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Overview:
This lesson reviews latitude and longitude and asks students to figure out the latitude and longitude for several United States cities. Students will create "road trip quizzes" to test their classmates' ability to figure out locations based on their latitude and longitude.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 1: "How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective"
Time:
Three to four hours
Materials Required:
Objectives:
Students will
- estimate their hometown's latitude and longitude;
- locate their hometown and some major U.S. cities on a map;
- estimate the cities' latitude and longitude;
- use a Web site to find out the cities' actual latitude and longitude, and compare the real coordinates to their estimates;
- discuss the importance of understanding latitude and longitude;
- create "road trip quizzes," using the latitude and longitude for several U.S. cities and towns; and
- take the quizzes that other students have created.
Geographic Skills:
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Review the concepts of latitude and longitude by having students look at the Xpeditions Atlas world map. Remind them that latitude represents the distance north or south of the equator and longitude represents the distance east or west of the prime meridian. Ask them to approximate the coordinates of their hometown.
Development:
Give each student a blank United States outline map, selecting the "detailed" option to get a map with lines of latitude and longitude. Ask them to label their hometown and draw circles around the following cities: New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, and Denver.
Have students look carefully at the map to try to figure out what each city's latitude and longitude might be. Have them record their estimates on their own paper.
Have students go to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and enter the name of each city, one at a time. After they click "Send Query," they'll see a list of the places the program found. They should scroll down this screen to find the city itself, which will be listed as a "populated place." Ask them to record the actual latitude and longitude next to their estimates. Point out that, on this screen, latitude and longitude are divided into degrees, minutes, and seconds; they just need to concern themselves with the degrees.
Ask students to compare the actual coordinates to their estimates. How close were they? Did they make any noticeable mistakes or were their estimates accurate?
Closing:
Have students state their latitude and longitude findings out loud, and write the numbers on the board. Have them double-check their results to make sure they got the correct numbers.
Discuss the reasons why it may be important to know a city's latitude and longitude. For example, airplane pilots use coordinates to plan their routes and make sure they're on course for their destination city. Kids might want to know a city's latitude and longitude to compare it with other cities or to figure out what the climate might be like there.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Ask students to use their understanding of latitude and longitude to plan "road trip quizzes" for other students to take. The road trips will begin in their town and travel to a city in the United States that is not on the original list of cities.
First have students look at map of the United States, either in a road atlas or at the MapMachine to decide on the destination city for the road trip.
Have students refer to a road atlas or another detailed United States map to choose a highway or interstate to travel on. Have them follow the route of this highway with their fingers and list five towns they'll travel through on the way to their destination.
Ask students to return to the USGS query form and enter the name of each town one at a time. Ask them to write down each town's coordinates so they have a list of their hometown and its coordinates, the five intermediate towns and their coordinates, and their destination city and its coordinates.
Have students copy the coordinates for their hometown, the intermediate towns, and the destination city—in that order—onto another paper, leaving out the towns' names.
Ask students to trade their lists of coordinates without town names with a partner. Have students look at the lists and at a map to try to figure out the destination and the intermediate stops. Ask them to write these town names on a separate paper.
Have students get back together with their partners to see if they listed the correct towns or towns that are very close to the correct ones.
Extending the Lesson:
Have students create similar quizzes (see Suggested Student Assessment, above) for cities in other parts of the world. They should list the cities' coordinates and ask their partners to figure out which cities they've selected.
To continue their review of latitude and longitude, have students do the Crack the Code activity.
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