Geography: maps, regions, and people and places, Western Hemisphere (grade 6) · lesson

Latitude, hemispheres, and scale

💡 Latitude tells how far north or south of the equator a place is, and a map scale turns map inches into real miles.

The equator is a line around the middle of Earth. Its latitude is 0°. Lines of latitude measure how far north or south a place is. A bigger number means farther from the equator.

Longitude is different. It measures how far east or west a place is.

The equator splits Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. A big country like Brazil can be in both, if the equator crosses it.

A map scale tells how far one map inch is in real life. To find a real distance, multiply the map inches by the miles per inch.

🧠 Let's work it out

Bogotá is at 4° N. Toronto is at 44° N.

Both say N, so both are north of the equator.
44 is much bigger than 4, so Toronto is much farther north.
For scale: if 1 inch is 200 miles, then 3 inches is 3 × 200 = 600 miles.

What do you think comes next?

latitude: distance north or south of the equator, in degrees
longitude: distance east or west, in degrees
hemisphere: half of Earth
map scale: the part of a map that shows how map distance matches real distance

🔗 National Geographic: Latitude · National Geographic Education ↗

Landforms of the Americas

💡 Big landforms, like mountain ranges and land bridges, shape where people live and how they travel.

The Andes are a long mountain range down the west side of South America. The Inca built their empire there. The Rocky Mountains run down western North America, and the Appalachians are in the east.

North and South America are joined by Central America. Its narrowest part is the Isthmus of Panama. An isthmus is a narrow strip of land that joins two bigger land areas.

Not every famous range is in the Americas. The Himalayas, the highest mountains on Earth, are in Asia.

🧠 Let's work it out

To find a landform, picture the map.
Western South America? Andes.
A thin strip joining two continents? An isthmus, like Panama.
If a choice names a place on another continent, it can't be the answer.

What do you think comes next?

isthmus: a narrow strip of land that joins two larger land areas
mountain range: a long line of mountains

🔗 National Geographic: Isthmus · National Geographic Education ↗

What makes a climate

💡 Latitude, height above the sea, rain, and Earth's tilt all work together to shape a place's weather.

Places near the equator get strong sun all year, so low places there are hot. But air gets colder as you go higher. A city high in the mountains near the equator, like Quito, is mild, not hot.

Rain matters too. A warm place with lots of rain can grow thick rain forest. A warm place with very little rain is a desert.

Seasons come from Earth's tilt, not its distance from the sun. In July, the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the sun and has summer. The Southern Hemisphere tilts away and has winter.

🧠 Let's work it out

Two cities are both near the equator and both low. One gets 2 inches of rain a year, and one gets 90.

Heat is the same, so rain is the difference.
Heavy rain plus heat makes rain forest.

What do you think comes next?

climate: the usual weather of a place over many years
elevation: how high a place is above sea level

People and the land

💡 People change the land to meet their needs, and the land also shapes where people choose to live.

People change their surroundings on purpose. The Aztecs built farm beds in a lake. Workers dug the Panama Canal so ships could cross between two oceans. Natural forces, like hurricanes or rising mountains, are not people's choices.

Changes can have side effects. When farmers clear rain forest for cattle, plants and animals lose their homes. A rain forest takes many years to grow back.

The land also shapes where people live. Most Canadians live in the south, where the weather is milder and the farmland is better. The far north is very cold.

🧠 Let's work it out

To predict an effect, follow the chain.
Trees are cut down.
What lived in the trees? Birds, monkeys, insects, plants.
Where do they go now? They lose their homes.

What do you think comes next?

environment: the land, water, air, and living things around us
habitat: the place where a plant or animal naturally lives