Grade 6 · Social Studies · Lesson 10

Latitude, longitude, and time zones

How would you tell a friend exactly where to find a particular spot on Earth — say, the city of Quito in Ecuador, or a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Centuries ago, geographers invented an invisible grid of lines wrapped around the planet. Two numbers — a latitude and a longitude — pinpoint any place on Earth, no matter how remote.

What this lesson teaches

1Describe how latitude and longitude form a coordinate grid that locates any point on Earth
2Identify the equator, the Prime Meridian, and the major lines of latitude
3Explain why Earth is divided into 24 time zones and how they relate to longitude
4Use the International Date Line to compare days between distant cities

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