Overview

Understanding the coordinate plane and how to locate objects on it is essential to higher level mathematics. By connecting this concept to maps, students have a framework through which to grasp the importance of this foundational idea. The coordinate plane used on representations of the world in the form of a globe or a map use a consistent grid system called latitude and longitude. On the coordinate plane, we label the x-axis and the y-axis. With latitude and longitude, the longitude numbers form the x-axis and the latitude lines form y-axis.