5 Themes of Geography Notes:

Mrs. Miles’ Social Studies Class

What is Geography?

What is Geography?

Geography is the study of Earth’s surface, lands, features and people.

What are the five themes of Geography?

The five themes of geography are location, place, region, human environmental interaction (HEI) and movement.

Why were the 5 themes of Geography created?

Why were the 5 themes of Geography created?

The five themes of geography were created by Geographers to help them organize information.

The First Theme: Location

How would you define the word location? Give me some examples of locations.

Location

Location answers the question “Where are we?”

In the 5 themes of Geography there are two types of locations: Relative and Absolute locations.

Absolute Location:

Absolute location: describes an exact place on earth. It requires latitude and longitude coordinates. It can give you a global location (using latitude and longitude) or a local location (street address).

Relative Location:

Relative location describes the position of a place in relation to another place. The position can be described using landmarks, directions, time or distance from one place to another.

With your neighbor, describe the relative location of Durant Road Middle School. Be prepared to share with the class your description

Relative vs. Absolute Location:

Relative location: locations described directions, time, landmarks or distance.

Example: Tennessee is west of

North Carolina

Absolute location: gives a specific form of location.

Example: The White House is

located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington D.C. 20500

Relative Location Absolute Location

Place:

Place is defined as an area that has features that distinguish them from other places. Places are unique.

Place describes the human and physical characteristics of a location.

Place – Physical Features

Landforms, climate, wildlife, natural resources, architecture, mountains, rivers and other factors that make a place unique.

Place – Human Features

Language, food, religion, ethnicity, clothing, customs, government and other factors

Critical Thinking:

What is the difference between location and place?

Human Environmental Interaction (HEI):

HEI looks at the relationship between people and their environment.

3 categories of HEI: depend, adapt and modify

What are some examples of how we depend upon, adapt and modify our environment?

HEI Activity:

Get out a sheet of paper. You are going to listen to the story The

Lorax by Dr. Seuss. You are going to write down examples of

HEI.

Region:

A region is an area that is defined by certain similar characteristics. Those similar characteristics can be physical, natural, human or cultural.

Have you heard about or can you name any examples of regions?

Regions are a way to describe and compare places

Region:

Regions can be defined in many different ways. For example:

1.) Language type2.)Landform groups (Piedmont, Coastal

plain, mountains)3.)Government or political regions

Regions

Movement:

Movement describes how people, products/goods, information and ideas move from in between countries. (or from one place to another)

*How do ideas and information move?

*How do products/good move?

*How do people move?

Movement of goods/products

Movement of ideas/information