1. What We Should Know This Far
Map Skills
What We Should Know This Far

2. What in the World?
The world is round like a basketball or soccer ball.
IT IS NOT A CIRCLE!!!!!
The correct name for its shape is a sphere

3. Facts about the World
There are Seven Continents: North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, Antarctica, and Australia (Oceania).
There are four oceans: The Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Artic Ocean.

4. Characteristics of a Map
A map needs to have four things to be considered useful.
Without these four things, it would be confusing and wouldn’t help us as much.
These four things are…

5. The Map Title Why would we need a title for the map?
The title is needed to tell us what we are looking at. If the map didn’t have a title, we’d have to guess what place we were looking at.

6. The Map Key Why do we need a map key?
The map key helps us interpret (understand) the symbols on the map.

7. The Map Scale Why do we need map scale?
Since maps don’t show the actual sizes of things, we need some way to compare the size on the map with the size in real life.
There are three ways that cartographers (mapmakers) use to show scale: The Graphic Method, The Verbal Method, and the Fractional Method.

8. Compass Rose Why do we need a compass rose?
A compass rose shows the cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west) and sometimes the intermediate directions (northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast).

9. How do we find things?
What kinds of lines help us find places on the globe?
Latitude and Longitude
The Greek thinker Hipparchus divided the Earth into 360 parts using these lines.

10. Latitude
The most important line of latitude is the equator. (0 degrees)
Lines of latitude run horizontally (east to west) and are measured in north (above the equator) and south (below the equator)
The equator divides the Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres.

11. Latitude (cont’d) The North Pole is 90 degrees N latitude.
The South Pole is 90 degrees S latitude.
True or False: The farther away a place is away from the equator the warmer it is.
False.

12. Longitude
Longitude lines run north to south and are measured east to west.
The most important longitude line is the prime meridian (O degrees).
What city does the prime meridian run through?
Greenwich, England

13. Longitude cont’d
The prime meridian divides the Earth into the Western and Eastern hemispheres.
What is the line of longitude that divides one day from another called?
The International Date Line (IDL)

14. Questions What continent is Nevada on? North America
Which hemispheres is Nevada in?
Northern and Western
Which is warmer Nevada or Quito Ecuador? Why?
Quito, Ecuador because it is nearer to the equator.

15. Prize board Questions
Without looking in your binder, what do we call people who make maps?
Cartographers
Without looking in your binder, how was the Greek thinker that divided the world into 360 sections?
Hipparchus