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20 views4 pages

SST Handout 1 Good

It's a handout

Uploaded by

rashidnabila139
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Aitchison College, Junior School

Upper Primary (2024-25) Term I


K6 Social Studies - Handout No. 1
Unit 4: Mapping the world

Name: _________________ K6: _____________ Date: __________ Roll No: ________

The first maps


How many different types of maps do you know? Talk to a partner about the places you have
looked for on maps. You might have looked at places thousands of miles away – whole countries
and continents, or small towns or villages. What did you use the map for?
Thousands of years ago, people only knew the places near to where they lived – perhaps as far as
the coast. The Ancient Greeks wrote about their travels and drew maps that sailors used for many
centuries.
An Ancient Greeks, Ptolemy of Alexandria, made an atlas of maps of the world in about 150 CE.
He even used a form of latitude lines. Look at the copy of Ptolemy’s map below. Even though the
language is copied from Greek, you may recognize some places that are not too far away.
Ptolemy’s maps were very important to Arabian
traders in the 8th century CE. The maps helped the
traders to travel as far as Spain. East Africa and
China. They established trade routes across the
Sahara Desert, up the River Nile, and into Sudan
and Ethiopia.
Ptolemy’s maps and the knowledge the traders
brought back helped Islamic scholars such as
Muhammad Al-Idrisi to make more accurate
maps. These maps were all drawn and copied by
hand.

As maps got better and better, they helped explorers such as Ibn Battuta and Chinese and European
explorers of the 15th century. They collected information about the places they explored, which
helped the subsequent map-makers to produce more accurate maps. The use of the printing press
spread around the world in the late 15th century; this helped to make the maps more accurate than
the early maps. Nowadays, Satellite photos and computers help people to make maps even more
accurate – and to print them or share them on the internet.

How are maps read?

Maps have some essential


elements that help us to
read the map accurately.
These are the title, the
north sign, the symbols
and key, the scale, and the
grid line. The north sign
in an arrow pointing in the
direction of north. It
enables us to locate the
other directions, south,
east and west, of the
features shown on a map.

Can you tell which country lies to the south of Egypt on this map?
Real features can be represented on a map by symbols such as line, points, colours, shapes, etc.
The key of a map gives the meanings of the symbols that represent real features on a map.

How are scale drawings made?

Maps represent large areas that could not be drawn on paper in real measurement. To fit large
objects onto a page, they are drawn smaller and a scale is used to show their real size. Thus, the
scale shows the relation between the real size of something and its size on a map. For example, a
scale of 1 inch = 50 feet means that every inch on the map represents 50 feet in reality.

How are grid references used?

Grid references are a helpful


way to locate physical features
on a map. Maps are divided into
squares by grid lines, which
create a coordinate system.

How Grid References


Work:

a) Grid Lines: The map has


vertical and horizontal lines.

Vertical Lines (Eastings):


These lines run from the bottom
to the top of the map and are
numbered from left to right.
They help you find locations moving from west to east. For example, if you see the number 5 on
the left side, it represents the fifth vertical line.

Horizontal Lines (Northings): These lines run across the map from left to right and are numbered
from bottom to top. They help you find locations moving from south to north. For instance, the
number 3 at the bottom represents the third horizontal line.

b) Finding Locations: To find a specific feature, like a lake, you look at the eastings and
northings. If a lake is located at the intersection of eastings 4 and northings 2, you would look
for the point where the fourth vertical line meets the second horizontal line.
c) Combining Numbers: A grid reference might look like (4, 2), which tells you exactly where
to find that feature on the map.
Why It’s Useful:

Using grid references makes it easier to locate places, plan routes, and understand the geography
of an area. This system is especially helpful for hikers, travelers, and anyone using maps for
navigation!

How are places located on a map?

Places on a map are located using a system of lines called latitude and longitude. Latitude lines
run horizontally from east to west and indicate how far north or south a location is from the
Equator, which is at 0° latitude. These lines are measured in degrees, with the Equator dividing
the Earth into the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. Longitude lines, on the other
hand, run vertically from the North Pole to the South Pole, showing how far east or west a place
is from the Prime Meridian, which is at 0° longitude. The Prime Meridian splits the Earth into the
Eastern and Western Hemispheres. To find a specific location, you need both its latitude and
longitude, such as 40° N and 74° W. Maps often display a grid of these lines, making it easier to
pinpoint any place on Earth, whether it’s a city, mountain, or ocean.

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