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What is Geography all about?

Can you pick out the UK on this satellite view of part of the Earth? The main area of study in geography is the Earths surface.

Learning objectives
What are you going to learn about in this chapter? > > > > The difference between physical and human geography The different landscapes on the Earths surface How to divide up the world for easier study How to find a place using latitude and longitude

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How can the world be divided up?

> Understanding how the world is divided > Practising your atlas skills
The world is a big place. Geographers divide it up in two different ways.
Northern Hemisphere

United Kingdom

1 Northern and southern hemispheres Look at diagram A. The equator splits the world in two. The UK is in the northern hemisphere. Australia is in the southern hemisphere. The big difference between the northern and southern hemisphere is the seasons. In the southern hemisphere, the seasons are at opposite times of the year.

Equator

INDIAN OCEAN

Australia

Southern Hemisphere

In December, January and February, it is summer in Australia. At Christmas, many Australians have barbeques (BBQs) on the beach or in the garden. The sun is south of the equator at that time: this makes it the hot season in Australia. Look at photograph B. This cricket match was played in November. In the UK, we play football in November.

Northern and southern hemispheres

Key words
Continent area of land covering a large area of the Earths surface Equator the imaginary line dividing the northern from southern hemisphere Hemisphere one half of the Earth Northern hemisphere the half of the Earth north of the Equator Ocean great body of water surrounding the Earths land masses Southern hemisphere the half of the Earth south of the Equator

Test match between Australia and England in Brisbane.

2 Land and water About 70 per cent of the Earths surface is covered by oceans and seas. This leaves only 30 per cent covered by land where people can live. The land is divided into seven continents. Asia covers the largest area and has most people.

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ARCTIC OCEAN

A North America Europe

ATLANTIC OCEAN

PACIFIC OCEAN

Africa South America

INDIAN OCEAN

PACIFIC OCEAN

Oceania

ANTARCTIC OCEAN

Antarctica

C The Earths oceans and continents People live in only six of the seven continents. No one lives in Antarctica all the time. It is too cold. There is too much snow and ice for people, but plenty of penguins live there in summer (photograph D).

Activities
1 Seasons in the UK Winter Spring Summer Autumn 2 December February March May June August September November

D Hope Bay, Antarctica

S K I LL S
How to use an atlas 1 Countries of the world A map of countries is called a Political map 1 Find the Contents page in the front 2 Go to the heading World 3 Search for Political map 4 Look for countries For more help see 0.0, page 00 of Skills.

Make another box like this with the title Seasons in Australia. Write out and complete the following sentences. The biggest continent is _________________. There are three continents with land in the northern hemisphere; they are _________________, _________________, and _________________. There are two continents with all their land in the southern hemisphere; they are _________________and _________________. Another continent has a lot of land on both sides of the equator; it is _________________. No one lives in _________________. 3 a) Draw a sketch of photograph D. (See 0.0 Skills page 00 for more help). Add labels to show what you can see. b) Write down two reasons why penguins and not people live there. 4 In an atlas, find a world map of countries. Write down a title: The Equator a) Count and name all the countries the equator passes through. b) From your list of countries, complete the sentences below. (i) The largest country is _____________________________________________________________ . (ii) The country named after the equator is ___________________________. (iii) The country made of many islands is ______________________________. (iv) One country without a coastline is ________________________________.

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Elements not covered in the sample text:

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B Head example
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Strategy Symbol

Assessment Symbol

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