3Social Science Learning Lab is a collective work, conceived, designed and created by the Primary Educational department at Santillana, under the supervision of Teresa Grence.
WRITERS Esther Echevarría María Rosa López Aurora Moral Félix Román
ENGLISH ADAPTATION Kerry Powell
ILLUSTRATIONS Quino Marín Márquez
EDITORS Sara J. Checa Sally Frazer
EXECUTIVE EDITOR Peter Barton
PROJECT DIRECTOR Lourdes Etxebarria
BILINGUAL PROJECT COORDINATION Margarita España
My first World Atlas
Social Science
How are maps made? . . . . . . . . . 4
Elements of a map . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Relief around the world . . . . . . 8
Coasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Rivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Landscapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Cities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Jobs around the world . . . . . . . . 18
Festivals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Monuments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Contents
How are maps made?We use maps to find out about our planet. They show us which areas are covered by water and which areas are covered by land.Maps show us the shape of the different countries and continents.They also show us the relief of the land.
Satellite picturesCartography is the science of studying and making maps. To get information, we send artificial satellites into space. The satellites go round and round our planet without landing. They take photographs of the Earth from above. Some people call these satellites ‘the eyes of the sky’.
Equator
943323_p04_h01_planisferio_�sicoMATRIZ
AMER ICA
PACIFIC
OCEAN
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
EUROPE
ARCTIC OCEAN
INDIAN
OCEAN
AFR ICA
OCEANIA
ANTARCT ICA
ANTARCTIC OCEAN
AS IA
High
Low
Very low
HEIGHT
Very high
N
S
EW
PACIFIC
OCEAN
0 1,900
kilometres
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Rainforest
Tropical forest
Steppe
Savannah (grassland)
Desert
Mediterraneanforest
High mountains
N
S
EW
0 900
kilometres
Information from satellitesSatellites send information from space to Earth. We use this information to make detailed maps of our planet. Look at this image of Africa. It is a satellite photo.
Making mapsCartographers use the satellite photos to make maps. They write the names of the oceans, seas, mountains and plains on the maps to identify each geographical feature.
Information from mapsMaps use different colours to represent different places and different types of vegetation. For example, blue on a map represents water, green represents forests, and yellow represents deserts.
ATLAS MOUNTA INS
AhaggarPlateau
Cameroon
Line
Tibesti
Ethiopian
Drakensberg
LIBYANDESERT
S A H A R AD E S E R T
DARFUR
PLATEAU
SOMALIPENINSULA
Madagascar
KALAHARIDESERT
Mediterranean Sea
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
INDIANOCEAN
IslasCanarias
Golfode Guinea
Cape ofGood Hope
CapeGuardafui
Re
d Se
a
Bayof
Sofala
Rift
Valle
y
Plateau
CENTRALPLATEAU
OF ANGOLA
Muchinga Mounta
ins
CONGOBASIN
NIGERBASIN
LAKE CHADBASIN
High
Low
Very low
HEIGHT
Very high
N
S
EW
0 900
kilometres
915334_p05_h05_africa_�sicoMATRIZ
five 5
Elements of a mapMaps use different elements to give us information about the land they represent. These elements include text, a key, a scale and a compass rose.
ATLANTIC OCEAN
Main ports
Main airports
Bilbao
Madrid
Barcelona
Cantabrian Sea
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
FRANCE
ANDORRA
PO
RT
UG
AL
MOROCCO
València
Alicante/Alacant
Cartagena
Algeciras
Palma
M e d i t e r ran e a n S e a
943323_p06_h01_aeropuertos
Eivissa
Sevilla
Málaga
Tenerife
GranCanaria
Lanzarote
Fuerteventura
Vigo
A Coruña
Gijón
Santander
CádizAlmería
CeutaMelilla
ISLASCANARIAS
Huelva
0 85
kilometres
N
S
EW
Compass roseThe compass rose is a drawing that shows us the cardinal points: north (N), south (S), east (E) and west (W). We use it for navigation and to show in which direction to go, in order to find a certain place.
KeyThe key explains the meaning of the colours and symbols that appear on a map. The key is necessary to understand the map.
ScaleThe scale shows the number of times the land has been reduced from its real size to the size we see on the map.
TextThe text on a map is very important. It gives us information about places like countries and cities, and geographical features like rivers and mountain chains.
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How do we represent scale on a map?There are two ways of representing the scale of a map. We can use a picture or a number.
Graphic scaleA graphic scale is a one centimetre line with numbers. The numbers tell us how many kilometres one centimetre on the map is equal to.
0 120
kilometres
This scale tells us that one centimetre on the map is equal to 120 kilometres in real life.
Fractional scaleA fractional scale is two numbers separated by a colon.The first number tells us the distance on the map in centimetres. The second number tells us the distance in real life.
1;120,000
This scale tells us that one centimetre on the map is the same as 120,000 centimetres in real life.
How do we calculate distances using the scale?To calculate the real distance between two points on a map, we follow these steps:
1 Look at the scale. In this case, it is a graphic scale. It tells us that one centimetre is the same as 20,000 centimetres in real life.
2 Use a ruler to measure a straight line between two points. In the example: between the bridge and the lake.
3 Multiply the centimetres between the two points on the map by the centimetres represented in real life.
We do not show long distances in small units, like centimetres. So, we have to change the final distance to metres or kilometres.
0 20,000 cm
The scale in the example tells us that one centimetre on the map is the same as 20,000 centimetres in real life. The distance on the map between the bridge and the lake is two centimetres. In real life this is 40,000 centimetres (2 3 20,000 5 40,000). This is 400 metres.
seven 7
Madagascar
AMERICA
Great Plains
Amazon Rainforest
BRAZILIAN PLATEAU
LABRADOR PENINSULA
FLORIDA PENINSULA
ANTARCTIC PENINSULA
Cuba Hispaniola
Iceland
Azores
Islas Canarias
British Isles
Greenland
BA
JA C
ALIFO
RN
IA
PEN
INS
ULA
APPALACHIAN
MOUNTAINS
ATLAS MOUNTAINS
Hudson Bay
Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Guinea
Denali (6,194 m)
Mount Aconcagua (6,962 m)
The
Pam
pas
Cape Horn
Cape São Roque
North Cape
PACIFIC
OCEAN
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
ARCTIC OCEAN
West Siberian Plain
TIBETAN PLATEAU
DECCAN
HINDUSTAN PENINSULA
HIMALAYASZAGROS
MOUNTAINS
ASIA
INDIAN
OCEAN
ANTARCTICA
Great European Plain
CENTRAL PLATEAU OF
ANGOLA
ANATOLIAN PLATEAU
SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA
IBERIAN PENINSULA
ARABIAN PENINSULA
CAUCASU
S
MO
UNTAINS
UR
AL
MO
UN
TAIN
S
ALPS
Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 m)
Mount Elbrus (5,642 m)
Cape of Good Hope
Cape Guardafui
AFRICA
EUROPE
Arabian Desert
Namib Desert
Sahara Desert
Mediterranean Sea
Black Sea
Caspian Sea
ANTARCTIC OCEAN
DRAKENSBERG
MOUNTAIN
S
Equator
N
EW
S
A
ARelief around the worldThere are many different types of relief around the world. There are high mountains, such as the Himalayas, in Asia. These are the highest mountains in the world. In contrast, some countries, like the Netherlands, are very flat.
eight
AN
DE
S
SIER
RA MADRE
RO
CK
Y M
OU
NTA
INS
8
Mount EverestMount Everest, in the Himalayas is the highest mountain on Earth, at 8,848 metres high. The Himalayas are more than 60 million years old! Some adventurous climbers hope to climb to the top.
UluruAustralia is a very flat country. It is covered with large areas of plains. However, in the middle of the flat landscape there is a large rock. This is Uluru. It looks bright red when the sun sets.
KAMCHATKA PENINSULA
Philippines
Japan
OCEANIA
PACIFIC
OCEAN
New Zealand
GR
EA
T DIVID
ING
RA
NG
E
Siberian Plain
TIBETAN PLATEAU
DECCAN
CENTRAL SIBERIAN PLATEAU
KOREAN PENINSULA
HINDUSTAN PENINSULA
Sri Lanka
Indonesia
HIMALAYAS
Mount Everest (8,848 m)
ASIA
Great Victoria Desert
Gobi Desert
INDIAN
OCEAN
Cape Leeuwin
Great
Australian
Bight
Tasmania
B
C
B
C
The NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a very flat country. A lot of the land is less than five metres above sea level. People living here have built sea walls. These walls protect the country from the sea. The word Netherlands means low country.
nine 9
CoastsThere are lots of different types of coasts around the world.There are parts of the sea that extend into the land and parts of the land that extend into the sea. There are peninsulas, islands and archipelagos. There are very low coasts, which form beaches, and high coasts that have cliffs.
ten
AMERICA
Madagascar
LABRADOR PENINSULA
FLORIDA PENINSULA
ANTARCTIC PENINSULA
Cuba Hispaniola
Iceland
Azores
Islas Canarias
British Isles
Greenland
BA
JA C
ALIFO
RN
IA
PEN
INS
ULA
Hudson Bay
Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Guinea
Cape Horn
Cape São Roque
North Cape
PACIFIC
OCEAN
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
ARCTIC OCEAN
ASIA
ANTARCTICA
SCANDINAVIAN PENINSULA
IBERIAN PENINSULA
ARABIAN PENINSULA
Cape of Good Hope
Cape Guardafui
AFRICA
EUROPE
Mediterranean Sea
Black Sea
Caspian Sea
ANTARCTIC OCEAN
Equator
N
EW
S
A
C
B
A
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