Key Stage 3 geography · Geographical skills and fieldwork

KS3 globes, maps and atlases: a guide for parents

In Key Stage 3, students move from simply finding places on a map to using maps and atlases as tools for analysis. They learn to locate places precisely with latitude and longitude, to understand why flat maps distort the globe, and to combine different atlas maps to describe and explain a place. They also build their knowledge of where countries and major cities are, with a particular focus on Africa, Russia, Asia and the Middle East.

Globes, maps and atlases, explained

The globe is the only map that shows the Earth’s shape accurately. Students revisit its main features: the equator, which is the line of latitude at 0° that divides the Northern and Southern Hemispheres; the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn; the Arctic and Antarctic Circles; and the prime meridian, the line of longitude at 0° that passes through Greenwich and divides east from west. Latitude is measured from 0° to 90° north or south, and longitude from 0° to 180° east or west.

Locating a place in terms of its coordinates is a core KS3 skill. A place is written with its latitude first, then its longitude, for example 1° S, 37° E. Students use this in an atlas by looking up a name in the index, which gives a page and a grid square, sometimes with coordinates as well. They also use these skills in the field and on digital maps, where the same ideas, including zooming in and out and switching between map types, apply.

A flat map has to stretch or squash something. Students learn that every map projection, which is the method of showing a curved surface on a flat one, distorts size, shape, distance or direction. The most familiar world map, the Mercator projection, keeps shapes and directions useful for navigation but makes places near the poles look much bigger than they are, so Greenland appears about as large as Africa when Africa is in fact many times bigger. Students are expected to say what a particular projection is good for and what it gets wrong, and to look at scale and the key before drawing any conclusions.

An atlas is not one map but a collection, and students learn to combine them. A political map shows countries, capitals and borders. A physical map uses colour tints to show height and marks mountains, rivers and seas. Others show climate, vegetation or how many people live in each area. Using more than one allows students to explain, for example, why a city is where it is, or why a region is thinly populated. The National Curriculum also expects students to extend their locational knowledge of Africa, Russia, Asia (including China and India) and the Middle East, including their countries, major cities and environmental regions, such as polar and hot deserts. A desert is defined by how little precipitation it receives, not by heat, so the frozen polar regions count as deserts alongside hot deserts such as the Sahara and the Arabian Desert.

How a school covers this is its own choice, whether through a unit on each region, a map quiz or place-based enquiries. Expect your teenager to be able to place the continents, the main countries and a few major cities, and to say which are hot desert, tropical, mountain or polar environments. Memorising a blank map takes practice, but the real aim is to use the map to explain things: why a city is on a river, or why there are few people in a desert.

Words your child will hear

Latitude: Imaginary lines running east to west around the Earth, measuring distance north or south of the equator in degrees.
Longitude: Imaginary lines running from pole to pole, measuring distance east or west of the prime meridian in degrees.
Equator: The line of latitude at 0°, halfway between the North and South Poles.
Prime meridian: The line of longitude at 0°, passing through Greenwich in London.
Projection: A method of drawing the curved surface of the Earth on a flat map, which always causes some distortion.
Atlas index: An alphabetical list of places with the page number and grid square where each can be found.
Hot desert: A dry region with very little rain and high daytime temperatures, such as the Sahara.

What the National Curriculum says

In Key Stage 3, pupils should be taught to:

Build on their knowledge of globes, maps and atlases, and apply and develop this knowledge routinely in the classroom and in the field
Extend their locational knowledge and deepen their spatial awareness of the world’s countries, using maps of the world to focus on Africa, Russia, Asia (including China and India), and the Middle East, focusing on their environmental regions, including polar and hot deserts, key physical and human characteristics, countries and major cities

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A model answer: using an atlas to describe a place

Use an atlas to describe the location of Nairobi and explain what you would expect its climate to be like.

Look up Nairobi in the index. It gives a page and a grid square, and often the coordinates too. Turn to that page and find the city, which is a capital city, shown by a symbol on the political map.
Read the coordinates from the lines on the map. Nairobi is at about 1° S, 37° E. That is just south of the equator and east of the prime meridian, so it lies in the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres.
Describe the location in words, using the map. It is in East Africa, in Kenya, several hundred kilometres inland from the Indian Ocean coast. The scale bar on the map can be used to estimate the distance.
Now switch to a physical map of the same area. The colour tints show that Nairobi lies on high ground, roughly 1,800 metres above sea level. A second map, showing climate or vegetation, shows it is not in the hot desert region.
Combine the evidence. Being near the equator suggests hot weather, but the altitude means temperatures are lower than at sea level, so you would expect warm days and cooler nights rather than constant heat.

Nairobi is the capital of Kenya in East Africa, at about 1° S, 37° E and several hundred kilometres inland. Although it lies close to the equator, it stands at roughly 1,800 metres above sea level, so I would expect a mild, warm climate rather than the extreme heat found at low altitudes or in hot deserts. The atlas’s physical map explains why the location and altitude together matter.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking size on a map shows the real size of a country

Most world maps look the same as the one in primary school, so the distortion is hard to spot.

What helps: Compare a flat world map with a globe, and try peeling an orange and flattening the skin. Ask which places look bigger than they really are and why.

Mixing up latitude and longitude, or giving them in the wrong order

Both are lines, both are measured in degrees, and the words look alike.

What helps: Latitude lines are like the rungs of a ladder, flat and parallel. Longitude lines run from pole to pole. Give latitude first, as in 1° S, 37° E.

Treating the Middle East, Asia and Africa as one block of desert

Media images and quick revision maps favour sand and heat.

What helps: Look at physical and vegetation maps. Hot deserts such as the Sahara and the Arabian Desert sit next to rainforests, mountains, savanna and farmland, and high places can be cool.

Using only one map to explain a place

One map is quick to read and gives a tidy answer.

What helps: Ask your teenager to name a second map that would test the idea, for instance a physical map to check a political one. Agreement between maps strengthens an answer; disagreement is interesting too.

How to help at home

Keep an atlas or globe handy. A simple atlas or a globe in a shared room invites quick checks when a place comes up in the news or at tea. Ask “where is that, and what is it near?” rather than just looking it up.
Play coordinates games. Choose a city and give its coordinates as a clue, or read out a latitude and longitude and guess the nearest country. It gets coordinates into memory without worksheets.
Plan an imaginary trip. Choose a city in Africa, Russia, Asia or the Middle East, perhaps Cairo, Moscow, Mumbai or Dubai, and plan a route to it, noting countries crossed, seas, mountains and the climate on arrival. Combining maps is the exact skill the topic builds.
Compare map projections. Look at two different world maps, perhaps one in an atlas and another from a calendar, and ask what has been stretched or shrunk. A peeled orange skin makes the point.
Link countries to news and food. When a country appears in the news, in a recipe or on a label, find it, name its neighbours and describe its environment. Little and often builds the mental map more reliably than cramming.

Builds on

Key Stage 2: Atlases, globes and digital maps
Key Stage 2: Compass points and grid references
Key Stage 2: Ordnance Survey map symbols
Key Stage 2: Fieldwork: observe and measure
Key Stage 2: Fieldwork: presenting findings