Who lives in Antarctica?
Use this unit hub to inform your medium-term plan and to navigate to related resources created in line with the KS2 Geography curriculum.
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Who lives in Antarctica?
Unit outcomes
Pupils who are secure will be able to:
- Describe lines of latitude and longitude, giving an example.
- Understand that the Northern and Southern Hemispheres have seasons at different times.
- Define climate zones, giving an example.
- Describe Antarctica’s position in the far south and its polar climate of ice sheets, snow and mountains.
- Describe tourism and research as the main reasons people visit Antarctica and list examples of research done there.
- Describe the equipment and clothing researchers use in Antarctica.
- State the outcome of Shackleton’s expedition.
- Plot four figure grid references where the vertical and horizontal lines meet and begin to recall the eight points of a compass, following at least four of them.
- Use the zoom function on a digital map and recognise and describe features of the school grounds from an aerial map.
- Describe a similarity and a difference between life in the UK and life in Antarctica.
- Draw a map of the route taken on an expedition.
- State one thing that went well on the expedition and one aspect that did not go as hoped.
Lesson 6 involves fieldwork on the school grounds. It is important to risk-assess the proposed route taking into account any relevant school risk assessment policies and procedures. Refer to the Before the lesson section in Lesson 6 to prepare for this lesson. Please be aware this lesson may take longer than 1 hour.
Lesson 5 requires a device (one per pair).
Optional sustainability lesson: Choose between the three optional lessons.
Suggested prior learning
Why do people live near volcanoes?
Get startedLessons
Lesson 1: What is climate?
- To understand the position and significance of lines of latitude.
Lesson 2: Where is Antarctica?
- To describe the location and physical features of Antarctica.
Lesson 3: Who lives in Antarctica?
- To describe the human features of Antarctica.
Lesson 4: Who was Shackleton?
- To use four-figure grid references to plot Shackleton’s route to Antarctica.
Lesson 5: Can we plan an expedition around school?
- To plan a simple route on a map using compass points.
Lesson 6: How did our expedition go?
- To follow instructions involving compass points and map a simple route.
- To explore single-use plastic usage by applying the waste reduction hierarchy.
- To explore single-use plastic usage by applying the waste reduction hierarchy.
- To explore single-use plastic usage by applying the waste reduction hierarchy.
Related content
Unit resources
Knowledge organiser: Geography – Y3 Who lives in Antarctica?
Aimed at pupils, two pages providing key facts and definitions from the unit "Who lives in the Antarctic?".
Vocabulary display – Geography Y3: Who lives in Antarctica?
A display version of the vocabulary from the unit ‘Who lives in Antarctica?’.
Cross-curricular opportunities
Science: States of matter
Mathematics: Geometry – position and direction
English: Spoken language
British values: Rule of law