Lesson video

Hello geographers.

It's Mr. Robertson here.

And I'm really excited, because we are at the final lesson of our unit, "Rivers, What's Special About Them." Now today we are going to look at some mighty rivers of the world.

So we are going to finish strongly on our unit going around the globe, looking at some of the incredible rivers we find on our planet.

So geographers, to do this, we really need to make sure we have on our geography caps in case it rains.

We need to make sure we've got our explorer rucksacks, and maybe we'll need some mosquito repellent.

We might need to make sure we're warm and protected, and we also will definitely need our mighty river waders.

Pull them up, make sure that we don't get wet.

Let's find out what we're going to be doing today.

So by the end of this lesson, you will be able to locate some of the world's largest rivers, and describe a journey down the Nile.

We have three key words in our lesson today.

I'm going to say the word first and then I'd like you to repeat it.

So let's begin.

Tributary.

Excellent, confluence.

Amazing, satellite image.

Brilliant geographers, so what do these words mean? Well, a tributary is a smaller river or a stream that joins a bigger river.

A confluence is the place where two rivers meet, and a satellite image is a photograph taken from high above using a satellite.

We're going to be using all of these words in our learning today.

So in our lesson, mighty rivers of the world, we're going to be asking two questions.

What are the longest rivers on each continent? And how does the River Nile change along its journey? Are you ready? Let's go.

So around the world, the land is drained by rivers.

And rivers take water from the land to the seas and oceans.

And we can see a beautiful image of a meandering river there.

Let's check our understanding about rivers.

Rivers take water from the sea to the land.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video.

Have a think.

Geographers, it's false, isn't it? But why is it false? Let's think.

Is it A, because rivers take water from the land to the sea, or B, rivers take water from one sea to another? Correct, geographers, it's A, isn't it? Rivers take water from the land to the sea.

Well done if you've got that right.

Now, that is a amazing photograph, isn't it? We can see thick forest, we can see a river meandering through it.

Now some rivers travel for incredible distances across the land getting bigger as they travel to the sea.

I wonder if anyone could predict where that river is.

And can you name any large rivers from around the world? Why don't you pause the video, talk to each other.

What rivers can you name, and where do you think that photograph might be? Oh, I can hear lots of great voices there.

I can hear lots of different rivers coming to me, but you are right.

That photograph is the Amazon River in South America.

What an amazing river.

I have always wanted to go to the Amazon.

Now all continents have some large rivers apart from Antarctica.

Of course, Antarctica is really, really cold all year round, so it doesn't have any large rivers.

However, there are some small streams that appear in summer when some of the ice melts.

So it's not that there is no rivers in Antarctica.

There are small streams that appear when it starts to warm and the ice melts, but there are no large rivers on the continent of Antarctica.

So let's start a bit of a journey around the world, and introduce ourselves to some of the world's major rivers.

The longest river in the world is the Nile, which flows around 6,650 kilometres through 11 countries in Africa, and drains into the Mediterranean Sea.

If you look at that map of the globe.

In the centre, you can see the continent of Africa in yellow, and there is the enormous River Nile.

And we've got a more detailed map on the left here.

We can see the river.

Now our next river is the Amazon River.

The Amazon River in South America contains more water than any other river in the world.

It is around 6,400 kilometres long, and it's up to 11 kilometres wide in the dry season.

So it's not quite as long as the River Nile, but very nearly.

Isn't that extraordinary how wide it can be? Here's that map of the Amazon again, we were looking at earlier, and you can see the label in South America, the Mighty River Amazon, our second river.

Our third river is the Mississippi.

Now the Mississippi is the longest river in North America.

It's drainage basin, that's the area which all the water flows into that river, covers a huge part of the United States.

Large boats can sail up and down the river to transport people and sell things.

So a really, really famous river.

I'm sure you've heard of it.

And again, we can see the label there, the Mississippi in North America.

And a great photograph there of one of the traditional paddle steamers that people like to take on trips up and down the river.

Look how big that paddle steamer is.

It's about three stories high, isn't it? And yet it looks fairly small against the enormous River Mississippi.

Our fourth river is the Volga.

If you remember we talked about the Volga in our last lesson.

It's the longest river in Europe.

It's about 3,530 kilometres long, and it flows south through Russia, past many major cities until it drains into the Caspian Sea.

And there we see it, the Volga in Russia, in Europe.

Let's just check our understanding so far.

The Mississippi is the longest river in A, Europe, B, South America, or C, North America.

Which one is it, can you remember geographers? Pause the video and have a think.

That's right, geographers, it's C, North America, flowing through the United States.

Well done if you've got that right.

Ooh, what have we got here? A beautiful photograph here.

Now the Yangtze is the longest river in Asia at 6,530 kilometres.

It flows west to east through China, and this photograph shows part of The Three Gorges Dam, and that was built on the river as a huge hydroelectric dam.

If you were here for our last lesson, we talked about hydroelectric dam on the Danube, and how we can dam a river and then use the flow of water through the dam to generate electricity.

And The Three Gorges Dam is an enormous dam, which produces vast amounts of electricity for people in China.

Now we're going to move into the continent Australia and Oceania.

The Murray River flows from east to west across southeastern Australia, from the snowy mountains to the Indian Ocean.

And it's about 2,530 kilometres long.

We can see it marked there down in Australia.

Let's just check our understanding again, geographers.

The Yangtze flows in which country? Is it A, the USA, B, China, or C, Australia? Pause the video.

Have a think.

That's right, geographers, it's B, China.

The Yangtze flows through China.

So our first task is this.

We've been introduced to some of the major rivers of the world, now you are going to use your atlas mapping skills.

I'd like you to label the rivers on a map of the world.

So on your map, I'd like you can use this image, you can use an atlas.

I'd like you to work out the correct rivers.

Label them really carefully.

Okay, geographers, how did you find that? Let's see if you are correct.

So in Europe we have the river Volga, which flows through Russia.

The longest river in Asia is the Yangtze, flowing through China, in the continent of Australia and Oceania, we have the river Murray in southern Australia.

The River Nile is the longest river in Africa.

The river Amazon is the longest river in South America, and the Mississippi is the longest river in North America.

If you remember, we said there are no main rivers on the continent of Antarctica.

We just have some small streams in summer.

Well done if you've got those correct.

Brilliant work geographers.

Second task is going to be a matching exercise.

We've got those rivers, again.

The Volga, the Nile, the Amazon, the Murray, the Mississippi, and the Yangtze.

And we've got some statements here.

What I'd like you to do is read the statement and then I'd like you to match it to the correct river.

What can you remember about what we've learned so far? So geographers, we're going to be doing some matching between the statements and the names of the river.

Off you go.

Let's see how that matching went.

So the longest river in the world? Yes, that's the River Nile.

It flows from the snowy mountains to the Indian ocean.

That's the Murray in Australia.

It has the most water of all rivers.

That's the Amazon.

The Three Gorges Dam has been built on the river.

That's the Yangtze.

It flows through Russia into the Caspian Sea.

That's right, that's the Volga, and its drainage basin covers a huge part of the USA.

That's the Mississippi.

Well done geographers if you remembered that information about rivers of the world, you really are becoming quite expert, aren't you? So for the second part of the lesson, we're going to be focusing right down on one particular river, and we're going to be asking the question, how does the River Nile change along its journey? So let's get ready geographers for our river trip.

Let's go.

Let's remind ourselves of the map that we were looking at earlier.

This is a map of the River Nile.

Now the Nile has two major tributaries.

So those are smaller rivers that join the major river.

The Blue Nile starts at Lake Tana in Ethiopia, and the White Nile starts at Lake Victoria, which is on the border between Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

We can see the Blue Nile there in the country of Ethiopia, and the White Nile, which begins in Lake Victoria.

And both of these are tributaries of the main Nile.

Let's check our understanding of that then, geographers.

Which of these are tributaries to the Nile? A, White Nile, B, Grey Nile, or C, Blue Nile.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well, geographers, it was A, the White Nile and C, the Blue Nile.

Both of those are the tributaries of the Nile.

Now that photograph looks amazing, doesn't it? These people rather brave, but they look like they're having tremendous fun, don't they? So as the White Nile flows through Uganda, there are sections of rapids.

These are fast flowing sections of water that people sometimes raft down.

I've done some rafting before, never quite on rapids as exciting as that.

That looks pretty amazing, doesn't it? As well as fun for humans, we find amazing animals along the White Nile in Uganda.

Here we've got hippopotamus, but we also have crocodiles.

So this part of Africa, we've got really rich wildlife living in the tributaries of the Nile.

The confluence of the White Nile and Blue Nile is in Khartoum, Sudan.

So the confluence is where the two rivers join together.

And there we can see Khartoum in Sudan.

And the White Nile and Blue Nile coming together to form the Nile.

Let's check our understanding of that.

True or false? A confluence is where two rivers meet.

Is that true or is that false? Pause the video geographers and have a think Geographers, you are correct, it's true.

Why is it true? Let's look at two possible answers.

Is it A, the Blue Nile and White Nile meet at a confluence in Khartoum, or B, the Blue Nile and White Nile meet at a confluence in Lake Victoria.

Pause the video, have a think.

Yes, geographers.

It's A, isn't it? The Blue Nile and the White Nile meet at a confluence in Khartoum.

Lake Victoria is the source of the White Nile.

That photograph there, maybe you've studied the ancient Egyptians, or maybe you will be studying the ancient Egyptians in your school.

Anyway, the Nile has been an important source of water for thousands of years.

It was a very important source of water for farming in ancient Egypt.

This meant that settlements grew next to the Nile.

And even today, thousands of years after the ancient Egyptian civilization, the majority of people in Egypt still live close to the Nile.

Isn't that interesting? We can see there, can't we? The pyramids in the background.

The greenness of the landscape close to the river.

Let's investigate this a bit further.

Here, we can see a satellite image.

A satellite image is one that's taken from above by a satellite, and it shows the land next to the Nile in Egypt.

If we look closely, we can see the river itself.

It's the very dark lines in the middle.

But what do you notice about this image, and what do you notice about the land around it? I wonder if you'd like to pause the video and talk to the people next to you.

Try and use as many geographical words as you can.

What do you notice about the land use? All brilliant thinking geographers.

Well, you may have noticed that there are dark green areas next to the river.

These are areas where crops are grown today.

And you might also have noticed that further away from the river we can see some desert sand.

And that's because the area close to the river Nile is extremely fertile, because traditionally the Nile has flooded and that has created really rich soils.

And so even today, the majority of crops and farming is done along the length of the Nile.

But after a while, further away from the river, the soil quality returns to sand.

And of course you can't farm sand in the same way.

So that's why we've got this incredible satellite pattern of the dark green areas next to the river and the sand.

Let's just check our understanding.

What does the green around the Nile show? Can you remember, geographers? Pause the video and have a think.

That's right, geographers.

It shows farmland that uses the river for crops to grow.

Well done if you've got that right.

Now, the River Nile is flown through Egypt for many hundreds and thousands of years, as we said.

But a more recent development is something called the Aswan Dam.

And that was built to create a large hydroelectric power station, and to control some of the flooding that happened downstream.

Lake Nasser was created behind the dam, which meant that some ancient temples had to be moved.

Isn't that extraordinary? So we could see a photograph here.

On the left you can see the Aswan region in ancient Egypt.

You can see the river, you can see some crops and pyramids.

And now we can see an image of what Lake Nasser looks like.

And you can see it's this vast lake.

And so some of the temples have had to be moved.

And of course, this is really important.

It creates, a big source of water.

It creates a large area to generate power for the people of Egypt.

And it also means that some of the more serious flooding doesn't happen.

The Nile flows through Cairo, which is the capital of Egypt, and then the river splits into lots of different channels.

Now, in geography, we call this a delta.

When you can see a label there of the Nile Delta, where the main river, as it gets close to its mouth coming out into the sea, splits into lots of different channels, creating this incredible shape.

We've got another satellite image here.

This time, the satellite images of the Nile Delta.

Again, I'm gonna ask you this question.

What do you notice from this satellite image of the Nile Delta? And again, think about the satellite image that we saw of another part of the Nile.

Pause the video, talk to the person next to you.

What do you notice? Brilliant geographers.

You may have noticed some similarities to the other satellite image.

We can see a dark green area, can't we? And that's crops and plants that grow around the delta, which shows it's good for farming, because rather like the land on either side of the Nile, it's very fertile land, floods occasionally.

And so it's a really great place to grow crops.

And that's why we can see that dark green on the satellite image.

Let's just check our understanding of this term, shall we? The Nile Delta is where A, the Nile begins, B, the Nile joins another river, or C, the Nile splits into many different channels.

Pause the video, have a think.

Excellent, it's C, isn't it? Where the Nile splits into many different channels.

The Nile begins, if you remember much further south, and the Nile joins another river.

That's the confluence, not a delta.

So our task is this.

We are going to create a storyboard of a journey down the Nile.

I want you to use your Atlas skills, and to use the information that you found in this lesson.

You might want to use some words and drawings to do this.

I'd like you to think about some of the key words in this lesson.

Might you be able to use the word tributaries? Could you use the word confluence? Could you use the word delta? Can you think about some of the countries that we've looked at, where the confluences, where the tributaries of the Nile begin? You might want to say something about some of the features, such as the dam that we find along the River Nile.

You might even want to think about some of those satellite images about where you found fertile land for growing crops.

So I'd like you to imagine that you are in your trusty raft.

You are going down the River Nile, and I want you to use some geographical vocabulary, and some your great geographical drawing skills to show me something about how the River Nile changes from its source to its mouth.

Off you go, geographers.

I can't wait to see it.

Wow, what a lot of amazing work that I can see.

I put my journey down.

And yours might look similar to this.

You may have used some other words as well.

So I've said, I've begun by saying, "The Nile has two major tributaries, the Blue Nile and the White Nile." I've also mentioned that there are rapids on the White Nile in Uganda.

Do you remember that picture of those people rafting? I've mentioned that you might find hippos and crocodiles living in the White Nile in Uganda.

I've thought about the satellite imagery to note that farmers grow crops alongside the Nile as it flows through Egypt.

I've remembered my fact about the dam, and I've said a large dam was built at Aswan to make hydro electricity, because we're talking about the fact that rivers can be used for human purposes, farming, but also energy.

And I finished by saying after Cairo, so I'm using that vocabulary term, the capital city, the river forms a lots of different channels to create a delta.

So I'm also using that great geographical word.

Did you manage to create your journey along the River Nile? Were you able to use some brilliant geographical vocabulary and some locational knowledge as well? Brilliant, if you did, and hope you know a lot more about the River Nile now than you did before.

So we've been learning about mighty rivers of the world.

We've learned that the Nile, Amazon, Yangtze, Mississippi, Murray, and Volga are the longest rivers in each continent.

We've also learned that Antarctica doesn't have any permanent long rivers.

We've learned that the Nile is the longest river in the world and has two major tributaries, the White Nile and the Blue Nile.

And finally, we've learned that the Nile flows through Cairo and the river splits into lots of different channels.

We call this a delta.

Thank you so much for being with me through this unit, Rivers, why are they special? I hope now you feel you know a lot about the importance of rivers, why they're special, and some brilliant rivers that we find in this country, in Europe, and the wide world.

Thank you very much.