Lesson video

Hello there, my fellow geographers, and welcome to this lesson on the unit of Building Locational Knowledge: Hemispheres and Tropics.

My name is Mr. Pedroza, and in this lesson, we're going to have a look at the final question.

So question is, what are the hemispheres? There might be a time that you heard in your previous geography lesson, but I hope that by the end of the unit, by the end of this lesson, you'll have become experts on this subject.

So let's get started, shall we? We're going to begin with the Star Words.

We're going to have a look at what is a hemisphere, and we're going to look at which continents are in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.

We're going to look at which countries does the equator pass through, and then we'll have a look at what is latitude and longitude.

And then at the very end, as usual, is your end of lesson quiz.

Things that you're going to need in this lesson, you need your exercise book or paper, you need your pencil or your pen, and then you're also going to need a ruler.

If you haven't got those things, go and get them now.

Okay, let's begin.

So let's look at the Star Words.

We've got four Star Words.

We got hemisphere, equator, latitude, and longitude.

And the hemisphere is either of two halves of the earth.

A hemisphere is formed by dividing the earth into the Northern and Southern Hemisphere at the equator, or into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres at a meridian.

And the equator is an imaginary circle around the earth that is halfway between the North and the South Poles.

Latitude is the distance between the equator and a point north or south on the earth's surface.

And longitude is the distance on the surface east or west of an imaginary line on the globe which passes through Greenwich and London.

Now, let's begin with what is a hemisphere? Well, a hemisphere, as I said in Star Words, is one of two halves of the earth, and it is formed by dividing the earth into the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres at the equator, or into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres at a meridian.

Today, we're just going to focus on the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

In case you're wondering what is the equator? Well, the equator is an imaginary line around the earth that is halfway between the North and the South Poles.

And on my map, you can see it represented by the red dashed line.

Let's have a look.

So, we got the Northern Hemisphere.

We've got the equator.

We've got the Southern Hemisphere.

Do you guys think you could locate where the UK is? Point to where you think the UK is.

If you said here, then you're absolutely right.

That is the UK.

And in which hemisphere is the UK located, then? You're right, it's located in the Northern Hemisphere.

Excellent job, guys.

You are already building your locational knowledge.

So it's time to look at the first task, and in this task, what I want you to do is I want you to point at the Northern Hemisphere.

I want you to point at the Southern Hemisphere, and I want you to point at the equator.

If you have access to a printer, and maybe you can print a map of the world, then you can label that.

So at this point, I want you to pause video and complete that task.

Awesome job.

Let's see if you got it right.

So where is the Northern Hemisphere? It's up there, good job.

It's north of the equator.

The Southern Hemisphere is south of the equator.

And the equator goes right through the middle of the earth, but remember is an imaginary line around the centre of the earth.

So, good job, guys.

Well done.

So which continents are in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere? Well, countries that lie above the red line, there's my red line.

What is the right line there? It's known as the equator, good.

So countries that lie above the red line, known as the equator, are in the Northern Hemisphere, and that includes the UK, as we just saw.

Countries that lie below the equator are in the Southern Hemisphere.

So let's have a look, scroll through the map.

So, I can find the UK is obviously in the Northern Hemisphere.

Countries like Russia are in the Northern Hemisphere.

Countries like the United States are in the Northern Hemisphere.

Then you get countries like Australia, which are in the Southern Hemisphere because look, they are below.

They're south of the equator.

You've got South Africa is below the equator, so it is in the Southern Hemisphere.

And then you have other countries.

So Columbia is both in the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere.

And Brazil has parts of it which are in the Northern Hemisphere, but also in the Southern Hemisphere.

Now, let's have a look.

So which continents does the equator pass through? Now, remember, the equator is an imaginary line that divides real world into two, into the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere.

Do you remember where it goes? Point to where you think it is.

Yes, that's right.

That's where the equator is.

Now, the equator divides the world into two equal parts.

What are those two parts called? Yes, you're right.

It divides it into Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere.

Now, the equator passes through three continents.

Can you identify which ones? Have a look at my map.

Which continents does the equator pass through? There's three of them.

Have a go, and see if you can identify the three continents that the equator passes through.

So at this point, pause the video and complete that task.

Okay, let's have a look and see which continents does the equator pass through? So there's three of them.

So I'm going to highlight them.

Ready? So the equator runs through South America, it runs through Africa, and it runs through Asia.

So the three continents through which the equator passes through are South America, Africa, and Asia.

Now, let's have a look at what is longitude and latitude.

To help locate where a place is in the world, cartographers, who make maps, and geographers, who study geography, use imaginary lines.

And to find out how far east or west a place is, they use lines of longitude, and these lines run from the top of the earth to the bottom.

So east or west, they use lines of longitude.

And then, to find out how far north or south a place is, lines of latitude are used, and these lines run parallel to the equator.

So east or west, those are lines of longitude.

North or south, those are lines of latitude.

And they run parallel to the equator, the lines of latitude.

Remember that these lines are imaginary, and we use them to help us find specific places around the world using coordinates measured in degrees.

So latitude lines, they run horizontally, like this.

And then longitude lines run vertically, like so.

So imagine a ladder.

The rungs are like the latitude.

They run across because they go horizontally.

And the two longer pieces that hold the rungs together are like longitude because they're going vertically.

What I want you to do, just to recap that section, is you got to fill in some missing sentences.

You can use the words latitude, west, longitude, south, north, and east.

Once you think you got it, read it back.

See if it makes sense.

You can go back in the video to just check you have the right information.

So at this point, pause the video and complete that task.

Good luck.

Okay.

Let's see if you got that right.

Are you ready? So, you could either use latitude, west, longitude, south, north, or east.

So to find out how far north or south a place is, lines of latitude are used.

These lines run parallel to the equator.

Great job.

And then to find out how far east or west place is, lines of longitude are used.

These lines run from the top of the earth to the bottom.

Remember, lines of longitude, they run vertically, go from north to south.

Lines of latitude, they go horizontally, and they go from west to east.

Great job.

I'm going to leave it up so that you can check your answer.

Great work, my friends.

So, let's have a look at the last section.

And this last section is, what are the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn? The Tropic of Cancer, which is also known as the Northern Tropic, is a line of latitude north of the equator.

It is approximately 23.

5 degrees north of the equator.

I'm going to show you where it is.

The equator is there, and then there is the Tropic of Cancer.

And it's a line of latitude because it runs horizontally and it runs parallel to the equator.

And during the Northern summer solstice, which usually falls in the month of June, the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer.

And this happens when the tilt of the earth's axis is most inclined towards the sun.

Some countries that the Tropic of Cancer passes through include Mexico, which is here.

It includes Saudi Arabia, and it includes India.

Can you guys recognise any other countries where the Tropic of Cancer passes through? At this point, what I'd like you to do as a challenge, pause the video and see if you can identify any countries where the Tropic of Cancer passes through.

Hmm, I wonder how many you might actually identify, a lot to name.

Now, let's have a look at the next bit.

So we've got the Tropic of Cancer which runs north of the equator.

The Tropic of Capricorn runs south of the equator.

And it's sometimes known as the Southern Tropic.

It is approximately 23.

5 degrees south of the equator, so I'm going to show you again.

So there's the equator.

There's the Tropic of Cancer.

There's the Tropic of Capricorn.

And again, during the Southern summer solstice, which usually falls in the month of December, the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn.

And again, this happens when the tilt of the earth's axis is most inclined towards the sun.

Countries that the Tropic of Capricorn passes through include Brazil, and this is Brazil here.

It includes South Africa, and it includes Australia.

Can you recognise any other countries where the Tropic of Capricorn passes through? So again, as a challenge, what I want you to do is pause video and see if you can identify any countries where the Tropic of Capricorn passes through.

Good luck.

Awesome job, my friends, well done.

And that is the end of our lesson.

So today, we learned that the world is divided into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres at the equator, which is an imaginary line halfway between the North and the South Poles.

We also learned what latitude and longitude are.

We learned that longitude lines run vertically, and they measure east or westbound.

Latitude lines run horizontally.

And they measure north or south, and they run parallel to the equator.

We learned that the Tropic of Cancer is north of the equator, and the Tropic of Capricorn is south of the equator.

Guys, that was a lot of learning, but great work today.

Well done.

It's now time to complete your end of lesson quiz.

And if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to show your work.

They can do it on Instagram.

They can do it on Facebook.

They can do it on Twitter.

You got to tag @OakNational, and use the hashtag #LearnwithOak.

Awesome job today.

Well done.

I'm so proud of you, and I hope to see you in our next lesson.