The Five Themes of Geography

The Study of the Earth

Geography is the study of the Earth’s surface and its people.Five Themes- Location,Place,

Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, Region

Five Themes1) Where are things located 2) Why

are they there?• Location-Where is it?-

Absolute= it’s exact position- a street address or a point on a map, Ex. Latitude and Longitude use degrees-The Prime Meridian and the Equator divide the Earth in Hemispheres

Relative Location

• Explains where a place is by describing places near it

• Example: I live near the Subway, can be made clearer by saying-I live 1 block east of the Subway

• Example 2: I live in a large city on the south shore of Lake Michigan that is known as windy.

Place

• Describes the Location- Physical features like the climate ( it’s windy), or the topography such as it’s flat (the plains), or it’s mountainous ( Sangre De Cristo)

• Another way is by describing the human features- how many people live there or what they do for a living

Human-Environment Interaction

• How people affect their environment and how the environment affects the people

• A. Ex. Building Dams, irrigation systems and wells-putting out forest fires

• B. Ex. Farming in the rich land of the Ohio River Valley-or Fishing off the Grand Banks

• C. Air conditioning and Heat

Movement• People, Goods and Ideas get from one place to

another• Ex. The Columbian Exchange

Regions• Geographers use the theme of regions to make

comparisons• These unifying characteristics can be climate,

land, population, or history