Unit 1: 5 Themes of Geography

Essential Questions

For centuries, people in different parts of the world have been trying to get along with one another, not always with success. Part of the problem is a lack of understanding for other people’s ways of life. Certain advances in communication and transportation, such as the Internet and high-speed planes, have brought people closer together. So have increased international trade and immigration. Knowledge of other societies can be a key to understanding them.

Welcome to the World: Peoples of the World

Knowing history and geography helps orient you in time and space. History is a record of the past. The people and events of the past shaped the world as it is today. Historians search for primary sources, such as newspapers, letters, journals and other documents to find out about past events.

The 5 Themes of Geography: Geography is the study of people places and the environment. Geography deals with the world in spatial terms. The study of geography focuses on five main themes that we will learn about later.

Welcome to the World: History and Geography

Every country has laws and a way to govern itself. Laws are the rules by which people live. Government is the people and groups within a society that have the authority to make laws, to make sure they are carried out, and to settle disagreements about them. The kind of government determines who has the authority to make the laws and see that they are carried out.

Welcome to the World: Government

Looking at the long list of flavors at the ice cream store, you have a decision to make. You have only enough money for one cone. Will it be mint chip or bubble gum flavor? You will have to choose. Economics is the study of how people manage their resources by producing exchanging, and using goods and services. Economics is about choice.

Some economists claim that people’s desire are unlimited. Resources to satisfy these desires, however are limited. These economists refer to the conflict between people’s desires and their limited resources as scarcity.

Welcome to the World: Economics

Some people wear saris. Others wear T-shirts. Some people eat cereal and milk for breakfast. Others eat pickled fish. Some people go to church on Sunday morning. Others keel and pray to Allah five times a day. All these differences are expressions of culture. Culture consists of the beliefs, customs, laws, art and ways of living that a group of people share.

Religion is part of most cultures; so is a shared language. The ways people express themselves though music, dance, literature, and the visual arts are important parts of every culture; so are the technology and tools they use to accomplish various tasks. Each kind of food, clothing, language or technology that is shared by a culture is called a culture trait. Taken together the culture traits of a people shape their way of life.

Welcome to the World: Culture

Geography is : the study of our Earth; our home ◦ OR

Anything that can be mapped!

What is Geography?

Someone who analyzes the Earth from many different points of view!

What is a Geographer?

Oceans Plant Life Landforms People How the Earth and its People Affect Each

Other

Things that Geographers Study

Oceans

Plant Life

Landforms

People

How People Affect

the Earth

There are 5 different ways to look at the earth

When geographers work, they are guided by two basic questions:

◦ Where are things located? ◦ Why are they there?

To find these answers, geographers use 5 themes to organize the information . . .

The 5 Themes of Geography

1) Location: Geographers begin to study a place by finding where it is, or its location.

2) Place: Geographers study the physical and human features of a location.

3) Human-Environment Interaction: Geographers study how people affect or shape physical characteristics of their natural surroundings and how does their surroundings (environment) affect them?

The Five Themes:

4) Movement: Helps explain how people, goods, and ideas get from one place to another.

5) Regions: Geographers compare the climate, land, population, or history of one place to another.

The Five Themes:

Lets Look A Little Closer at the 5 Themes of Geography

There are two ways to think about location: ◦ Absolute location: describes the place’s exact

position on the Earth ◦ Relative Location: explains where a place is by

describing places near it

Location

Absolute Center

Location: 86°16'W

39°53.7'N

Relative Center Location: 14

miles North West of Indianapolis

Where is the center of Indiana?

This includes a location’s physical and human features.◦ To describe physical features, you might say

that the climate is hot or cold or that the land is hilly.

◦ To describe human features, you might discuss how many people live there, what types of work they do, or what they do for fun.

Place

How would you describe the PHYSICAL FEATURES of Columbus, Indiana?

How would you describe the HUMAN FEATURES of Columbus, Indiana?

How do people adjust to and change their environment? How does the environment adjust to and change the people?

Geographers also use interaction to study the consequences of people’s actions.

Human-Environment Interactions

People Changing their Environment

Environment Changing People

Explains how people, goods, and ideas move from one place to another.

Helps geographers understand cultural changes.

Movement

Spread of the Black Death in Asia

Slave Trade Across the Middle Passage

What could these maps help us discover?

A region has a unifying characteristic, like climate, land, population, or history.

On maps, geographers use color and shape or special symbols to show regions.

Regions

How are these maps different? How can regions changed based on who describes them?

Regions

Globes and Maps:◦As people explored the Earth, they collected information about it.

◦Mapmakers wanted to present this information correctly.

◦The best way was to put it on a globe, a round ball that represented the Earth.

The Geographer’s Tools

◦Because globes are not practical or easy to use to carry, flat maps were invented.

◦However, the earth is round and a map is flat.

◦Mapmakers had to find ways to make maps accurate.

The Geographer’s Tools

The most accurate way to present information on the islands, continents, and bodies of water of the world is to put it all on a globe, a round ball like the Earth itself.

The only difference between a globe and the Earth itself is the scale, or size, represented on the globe.

Globes and Maps

Africa on the Globe

Africa on a Flat Map

Looking at the Flat Map, Would you

Believe that Africa is 3 TIMES LARGER THAN THE U.S.?

How Longitude and Latitude form a Grid on the Earth

The Hemispheres