you've got these two things in abundance.

There's lots of sunlight, it's hot, but there's also a lot of rainfall.

Now, that means that plants are really easily able to grow around the Equator because they've got the two key ingredients they need to be able to grow.

That means that around the Equator we've got lots of tropical rainforests.

If you have a look at the map that I have got on the slide here, the areas that I have shaded in green are classified as tropical rainforests.

You can see that most of them are near the Equator.

So you've got some in South America.

Do you know what the famous one there is called? It's the Amazon rainforest.

You've got some in Central Africa.

So you've got a famous rainforest there called the Congo.

And you've also got some in Asia.

Now, if we have a look at the Asian ones, you can see they actually spread a little bit further north and nearly into the tropics, or some of them actually are by the Tropic of Cancer.

So even though most of the world's rainforests are located near the Equator, sometimes they do spread out a little bit further as well.

Now, if we have a look at the picture I've got to the right of the map, That's what tropical rainforests look like.

So they're very green, they're very luscious, but also you can see that the sky is actually grey.

So yes, there will be points where there's lots of sunshine, but because there's also lots of rainfall, sometimes the sky is grey because it's holding lots of moisture in it.

Now, near the tropics, so the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, it is really hot still because the sun's rays are concentrated.

However, these areas, it is also really, really dry.

Now, that means that it's very, very difficult for plants to grow because they're missing a key ingredient.

What are they missing? Rainfall.

Because of that, you have deserts located near the tropics, okay? So hot deserts are located near the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

It's really hot there.

The sun's rays are concentrated, but it's also very dry.

They receive very little rainfall, so it's hard for plants to grow.

If we have a look at my slide, the areas that are shaded in yellow are where deserts are located.

Do you know any famous deserts? So the big one that you may have heard of is the Sahara Desert which is in Northern Africa.

So that's the biggest desert in the world or the biggest hot desert.

But you can also see there are deserts in some of the other continents.

We've got some in North America, South America, and Oceania too.

Let's check our understanding.

True or false: You find tropical rainforests near the Equator.

That's true.

Can you justify your answer? Is it A, because there is a lot of sun and rain there; or is it B, because it is hot and dry there.

The answer's A, because there is a lot of sun, but also a lot of rain, which means it's perfect for plants to grow.

I would now like you to have a go at task B.

So first of all, you need to fill in the gaps to label the correct lines of latitude.

Pause the video and have a go.

Your second task is to fill in the blanks using the world map and the word bank to help you.

Yeah, so if you're a little bit stuck, have a look at that word bank, and it should be able to help you figure it out.

So pause the video and have a go.

Let's check that we've got the correct answers.

First one is the Tropic of Cancer.

So that runs through the continent of North America, Africa, and Asia.

The middle line is the Equator, so that's an equal distance from the North and the South Pole.

And finally we've got the Tropic of Capricorn, which runs through South America, Africa, and Oceania.

Let's check our answers to task 2 for task B.

Fill in the blanks using the map and the word bank to help you.

Tropical rainforests are located around the Equator as it is hot and wet there.

Deserts are located near the Tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn, as it is hot and dry there.

How did you do? Did you get them all right? On the slide we have a summary of what we have learned in today's lesson.

The hottest places in the world have high temperatures and are located in the tropics.

Tropical places are hot and wet and are found near the Equator.

Hot deserts are hot and dry and are mostly found near the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

It is hot near the Equator because the sun's rays here are stronger.

I hope you've learnt lots of interesting facts today.

I've had a great time teaching you.

Yeah, have a lovely rest of your day, and do a bit more research on hot places around the world.