Maya loved maps. Not just any maps, mind you, but giant world maps that hung on classroom walls. Every continent (1) was a splash of color,
each country (6) a different shaped puzzle piece. Her favorite part?
The big, round globe (7)
in the corner. It was like a magic ball, showing all the places on Earth at once!
One day, the classroom globe started to glow! Maya blinked, then gasped. Tiny people were climbing out of the continents! There was Pablo in a sombrero, waving from a bright green continent Maya knew was South America. There was Aisha in a flowing dress, standing on a giant yellow continent - Africa!
"Welcome to Earth Explorer Club!" boomed a voice. It came from a tiny explorer with a magnifying glass perched on his nose. "I'm Captain Compass, and we need your help!"
"What's wrong?" squeaked Maya.
"The coordinates (8) are all mixed up!" Captain Compass pointed to the globe. Lines crisscrossed it, like a spiderweb gone crazy. "We can't find our way back to our countries!"
Maya remembered learning about lines on the globe. There were circles that went around the middle, like a hula hoop, called latitude (10).
The one at the very center was the equator, and the others helped measure how far north or south a place was.
Then there were lines that ran up and down, like seams on a ball, called meridians (9).
These helped measure how far east or west a place was.
"I think I can help!" Maya said, her eyes sparkling. She grabbed a piece of string and drew a big circle on the floor, like the equator. Then, she drew a line straight through the middle, like a prime meridian (a special meridian that goes through Greenwich, England).
"This is like the globe!" she explained. She pointed to the top half of the circle. "This is the Northern Hemisphere (4)."
Then she pointed to the bottom half. "And this is the Southern Hemisphere!"
One by one, Maya helped the explorers find their countries.
She used the lines on the floor and the symbols (5)
on their clothes to figure out where they belonged. Pablo, with his sombrero, clearly belonged near the equator in a warm country. Aisha, with her flowing dress, lived in a hot, dry country further north in Africa.
Finally, all the explorers were back in their places. Captain Compass beamed. "Thank you, Maya! You're a true Earth Explorer!"
Just then, the globe pulsed with light, and the explorers climbed back in. The classroom was quiet again, but Maya knew the magic of maps and globes would always spark her imagination, helping her explore the world, one continent, country, and coordinate at a time!