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

four4

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.

six6

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

10