Latitude/Longitude Activity (to better understand GPS):
Materials needed:
an inflatable beach ball
colored markers
measuring tapes
calculators
star stickers
Each student will make their own “globe” from a beach ball. They will learn to better
understand latitude and longitude coordinates by accurately creating and labeling lines
of latitude and longitude on their beach ball globes.
1) After inflating their “globes”, students will first mark the North Pole, the South Pole, the
Equator, the Prime Meridian, and the International Date Line & label them accordingly.
2) Students will then construct lines of longitude every 30 degrees and will label
them from 0 to 180 degrees west and from 0 to 180 degrees east in relation to the prime
meridian.
3) Next, students must think of an appropriate strategy to locate equally-spaced lines of latitude.
Label lines for 15, 30, 45, 60, and 75 degrees North (and the same lines for South, if time)
4)
When finished, have the students make their best guess as to where their town/city would be
located on this globe and place their star sticker there!
They should also record their best guess for the numerical latitude and longitude
coordinates of their town’s location:
__________ N or S
__________
E or W
When finished, go outside with the GPS units to see which student had the best estimation for
their current latitude and longitude location.
Now that students better understand what the numbers on their GPS receivers mean, they can
proceed to use the GPS in a variety of ways…
More Latitude and Longitude Practice:
Now use actual globes to answer the following questions that offer more practice
identifying latitude and longitude:
1. What country spans from 15 N to 33 N and from 87 W to 117 W?
___________________
2. What country spans from 12 S to 5 N and from 15 E to 30 E?
___________________
3. The continental U.S. spans from about _____ N to ____ N and from ____ W to ____ W?
4. India spans from about ________ to ________ and from ________ to ________.
5. What capital city is located at approximately 12 E and 42 N ?
___________________