HistoryExplain Like I'm 5Beginner
Everyday Geography and World History, a free history course on Tomo

Everyday Geography and World History

Like Duolingo, but for Everyday Geography and World History. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.

A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Mapping the Physical World and How We Got to the Modern World. It starts from scratch.

12 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Barnaby the Bear, the guide who teaches the Everyday Geography and World History course
Everyday Geography and World History
with Barnaby the Bear
12
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Everyday Geography and World History

  • The equator splits north and south, causing opposite seasons (summer in December down south)
  • The Prime Meridian splits east and west, establishing the reference point for global clock time
  • Europe and Asia sit on the single, unbroken landmass of Eurasia
  • The division between Europe and Asia was drawn along cultural and historical lines rather than physical plate boundaries
  • Flattening a 3D globe onto a rectangular grid forces land near the poles to stretch dramatically
  • Regions closest to the equator retain their true relative scale, while polar regions blow up in size
  • Greenland is actually smaller than Australia despite looking vast on standard wall maps
  • Latitude measures distance from the equator, directly dictating direct sunlight and warmth
  • Quito sits right on the equator (tropical warmth), Rome in mid-latitudes (temperate), and Svalbard near the Arctic circle (polar cold)
  • Oceans are constantly circulating heat around the globe rather than sitting as static basins
  • Warm ocean currents (like the Gulf Stream) keep Western Europe far milder than Canadian regions at the exact same latitude
  • Age of Sail trade ships relied on predictable ocean loops (gyres) to cross the Atlantic rather than sailing in straight lines
  • Annual river flooding replenishes farmland with nutrient-rich topsoil (silt)
  • Rivers provide a steady, predictable supply of water for crop irrigation
  • Reliable surplus food production allowed people to settle permanently in large numbers
  • Rugged mountain ranges and wide deserts posed massive logistical hurdles for ancient armies
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Everyday Geography and World History the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

Dividing Lines Across Our World

What is the Prime Meridian used for on a globe?

Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.

Course map

Where Everyday Geography and World History takes you

Fill the gaps in your mental map of the world. Grasp how continents, rivers, empires, and revolutions shaped the modern countries and borders we see on the news today.

  1. 1

    Mapping the Physical World

    • Reading the Globe
    • Why People Live Where They Live
  2. 2

    How We Got to the Modern World

    • Milestones of Human Society
    • How Borders Formed

2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
Explain Like I'm 5

Everyday Geography and World History is taught in the Explain Like I'm 5 style: no big words. promise.. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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Start free

Start Everyday Geography and World History today.

Download Tomo, search Everyday Geography and World History, and play your first lesson in under a minute.