Australian Region

Ready to check out the world’s largest coral reef system?

Australia is about the same size as the 48 mainland states of the United States. It’s located between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific Ocean with a coastline almost 50,000 kilometers (miles) long and 10,000 beaches.

Even though it’s a large country, it’s the smallest continent in the world and has the lowest population. Only 20 million Australians, called Aussies live there. That’s about the same number of people who live in Texas! More than 80 percent of Australians live near the ocean.

Australia is home to more than one million species of plants and animals, many are found nowhere else in the world.  Kangaroos, Tasmanian devils, koalas, kookaburras and dingos are all found in Australia. Many animals that live there are marsupial, which means they carry their babies in a pouch.

Endangered animals include the koala bear, the numbat, the Australian sea-lion, and the dugong. These animals are losing their habitats or being hunted!

Polar Region

Slide into the Earth’s North Polar Region!

The Arctic is the area around the North Pole. Although you can walk to the North Pole, you are really just walking on ice. There is no land beneath you!

One of the Arctic’s wonders is the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis. These are gases that spread beautiful colors of light across the night sky. The lights can look like curtains against the dark!

What is it like to live in a cold place that only gets a few hours of daylight during the winter and 20 hours of sunlight during the day in the summer? High temperatures in the summer are around 15 degrees Celcius!

Southern Arctic is flat with small rounded hills and many lakes and rivers. Northern Arctic has mountain glaciers, plains and islands. As you travel north, the trees get smaller and become sparse until you reach the point where the trees no longer grow. This treeless land is called Tundra, which means "barren land". Plants that can survive the cold include lichen (small flowering plants that grow on rocks and trees), moss and dwarf shrubs (small trees).  

The core of the Arctic is the Arctic Ocean. This ocean is surrounded almost entirely by three different continents of land: North America, Europe and Asia. The water is so cold you can’t swim in it because you would freeze in 2 minutes!