World Soccer Teams Absolute Location Activity with a Google Earth Tour!

Absolute and relative location are two basic, important geography tools that all students must master. Why not teach students these vital skills in a fun, active way? This assignment will do just that!

Absolute location, of course, requires students to use latitude and longitude to give their answers. Relative location requires cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) and intermediate directions (northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest).

While there are many available assignments to teach these concepts to elementary school and middle school/junior high school students, here’s one with a twist!

Students will locate 20 professional soccer/European football/futbol teams using absolute and relative location. I have chosen 20 teams from six continents including clubs in India, Japan, Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands, Australia, and several more.

This would be a great map assignment to introduce political map skills as it allows students to become better acquainted with nations and continents. Additionally, students might find it exciting to learn that there are soccer/European football/futbol teams on every continent but Antarctica!

Included, please find the assignment with a chart for record-keeping, an answer key, a blank world map, a political world map, and an idea for an extension assignment.

Plus, how about this idea for an educational technology activity? If you have Google Earth installed on your classroom computer(s), you can visit every soccer stadium included in this assignment! Simply, download the KML file included in this packet and the file should load automatically into Google Earth. Take your students on a virtual tour today. Thank you!