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Exploring Our Global Grid System
Guiding Questions
for Introducing and Exploring Latitude and Longitude


Guiding Questions
for a Sphere

Questions for Locating a Spot on a Flat Rectangle or Square:

Mark a spot on a piece of paper.

  • How would you describe where the spot is located?
  • What words would you use to help someone pinpoint where the spot is located? (up, down, right, left, above, below, north, south, east, west, top, bottom, hemisphere, etc.)
  • How would you draw a grid system on the page to help you describe the spot's location?
  • What measurement tools would you use to find the middle of the page?
  • What measurement tools would you use to draw horizontal and vertical lines that were evenly spaced on the page?
  • How would you measure and draw lines that were equal distances apart?
  • How would you label each horizontal and vertical line to help you describe where the spot is on the page?
  • Which line is your "equator" dividing the page into two equal parts? (Helpful Hint: Draw this line with a different color marker.)
  • How far apart are the lines of your grid?
  • How many horizontal and vertical lines did you draw on the page?
  • How would you describe or label each point where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect?
  • How did this activity help you learn more about our global grid system? latitude and longitude lines?
  • How can you use north, south, east, and west to describe where the spot is located?
Questions for Locating a Spot on a Spherical Object

Mark a spot on a sphere (orange, grapefruit, styrofoam ball, etc).

  • What words would you use to describe where the spot is located?
  • How would a grid system work on a spherical object?
  • If you were going to draw a grid system on an orange, where would you start?
  • Where is the top of the sphere? Where is the bottom?
  • What measurement tools could you use to find the middle of the orange?
  • How would you measure to find out where to draw a line that would divide the orange into two equal parts?
  • After drawing a line around the middle of the orange, how would you describe the two parts?
  • Which of these words would you use to describe the two parts of the orange: top, bottom, upper, lower, above, below, north of, south of, hemispheres?
  • How will you decide where to draw horizontal lines so that they are equal distances apart?
  • After drawing horizontal and vertical grid lines on the orange, what did you notice? How are the latitude lines different from the longitude lines?
  • Which horizontal line divides the sphere into two equal parts?
  • How would you describe each part?
  • Which vertical line divides the sphere into two equal parts?
  • How would you describe each part?
  • How can looking at the latitude and longitude lines on a globe help you draw a grid system on an orange?
  • What challenges did you encounter when you were drawing horizontal and vertical grid lines on the sphere?