Lesson video

Hello, my name is Ms. Direjan.

I'm so excited to be learning with you today.

I will be guiding you through our lesson.

We are going to do some great learning together.

Let's get started.

Welcome to today's lesson from our unit called Around the World In 80 Days, what have we learned about our world? Today's lesson is called Contrasting Climates, Asia and Antarctica.

Your learning outcome for today will be to apply your knowledge and skills to explain some of the geographical differences between Asia and Antarctica.

Some of this learning is brand new, but I'm here to help you.

This links back to previous learning where you reflected on geography as a subject and discussed the value of learning geography.

You also might have discussed how geography helps us to understand the world and how it works.

You might have used a different geographical knowledge, skills, and data to investigate different places.

You might have also been reflecting on and discussing the landscapes, environment and physical features of North and South America.

Here are the key words that we will be using together today.

Let's do my turn your turn before we find out what these key words mean.

Infer, infer, climate, climate, temperature, temperature, climate zone, climate zone.

Good job everyone.

Let's find out what these keywords mean.

Infer to infer means to come to a conclusion using reasoning and evidence.

Climate, climate is an average of weather conditions, for example, rain, sun or wind in a place taken over a long period of time, usually 30 years or more.

Temperature.

Temperature is the degree of hotness or coldness of a place.

Climate zone, climate zones are areas that have similar weather conditions and climate.

EG the tropics.

Good job everyone.

I want you to be using these keywords throughout our lesson.

Here are the learning cycles that we will be working through together today.

First, we're going to think about how are Asia and Antarctica different, and then we're going to be moving on to thinking about why the climate varies in Asia and Antarctica.

I'm really excited about today's lesson.

I hope you are too.

Let's get started.

In this lesson, we're going to be investigating the continents of Asia and Antarctica.

Where are Asia and Antarctica? Take a minute and discuss with your partner where these two continents are located? Pause the video now.

How did you get on geographers? Were you able to say that the continent of Asia is mostly in the northern hemisphere and it's that area that's coloured in grey on the map.

Were you also able to say that Antarctica is in the southern hemisphere and it's all of that section that's coloured in white? Well done if you are able to locate Asia and Antarctica, you can give yourselves a big thumbs up.

What do you know about these two continents already? Share your ideas with someone else.

Pause the video now and talk to your partner.

How did you get on sharing your knowledge of these two continents? Here's what some pupils had to say.

Laura said, I know that Antarctica is covered in snow and ice.

Did you say something similar to her? Well done if you did.

Izzy said, I know that Beijing is the capital of China and that China is located in the continent of Asia.

Well done if you got that right as well.

Andeep said, I know that Mount Everest in Nepal is the highest mountain in the world.

Were some of you able to say that as well? Good job if you did.

I'm sure you also shared many other facts and things that you know about these two continents already.

Good job everyone.

You can give yourselves another big thumbs up.

Asia and Antarctica are very different continents.

How and why do you think they might be different? Share your ideas with someone else.

Pause the video now.

How did you get on thinking about how these two continents are different? Our geographical knowledge and skills can help us to infer what places might be like and how they might be different.

Laura said Where a place is located might give us clues about what its climate is like.

The climates might give us clues about what plants and animals live there.

So we've talked about these two continents being very different and the location of these two continents.

And we've also mentioned briefly that the location of these two continents is also very different.

One is mostly in the northern hemisphere, while the other one is mostly in the southern hemisphere around the South Pole.

The population size might give us clues about how hospitable the climates and environments are for people to live there.

That means that the conditions are just right for people and plants and animals to live there comfortably.

It is time for a quick true or false check.

We can use our existing geographical knowledge and skills to infer what places are like.

Is that true or false? Pause the video now and complete this check.

How did you get on? Did you say true? That is true.

We can use our existing geographical knowledge and skills to infer what places are like.

Let's think about justifying why this statement is true.

Things such as location, size, and climate might give us clues about what a place is like or things such as location, size, and climate can tell us everything we need to know about what are places like, pause the video here and justify your answer.

How did you get on? Did you say A? That's correct.

So we can use our existing geographical knowledge and skills to infer what places are like things like location, size, and climate might give us clues about what a place is like.

That's correct.

You can give yourselves a big thumbs up.

Well done for completing that check.

It is now time for task A.

What I'd like you to do is think about this question.

How are Asia and Antarctica such different continents? I'd like you to read through the different facts.

You might want to cut the facts out and sort them into different groups to help your thinking.

Use this information to come up with your answer to the question.

How are Asia and Antarctica different? Most of Asia is in the northern hemisphere.

The Equator, Tropic of Cancer and Arctic circle all pass through this continent.

People often settle near water, good transport links and fertile land for growing crops.

Asia is home to Mount Everest.

Mount Everest has an altitude of 8,849 metres and is the tallest mountain above sea level in the world.

Asia has land borders with countries in Europe and Africa.

It is also bordered by the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Indian Ocean.

Antarctica is an isolated continent and is completely surrounded by the Southern Ocean.

Antarctica is the coldest, windiest and driest continent on the planet.

It holds the record for the lowest ever temperature recorded at the surface of the earth.

That's -89.

2 degrees Celsius.

Latitude describes how far north or south a place is from the Equator.

Asia spans many lines of latitude.

The climate in large parts of Asia is good for growing crops.

Different plants and animals have adapted to different habitats.

Not many land plants and animals can survive in Antarctica's harsh climate.

Nobody lives in Antarctica permanently.

Parts of Asia have a warm, wet tropical climate.

The climate in northern areas of Asia is much colder and very dry.

Asia has a range of climate zones.

The climate can be very different from place to place.

Antarctica is the fifth largest continent by area.

Most of Antarctica is covered in snow and ice.

The continent approximately doubles in size in the winter as more ice is formed.

Antarctica is in the southern hemisphere.

Asia is the largest continent in the world by area and population.

Use these cards to explain how Asia and Antarctica are different.

Pause the video now and complete task A.

How did you get on? You might have included some of these differences in your answer.

Laura has said the climate in large parts of Asia is good for growing crops.

Most of Antarctica is covered in snow and ice.

Izzy has said most of Asia is in the northern hemisphere.

Antarctica is in the southern hemisphere, Andeep has said nobody lives in Antarctica permanently.

Asia is the largest continent in the world by area and population.

Well done if you were able to say some similar things to these children about the differences between these two continents, you can give yourselves a big thumbs up for completing that task.

Well done.

It's now time to move on with our lesson.

We are going to be thinking about why the climate varies in Asia and Antarctica, Earth is divided into climate zones.

These are regions with similar climates.

Can you name any of these climate zones? Pause the video here and have a go.

How did you get on naming all the different climate zones? Were you able to say that the climate zones are called the Equatorial climate zone, the Tropical climate zone, the Desert climate zone, the Temperate climate zone, and then the Arctic and Polar climate zones.

Well done.

There are several different climate zones in Asia, whereas Antarctica on the other hand only has a polar climate zone.

Well done if you were able to remember and locate the different climate zones in these continents.

Good job.

We can use climate graphs to investigate the difference in climate in Asia and Antarctica.

What is a climate graph? What data does it show? Pause the video here and answer those two questions with a partner.

You could even do this as a think, pair and share activity.

A climate graph shows us how rainfall and temperature changed during the year in a particular location.

The line shows us the average temperature and the bars show average rainfall.

So you can see that the axis on the left shows us the temperature in degrees Celsius.

The months of the year are written along the bottom and then the axis on the right shows us the rainfall in millimetres and we can put all of that information together to give us a picture of the climate in this place over a year.

There you can see the temperature.

It's recorded as a dot with a line that goes through it and the dot shows the average temperature in that place for a month.

And there the blue bars show us the rainfall in millimetres.

It is important to look carefully at the numbers on the scale of the climate graphs as they are often different.

So you've got to look at the scale and see if you are comparing the same numbers.

If not, then you might have to do a few bits of calculation just to make sure that you are comparing like for like here you can see the scales for temperature.

So top temperature in Asia will reach about 29 degrees.

So the scale shows us 30 degrees at the top and then McMurdo Station in Antarctica, the temperatures are quite cold, so you can see that they're all below zero.

That means that the temperatures really, really cold.

So the warmer temperatures are closer to zero and the colder temperatures are farther away from zero.

And then if we look at the rainfall in Singapore, you can see there's quite a lot of rain because the top of the scale says 350 millimetres.

Whereas if we look at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, the top of the scale only shows 30 millimetres of rain.

So we can say that Singapore in Asia is a warmer and wetter climate than McMurdo Station in Antarctica, which is colder and drier, there's less rainfall.

Let's have a quick check here.

Climate graphs show A the temperature and wind speed of a place B, the average temperature and rainfall of a place, or C, the temperature and rainfall of a place next year? Pause the video now and complete this check.

How did you get on with this check? Were you able to say that climate graphs show the average temperature and rainfall of a place? Good job.

Well done if you did.

And remember, they show you that average temperature and rainfall of a place in one year, not of a place next year.

So that's why this answer is correct.

Good job everyone.

You can give yourselves a big thumbs up.

It is time to have another check here.

It says to read the temperature on a climate graph, we look at the A bars, B line or C X-axis labels.

Pause the video now and complete this check.

How did you get on? Did you say that to read the temperature on a climate graph, we look at the line.

That's correct.

You can give yourselves another big thumbs up.

Well done everyone.

This is a climate graph from Singapore.

You can see Singapore located in the continent of Asia on that world map, which months are the hottest? Which months are the wettest? Pause the video now and answer those two questions.

How did you get on? Did you say that the months of April, May and June appear to be the hottest because it looks like the temperature is roughly 29 degrees.

They're the points on the line that reach the highest on the scale.

Did you say that the wettest months are December, November and January? If we look carefully, we can see that there is about 300 millimetres of rainfall in December.

Just over 260 millimetres of rain in November and about 250 millimetres of rain in January making those the wettest months in this location.

Well done if you were able to say that.

Good job everyone.

You can give yourselves a big thumbs up.

Now it's time to have a look at this climate graph, which is from Yakutsk in Russia.

Here you can see it located on the map.

It's time to answer these questions about Yakutsk in Russia.

Which months are the coldest and how would you describe rainfall in this place? Pause the video here and answer these questions.

Did you say that the coldest months appear to be December and January where the temperatures look about minus 38 or minus 39 degrees Celsius? Good job.

And then looking at the rainfall.

So rainfall peaks in August and there looks to be roughly about 47, 48 millimetres of rain in July and August.

You could say that there's not much rainfall in this place at all, 'cause the most rainfall that it would get in the months that have the most rain are still less than 50 millimetres.

Now let's look at a climate graph from Xi'an in China.

China is located in the continent of Asia.

So there you can see it on the map.

Which months are the coldest and how much does the climate vary? Pause the video now and answer these two questions.

How did you get on? Did you say that the coldest months are December and January? That's because the temperature ranges from about one to three degrees Celsius, so it is very cold during those months.

And then if we think about how much the climate varies, you can see that the peak temperatures in July reach about 30 degrees Celsius.

So in December and January it's close to zero, and then in July it goes up to 30 degrees Celsius.

So that's quite a big difference in temperature.

And then if we also think about rainfall in those hotter months, there's also more rainfall.

So in July there's about 150 millimetres of rainfall.

And then in January or December, the rainfall looks to be about 10 millimetres or less.

So well done if you were able to talk about that.

These are the climate graphs from the South Pole inland on Antarctica and McMurdo Station on the coast there you can see them located on the map.

They're in the continent of Antarctica.

Which months are the coldest in each place and how would you describe these climates? Pause the video here and answer these questions.

If we look at the first graph of the South Pole, we can see that the coldest temperatures appear to be in July and August where they're about minus 60 degrees at Celsius.

That is really cold.

And then if we think about the climate in McMurdo Station in Antarctica, the coldest months again appear to be July and August.

So both of those months where we in the UK would usually have warmer temperatures.

These two areas experience their coldest temperatures.

If you think about describing the climate in each place, well looking at the first climate graph, we can say that this place is a very cold and very dry place because it doesn't experience much rainfall at all and the temperatures vary from minus 60 up to about maximum temperatures of minus 20.

So that place is very cold and very dry.

If we look at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, you could also say that there's not much rainfall because the rainfall only goes to a maximum of 28 millimetres throughout the whole year with the wettest month being November.

And then you could also say that the temperatures are cold as well because the temperatures stay below zero.

They peak at about minus two, but they still stay below zero.

So this place is also cold but has a little bit more rainfall.

Well done if you were able to have really good discussions there about these two climates.

Latitude is one of the factors that affect what the climate of a place is like.

What are lines of latitude? Pause the video here and answer this question.

How did you get on? Were you able to say that latitude describes how far north or south are places from the Equator? You can see the lines of latitude there labelled on our globe.

So we've got the Arctic Circle, the Tropic of Cancer, the Equator, the Tropic of Capricorn, and the Antarctic Circle.

And those are all lines of latitude.

Lines of latitude are imaginary lines that circle the Earth.

They all run parallel to the Equator.

Let's have a quick check here.

Lines of latitude, A run parallel to the Equator.

B, run vertically down the earth or C, tell us how high somewhere is, which of these is correct? Pause the video and answer this check.

How did you get on? Did you say that lines of latitude run parallel to the Equator? That's true, well done.

You can give yourselves a thumbs up.

The sun is more directly overhead at the Equator.

This means that the sun's rays are more concentrated.

The sun's rays are less concentrated, nearer the poles as they're spread out over a larger area.

So this means that when the suns rays are spread out over a larger area, temperatures are cooler compared to when the suns rays are more concentrated.

That means the areas around the Equator experience hotter temperatures.

This difference in how the suns rays are distributed affects what the climates is like.

So here is Yakutsk in Russia.

We can see it located on the map.

And then we've already looked at its climate graph.

Yakutsk is near the Arctic Circle.

So the suns rays are spread over a large area, especially in winter, and that's what makes the temperature colder in those months.

Here's Singapore located on the map.

Singapore is on the Equator.

So the suns rays are concentrated all year round and that's why it has the warmer temperatures.

If we look at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, on the other hand, McMurdo Station is near the Antarctic Circle.

So the sun's rays are spread over a large area and that's what makes it colder.

It's time for a quick true or false check here.

So you've got to think really carefully about whether or not this statement is true or false.

The further south you travel from the North Pole, the warmer the climate gets.

Is that true or false? Pause the video here and answer this check.

How did you get on? Did you say false? That's correct.

Now let's think about justifying why this statement is false.

Is it false because the climate gets warmer as you travel south in the northern hemisphere, but gets cooler as you travel south in the southern hemisphere or the climate is warmer in the southern hemisphere than the northern hemisphere? Pause the video and justify the answer.

How did you get on? Did you say that the further south you travel from the North Pole, the warmer the climate gets, and that's because the climate gets warmer as you travel south in the northern hemisphere, but gets cooler as you travel south in the southern hemisphere.

Well done, if you've got that right, you can give yourselves a big thumbs up.

It is now time for task B.

What I would like you to do is to read the descriptions of the locations in Antarctica and Asia and then match each description with one of the climate graphs.

So you've got three climate graphs there and three descriptions.

The first description says hot temperatures all year with large amounts of rain, especially around November, December and January.

The second description says extremely cold, especially from May to September, almost no rainfall throughout the year.

And then the final description says very cold in January and December, warmest in July, highest rainfall in July and August.

So that's the first part of task B is to match these descriptions with the climate graphs.

Pause the video here and complete the first part of task B.

How did you get on with this first part of task B? Did you match the first climate graph, to the third description, so very cold in January and December and the warmest in July.

It also has the highest rainfall in July and August.

Well done if you got that right.

Did you match the second climate graph to the first description? Hot temperatures all year with large amounts of rain, especially around November, December and January.

And finally, we are able to match the last climate graph with the second description extremely cold, especially from May to September, almost no rainfall throughout the year.

Well done if you were able to complete this first part of task B, you can give yourselves a big thumbs up.

Now what I would like you to do is to locate each of the climate graphs on the map showing Asia and Antarctica.

So you've got location A, location B, and location C.

Pause the video here and match the climate graphs to the areas on the map.

How did you get on with the second part of task B? Were you able to match the first climate graph as place A, the second climate graph with place C and the final climate graph with place B? Well done if you were able to do that, you can give yourselves a big thumbs up.

You've worked really hard today applying your knowledge and skills to explain some of the differences between Asia and Antarctica.

We've now come to the end of our lesson, so let's go through a quick summary of all the learning we've completed together today, Antarctica and Asia have contrasting climates.

Antarctica is in the polar climate zone.

Asia is in different climate zones.

Asia is the most populous continent on the planet, whereas Antarctica has no permanent residence.

Climate graphs can be used to investigate and compare different places.

Well done everyone.

You've been fantastic today.

Thank you for joining me and sharing your learning with me.

I'll see you next time for more geography lessons soon.

Bye.