Subject: North and South America – geographical location

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Addressee

Elementary school student VIII

Program basis

XVI. Selected problems and geographical regions of North and South America: meridional extent and surface shape (...)

General aim of education

The student will determine the geographical location and discuss the coastline of America.

Criteria of success

• you will determine the geographical location of North and South America;

• you will point out the most extreme points of the Americas;

• discuss the coastline of North America and South America;

• calculate North and South American latitudinal and meridional extent.

Key competences

• communicating in the mother tongue;

• communicating in foreign languages;

• mathematical competence;

• IT competences;

• learning to learn.

Methods / forms of work

• using ICT tools;

• work with educational and multimedia material on the e‑book

• development of a route plan;

• discussion;

• individual work, work in pairs and the whole class team.

Teaching measures

• e‑manual for teaching geography;

• interactive whiteboard;

• physical map of North and South America;

• LearningApps;

• geographical atlases;

• projector;

• tablets / computers.

Lesson plan overview

Introduction

1. The teacher using the LearningApss program displays the game „Reveal the picture” and introduces students to the topic of the lesson.

2. Work in pairs. Students, using geographical atlases and measuring instruments, estimate the size of North and South America.

3. Exemplary people approach the board and present their counting method.

4. Students check data on the size of the continent in source materials.

Realization

1. The teacher asks you to indicate on the wall map a conventional border between North and South America.

2. Students, working in pairs, use geographical atlases and determine the geographical location of the Americas.

3. The teacher displays on an interactive whiteboard an America hypsometric map from an e‑textbook to which pupils approach and provide information on the geographical location.

4. Students work in pairs and look for extreme points in both Americas in the geographical atlas. They determine their mathematical position.

5. Selected students indicate points on the wall map and read the geographical coordinates.

6. Pupils in pairs calculate the meridional extent of America, because it is the land with the greatest meridional extent. The teacher says that America stretches from the Arctic Islands in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south. The teacher, in order to remind students how to calculate, refers to the internet resources.

7. Students work in pairs and use geographical atlases. They prepare information on the shoreline of the Americas. They recognize that North America has a more developed coastline than South America. They indicate geographic features classified as horizontal surface shape on the map of North America and South America.

8. Work in pairs. Plan a trip for tourists who want a waterway to get from Los Angeles to New York. Estimate the distance and give the water basins through which they will flow. Plan the shortest route.

9. Selected pairs present the results on the class forum.

Summary

1. At the conclusion of the lesson, students perform exercises on the interactive whiteboard.

2. The teacher assesses the students, taking into account the contribution and their possibilities.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

North and South America – geographic location

Two large landmasses lying in the Western Hemisphere are referred to by one name – America. The larger of the two, with the surface of 24.2 million km Indeks górny 2² , is located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere – it is North America, the third largest continent on Earth. A slightly smaller landmass with an area of 17.8 million km Indeks górny 2² crosses the Equator, and the major part of the continent lies in the Southern Hemisphere, which is why we call it South America. Both continents are connected by a land bridge with its narrowest point in the Isthmus of Panama - the width of 46 km. The second „bridge” consists of archipelagos of islands lying in the east of the Caribbean Sea. The biggest are the Great Antilles. For several centuries, they were called West India, because the first exploratory expeditions, who reached them, believed they were India. A continental bridge from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Panama Canal and the island bridge are distinguished as Central America, which geographically belong to North America.