Geography · Unit 2

Continents and Oceans

The seven continents and five oceans

A closer look at the largest divisions of the Earth's surface: the seven continents, the five named oceans, and the lines - equator, tropics, poles - that structure how we describe position.

The unit covers each continent's defining features and the poles, which are genuinely different from each other in a way maps disguise: one is ocean covered in ice, the other is land buried under it.

This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 20
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 1-3

What this unit covers

The Continents
Hemispheres and the Equator
The Oceans
Continental Features
The Poles

Where this fits

Follows Our Planet. Countries and Capitals adds the political layer on top of this physical one.

Where people slip

Hemispheres are defined by two different lines. The equator splits north from south; the prime meridian splits east from west, and it was placed at Greenwich by agreement rather than by geography.

How the unit is structured

Continents and Oceans runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 3 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 20 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Continental Features

Multiple choiceLevel 1
1. On which continent is the Sahara, the world's largest hot desert?
- Africacorrect
- Asia
- Australia
- South America
The Sahara Desert stretches across northern Africa.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
2. Build a sentence explaining why the continents change position.
Answer: The continents slowly move on tectonic plates
The continents sit on tectonic plates that slowly move over millions of years, gradually changing the map of the world.
Fill the blankLevel 2
3. The Andes, the longest mountain range on land, run down the western side of ____.
- South Americacorrect
- Africa
- Europe
- Asia
The Andes stretch along the western edge of South America.
Match the pairsLevel 2
4. Match each continent to a famous natural feature found there.
Answer: Asia = Mount Everest; South America = Amazon Rainforest; Africa = Nile River; Australia = Great Barrier Reef
Each continent is home to a famous natural feature.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
5. Which of these are genuine pieces of evidence that the continents were once joined together?
- The coastlines of South America and Africa fit together like a jigsawcorrect
- Identical fossils are found on continents now separated by oceanscorrect
- Matching rock and mountain formations continue across the oceanscorrect
- All the continents share exactly the same language
Matching coastlines, shared fossils and continuous rock and mountain formations across oceans all support the idea that continents were once joined.
Guess the numberLevel 3
6. Roughly how many million years ago did the supercontinent Pangaea begin to break apart?
Answer: 175 million years ago
Pangaea began to split around 175 million years ago, during the Jurassic period, eventually forming today's continents.

Hemispheres and the Equator

Picture questionLevel 1
7. 🌍 The line drawn around the middle of this globe, halfway between the poles, is called the...?
- Equatorcorrect
- Prime Meridian
- Tropic of Capricorn
- Arctic Circle
The equator circles the Earth halfway between the North and South Poles.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
8. Build the sentence about what the equator does.
Answer: The equator divides Earth into two halves
The equator splits the planet into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Fill the blankLevel 2
9. The imaginary line at 0 degrees longitude that divides the Eastern and Western Hemispheres is the ____.
- Prime Meridiancorrect
- Equator
- Tropic of Cancer
- Arctic Circle
The Prime Meridian at 0 degrees longitude divides the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
10. Which hemisphere contains most of the world's land and people?
- The Northern Hemispherecorrect
- The Southern Hemisphere
- The Western Hemisphere only
- The Eastern Hemisphere only
Most of the world's land and population lie in the Northern Hemisphere.
Sort into groupsLevel 2
11. Sort each place into the hemisphere it sits in.
Answer: Australia = Southern Hemisphere; Antarctica = Southern Hemisphere; Canada = Northern Hemisphere; United Kingdom = Northern Hemisphere
Places north of the equator are in the Northern Hemisphere and those south of it are in the Southern Hemisphere.
Guess the numberLevel 3
12. About how long is the Earth's circumference measured around the Equator?
Answer: 40075 kilometres
The Earth's circumference at the Equator is about 40,075 kilometres, slightly larger than the distance around the poles.

The Continents

Guess the numberLevel 1
13. How many continents does the Earth have?
Answer: 7 continents
Earth is usually divided into seven continents.
Fact or fibLevel 2
14. Australia is the smallest of the seven continents.
Answer: True
Australia is the smallest continent, about 8.6 million square kilometres, far smaller than Asia or Africa.
Fill the blankLevel 2
15. The continent with the second-largest land area is ____.
- Africacorrect
- Antarctica
- Europe
- North America
Africa is the second-largest continent, after Asia.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
16. Which continent is made up of the most countries?
- Africacorrect
- Asia
- Europe
- South America
Africa has 54 countries, more than any other continent.
Odd one outLevel 2
17. Which of these is NOT a continent?
- Greenlandcorrect
- Africa
- Europe
- Asia
Greenland is the world's largest island, not a continent.
Match the pairsLevel 3
18. Match each continent to its approximate land area.
Answer: Asia = 44 million sq km; Africa = 30 million sq km; Europe = 10 million sq km; Australia = 9 million sq km
Asia is about 44, Africa about 30, Europe about 10 and Australia about 9 million square kilometres.

The Oceans

Fill the blankLevel 1
19. The smallest and shallowest ocean is the ____ Ocean.
- Arcticcorrect
- Indian
- Atlantic
- Pacific
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the five oceans.
Guess the numberLevel 1
20. How many oceans are there on Earth?
Answer: 5 oceans
Earth has five oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
21. Which is the largest ocean on Earth?
- Pacific Oceancorrect
- Atlantic Ocean
- Indian Ocean
- Arctic Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the five oceans.
Fact or fibLevel 2
22. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a solid floating island of rubbish you could walk across.
Answer: False
It is not a solid island but a huge, spread-out soup of floating plastic, much of it tiny microplastics that are hard to see.
Build the sentenceLevel 3
23. Build the sentence describing how the deep-ocean conveyor begins.
Answer: Cold salty water sinks and drives the deep ocean conveyor
Cold, salty water is dense, so it sinks and pushes the deep global conveyor along.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
24. Which of these are effects of a warmer, more acidic ocean?
- Corals bleach and turn whitecorrect
- Shell-building animals struggle to form shellscorrect
- Warmer water holds less dissolved oxygencorrect
- Continental crust grows thicker
Warming and acidification cause coral bleaching, make it harder for shells and reefs to form, and lower the water's dissolved oxygen; they do not thicken continental crust.

The Poles

Fact or fibLevel 1
25. The South Pole is located on the continent of Antarctica.
Answer: True
The South Pole lies near the middle of the continent of Antarctica.
Fill the blankLevel 1
26. The most northern point on Earth is called the ____ Pole.
- Northcorrect
- South
- Magnetic
- Equator
The North Pole sits at the very top of the Earth, in the frozen Arctic.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
27. The Arctic, at the far north of the Earth, is mostly made of what?
- A frozen oceancorrect
- A continent of solid rock
- A hot desert
- A rainforest
The Arctic is a frozen ocean ringed by land, not a solid landmass.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
28. Which of these statements about the Earth's polar regions are true?
- The Arctic is centred on a frozen oceancorrect
- Antarctica is a continent of landcorrect
- The equator passes through both poles
- The polar regions are hot deserts
The Arctic is centred on a frozen ocean and Antarctica is a land continent; neither is a hot desert and the equator does not reach the poles.
Guess the numberLevel 2
29. About what percentage of the world's ice is found in Antarctica?
Answer: 90 percent
Around 90 percent of the world's ice is locked up in the Antarctic ice sheet.
Picture questionLevel 2
30. 🧊 This large mass of ice has broken away from a glacier or ice sheet and drifts out to sea. What is it called?
- An icebergcorrect
- Sea ice
- A glacier
- An ice shelf
An iceberg is a chunk of freshwater ice that has calved from land ice, unlike sea ice, which is frozen seawater.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 17 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Listen and choose
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sequence recall
Sort into groups
Spell it
Tap the pairs
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Continents and Oceans

120 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

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