Year 8
Human and
physical
features
Different types
of maps
Topic 1: Mapping
Continents
and oceans
Mountain ranges
Alps - Europe
Himalayas - Asia
Rocky Mountains - North
America
Andes - South America
Human features = man made symbols on a map e.g. houses, canals, schools, churches etc.
Physical features = natural features e.g. rivers, hills, mountains etc.
Political map = It shows areas of land controlled by different groups - Countries - Counties e.g. Worcestershire
Physical mapping = A physical map shows you the physical landscape features of a place e.g. Rivers, Mountains, Lakes,
Oceans
Resource mapping = shows where natural resources such as gold can be found
Transport mapping = These maps show all the transport routes in an area.
Climate map = A climate map shows what the climate is like in a certain area e.g. Temperature, Rainfall, Sunlight days,
Wind speeds, Snow fall
Ordnance survey map (O.S.map) = An ordnance survey maps are leisure maps. They are mainly by people who are
exploring new areas.
Rivers
Thames - Europe (London)
Ganges - Asia (India)
Nile - Africa (Egypt)
Mississippi – North America
(USA)
Amazon - South America
(Brazil)
Latitude
Longitude
Equator
Mountain
ranges
Map symbols
Latitude (shown as a horizontal line) is measured in degrees north or degrees south of the equator, which is the line
around the exact middle of the earth.
Longitude (shown as a vertical line) is measured in degrees east or west of something called the Prime Meridian. This is
the line going from the North Pole to the South Pole and running through the middle of the Greenwich Observatory in
London.
A great circle of the earth that is everywhere equally distant from the two poles and divides the surface into
the northern and southern hemispheres
Mountain ranges include = the Pennines, the Southern Uplands, Grampian mountains, the Lake District, the North West
Highlands and the Cambrian mountains
Map symbols are pictograms of features of an area e.g. church with a tower
Compass
points
4 figure grid
references
6 figure grid
references
REMEMBER – always “along the corridor and up the stairs” will take you to the bottom left hand corner of a square
Eastings = numbers travelling from left to right along the bottom of the map – along the corridor
Northings = numbers travelling from bottom to top of the map – up the stairs
Divide the grid
The scale on a map shows you what a certain
Scale
square in tenths.
distance on the map would be on the ground e.g.
Again along the
bottom up the stairs.
 Bus station is
at452 365
 Car park is at 457
363
Scale 2cm = 1km. – for every 2cm on a map it equals
1km on the ground. For the grid square across, the
lenth of the square is the equivilent to one kilometre
on the ground.
There is always a scale bar on an O.S. map to help
you.
Showing relief
on a map
Relief = the lie of the land, how high and steep it is.
The height of land is measured in in metres above sea
level.
If contour lines are far apart, this shows that the land is
relatively flat. If contour lines are far apart, this shows
that the land is steep.
Describing
areas using
maps
What should be included?
 Human and physical features
 Compass points
 Grid references
 Use of symbols
 Contour lines and spot heights
 Place names
 Scale
United Kingdom
Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and Northern Ireland.
Rivers of the UK
 The River Severn
 The Thames
 The Trent
Mountain ranges of the UK
 The Pennines
 The Southern Uplands
 The Grampian mountains
 The Lake District
 The North West Highlands
 The Cambrian mountains