1

FIVE THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY

I N T R O D U C T I O N

These five themes of geographyprovide a viable framework forstudying the world. Such themeshelp organize the study of wherethings are located, why they arethere, how they got there, and theconsequences of their being there.Like interlocking puzzle pieces,each of these themes is connectedto the others, and all five must be addressed before a geographicwhole can be seen and compre-hended.

This lesson incorporates fiveoverhead transparencies (masterhandouts are provided from whichthe transparencies can be made).Each transparency corresponds to aparticular theme and an associatedactivity; all five appear in suggest-ed order. The transparencies mustbe overlaid precisely on top of oneanother to achieve the full picture.

O B J E C T I V E S

* define geography* gain an understanding of these

five themes of geography* identify each theme and explain

its characteristics* demonstrate how each theme

builds on the othersto create a geographic perspective

2

* set of fivetransparencies, onefor each theme(your school office or local photoduplicating

center should beable to replicatethe handouts on pages 50-54 into overheadtransparencies)

* overhead projector

* photographs orpictures foranalyzing the fivethemes (selectedby the teacher

from magazines,books, etc.)

* world atlasesand/or maps of theUnited States, withtime zones

* additional blank overheadtransparencies

* transparencymarking pens

M AT E R I A L S

B A C K G R O U N D

More than memorizing names andplaces, the study of geography focuseson answering important questionsabout the interrelationships of ourworld, both the physical and thecultural. These five themes are inter-related: no one theme can be fullyunderstood without the other four,just as no one part of our world canbe completely understood in isolation.Geography is concerned with askingimportant questions about the world:

* Where is it? * Why is it there? * What are the consequences of

its being there?Five of the themes of geography thathelp to examine these important ques-tions and organize their answers are:

LOCATION – Where is it located?PLACE – What is it like there?HUMAN/ENVIRONMENT

INTERACTION – What is the relationship between the people and the environment?MOVEMENT – How and why are places connected?REGIONS – What binds a place together?

geography (physicaland cultural)

location (absoluteand relative)

place

human/environmentinteraction

movement

regions

latitude

longitude

cardinal directions

V O C A B U L A R Y

intermediatedirections

mental maps

industrial

dam

reservoir

agriculture

commercial

residential

O P E N I N G T H E L E S S O N

To give the students a generalknowledge of these five themes,discuss the meaning of one themeand its relationship to the others.

3

BACKGROUND

A precise point on the surface ofthe earth is an absolute location.Coordinates, such as latitude andlongitude or street names andnumbers, indicate absolute loca-tion. Relative location refers tothe position of a point or place in relation to other places. For example, France is located acrossthe English Channel from England.

LOCATION

Place the location transparencyon the overhead projector. Thisshows an exact geographic loca-tion and begins to answer one ofthe basic concepts of geography,Where is it located?

T E A C H I N G T H E L E S S O N

What are absolute and relative locations?

1. What do the students see in this picture?

2. Use an overheadmarking pen to place a

dot (to indicate a precise point or location) at the

intersection of the two roads.

3. Have the students tell the absolute(exact) location of this dot. Reinforce the

idea that absolute location is simply a precisepoint on the surface of the earth. The students’

addresses are examples of absolute locations. To identifythe absolute location of the dot, younger students may use the

street names (Main Street and Old Mill Road). Older students may use latitudeand longitude (39° N latitude, 92° W longitude).

4. Now have them describe the relative location of this dot. Younger studentsmay relate the dot’s location to another feature, such as, it is downhill fromthe mountains. Older students may use cardinal or intermediate directions(for example, the dot is southwest of the mountains).

What would it be like to live there?1. Ask the students to interpret what they see. Just by looking at this map,what do they think it would be like to live at this location? (The students willbe able to determine very little because location provides little insight intothe character of a place.) Can they tell by the location whether this is a desir-able place to visit? Would they like to move to this crossroads? What more dothey need to know about this location before they can decide?

2. Think of an intersection near your school or one with which all the students are familiar.

3. Discuss the absolute and relative locations of that intersection. What arethe street names of that intersection? What is its latitude and longitude?What other landmarks are close by?

4. Have any of the students ever moved to a different apartment, house, city,state, or country? What did they want to know about the new location beforethey moved there?

4

PLACE

Put the place transparencyover the location trans-parency, precisely aligningthe registration marks. Thesecond transparency addsmore information about thetown to help answer the ques-tion, What is it like there? It addsto the picture a river (a physical fea-ture) and a park (a human feature). Theriver and the park can be used to discuss how physical and human features give character and “personality” to a location, thus creating a place.

1. Looking at the overhead transparency, ask thestudents to interpret what they see. What can they now

tell about the location marked with a dot? How do the river (a physical feature) and the park (a human feature) change the

character of this location? Would this be a desirable place to build a house?Where else on the map might be a good place to build a house? Why? (Forexample, next to the park might be a pleasant place to live. A house along the river would have a good view, but that site might be threatened byfloods.) Which qualities make a place desirable?

2. What do the students think of when they envision the Grand Canyon?Niagara Falls? New York City? Paris, France?

3. Divide the students into small groups and instruct each “team” to list atleast three physical and human characteristics to describe five well-knownlocations (cities, countries, or places). Which team can guess the place in the fewest number of clues? (Possible clues are: capital of an island country,River Thames, Big Ben, and British Museum; or Middle Eastern country, NileRiver, Aswan Dam, and pyramids.)

4. Think of different locations in your own community. What comes to thestudents’ minds when they think of each location? Which characteristics makethis location a “place”? Which features give it “personality”?

BACKGROUND

The theme of place investigates the physicaland cultural features that give a location its particular identity.Location plus characteris-tics creates place. Allplaces have physical andhuman qualities that lendthem personality and character. The physicalenvironment and thehuman characteristics of alocation make it differentfrom all other places onearth. Like snowflakes, no two places on earth are exactly alike. People perceive places accordingto their own experiences or points of view. Ourimpressions and memoriesof sounds, sights, andsmells of a place play arole in our image of a location. These mentalmaps form a personalreference point.

5

Place the human/environ-ment interaction trans-parency on top of thefirst two, carefully liningup the registrationmarks. The third trans-parency adds severalbuildings to the area,including houses, a shop-ping center, a school, ahospital, stores, and anindustrial complex, aswell as a dam, a reservoir,and agriculture. Theseillustrate how an areachanges when settlementoccurs and helps toanswer the question,What is the relationshipbetween the people andthe environment?

BACKGROUND

The theme of human/environment interactionaddresses the ways peoplerespond to and modify the natural environment.Sometimes people adaptthe way they live to suittheir physical setting. Atother times they changetheir surroundings to meettheir particular needs.

1. Have the students discuss how the added featureshave changed the landscape. How have the natural

settings of the river and the park been modified? Who madethe changes and why? How has the addition of the reservoir and the

dam affected the course of the river? How does the location of the shop-ping mall affect the development of the surrounding area? How might thepresence of farms affect the use of the land and the river?

2. Ask the students to think about their own communities. What if a shopping mall was eliminated from (or added to) their community? How would this change their environment?

3. List and discuss the positive and negative effects of building dams, factories, and shopping malls.

4. Have the students bring in articles from the local newspapers that discuss development plans which will affect their community (building roads,town houses, shopping centers, sports stadiums). Follow the course of publichearings, legislation, and community response for several weeks. What issueswere involved? How was the situation resolved? Did the conclusion satisfyeveryone concerned?

HUMAN/ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION

5

BACKGROUND

The theme of movementlooks at transportationand communication sys-tems that link people inone location with those inanother location. Thefourth transparency addsseveral components thatdemonstrate how themovement of people,ideas, and materials keepsa community alive. Roads,railroads, and airportshave been added to movegoods and people to andfrom the town. The rivermakes possible the hydro-electric power plant, whichgenerates electricity forthe town and the sur-rounding area.

1. Ask the students the following questions: How dothe presence of railroads and airports affect the move-

ment of people and goods into and out of this region? How do thesatellite dish and radio tower add to the movement of ideas? Why is

movement important?

2. What forms of movement are found in their community? How would theirlives be different without just one of these forms?

MOVEMENT

Place the movement transparency on top of the other three, precisely aligning the registration marks. This transparency examines the question, How and why are places connected?

Design a space stat ion on the moon,

complete with regions to

meet everyone’s needs.

Incorporate such physical features as

mountains and craters

into your h igh-tech 6

7

Place a blank transparency on top of the four. Since the definition of “region”includes those characteris-tics that unite or bindtogether an area, a blanktransparency upon whichto “draw” your ownregions best representsthis concept. This themeof region helps to orga-

nize knowledge about theland and its people as it

answers the question, Whatbinds a place together?

1. Have the students identify the residential, industrial,and commercial regions formed by the overlay of trans-

parencies. Where should the boundaries between the commercial and the residential regions be drawn?

2. Identify the regions in your classroom. Is there a reading region? An activity region? An art region? Where does one region begin and another end?

3. Look carefully at a map of the United States and identify each of the timezones. Do the zones correlate to physical features of the land (i.e., do they define a region), or were they drawn arbitrarily? How would the students redrawthe time zones?

4. What are some other regions in the United States? (Possible answers: Northeast, Southwest, Death Valley, Silicone Valley, Badlands, Everglades, GreatPlains, Research Triangle.) Which characteristics unify and identify these areas?

BACKGROUND

A region is an area of the earth that has one ormore common factors foundthroughout it. Human factors, such as language or government (a Spanish-speaking region or a commu-nist country), or physical features, such as mountains, climate (a desert region), andvegetation (redwood forest)help to define a region. Theycan be large or small; theycan overlap; and smallerregions can lie within largerones. A region’s unifyingcharacteristics are oftenstrongest at its center andbecome less well defined atits periphery, which is whyregional boundaries are some-times difficult to determine.

REGIONS

C O N C L U D I N G T H E L E S S O N

To demonstrate how these five themes ofgeography are interdependent, remove all the

overlays except the fourth one, movement. Ask the students to describe movement based on

the information they see here. They should notice that this overlay has little meaning without the other

transparencies. Emphasize that no single theme can be completely understood without the other four. How is this

interdependence true in their own community?

E X T E N D I N G T H E L E S S O N

Divide the class into small groups of four or five students. Give each group a photograph taken from a travel magazine or refer to a photo in a textbook.Have them consider how each of the five themes is represented in their photo-graph. Design a presentation of these five themes based on it, using five blanktransparencies (one for each theme) and overhead markers. For example, with a photo of New York Harbor, students might draw a map of New York State toshow the harbor’s absolute and relative location; water (a physical feature) andthe buildings around the harbor (human features) to show place; docks on theshore to show human/environment interaction; boats to show movement; andan aerial view of the city to highlight the harbor as a region. (Possible citiesfor presentation include Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, St. Louis, Denver, Santa Fe, Boston, Seattle, New Orleans, and Atlanta.)

Plan a model

lakefront community for

2 ,000 res idents .Integrate physical features

and human needs. Br ing in examples

f rom the newspaper of communit ies

being bui l t in your area.

8

9

LO

CA

TIO

N

Use with Lesson 1

10

PL

AC

E

Use with Lesson 1

11

HUMAN/ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION

Use w

ith Lesson 1

12

MO

VE

ME

NT

Use with Lesson 1