Do you have one of these? Maybe at home? Or at school?
It’s a globe! A model of the whole Earth, small enough to fit right on your desk!
Think of it as a map that’s in the shape of a ball.
By getting to know your globe, you can get to know all of the land masses and bodies
of water that cover our planet, and what they’re names are.
So let’s take a pretend trip around the world!
All of the blue on the globe? That’s where there’s water. And all the other colored parts?
That’s land!
As you can see, Earth is mostly covered in water, with large land masses here and
there.
In fact, there are seven different land masses on the Earth. And these chunks of land are
called continents.
This piece up here is called North America -- it’s one of the seven continents. The
one below it is another continent, called South America.
On this side of the globe, we have some other continents.
This chunk here is Africa. And up here is Europe, and next to it is Asia, our largest continent.
Down here, by itself, is Australia, our smallest continent.
And at the bottom of the globe—and at the bottom of our planet—is the seventh continent:
Antarctica!
Most of our seven continents are divided into smaller pieces of land, called countries.
That’s what all of these different colors are within the bigger chunks of land.
Like in North America, you can see these countries: Greenland, Canada, the United States, Mexico,
and all of the smaller countries that make up Central America.
But Australia and Antarctica are continents that aren’t broken up into smaller countries.
The other five continents have almost 200 countries on them!
That’s a lot of land.
But what’s all of the water on the globe?
If you think there’s a lot of land on Earth, just wait until you hear this.
More than half of our world is covered in water!
Ahem…
Oh, hi Webb! And hi Bill!
What’re you guys up to?
Well, Jessi, we heard you were going to be talking about water. And who better to help you than a coupla
ducks who, I don’t know, live in it?
Good point!
And, actually, more than 70 percent of the world is covered in water.
You're right! Isn't that cool?
Some of its freshwater -- like what you find in lakes and rivers. Where we hang out.
Uh huh. And by far, most of it's salt water -- like what fills the oceans! And our
planet is covered in five main, very big oceans.
Exactly! And can you name the five oceans?
Of course we can!
First, there’s the Pacific Ocean, over there between Asia and the Americas -- it’s the
largest ocean in the world. It covers almost 30 percent of the planet.
It’s so big, all seven continents could fit over it, with room to spare!
Whoa.
But that’s not all -- on the other side of the Americas is the Atlantic Ocean,
the planet’s second-largest ocean.
The next biggest ocean is the Indian Ocean, below Asia and in between Africa and
Australia.
You’re right!
And another major ocean is up here, at the top of the world, where there’s no land,
just water.
This is the Arctic Ocean.
The Arctic Ocean doesn’t look much like the others in real life. That’s because,
most of the time, it’s covered in ice.
Brr!
And there’s just one more ocean we should mention.
I know! I know! The Southern Ocean!
That’s right! The Southern Ocean is the name for the waters that surround all
of Antarctica, at the southern end of the Earth!
I’m just gonna come out and say that that’s too cold for me!
Me too! We're not penguins!
Now we know our globe! Or, at least, the basics of it.
The fact is, there are thousands of cities, and lakes, and rivers on the globe that we
didn’t talk about.
And all of this different stuff is what makes our Earth so different -- and interesting
-- as you travel from one place to the next!
So! Do you know what part of the globe you live on?
Are you in Australia, or Europe, or here in North America like us?
Let us know! And if you have a question for any of us, about our amazing
world’s weather, or animals, or plants, or … anything else ! … Leave
a comment below or send us an email at kids@thescishow.com.
And we'll see you next time!