Transcript What in the world is Geography anyway?

World Geography
 8/30/10
Timeline Assessment
 Fold the sentence strip into 8 sections
 Put the dates and information in order as if they
were on a timeline



Earliest dates on the left
Most recent dates on the right
Clue: BC dates are larger toward the left and lower as they get
closer to 0 while AD do the opposite (just like on a number
line)
Dates
 28,000 B.C.: Asian hunters enter North America
 A.D. 1095: Crusades begin
 A.D. 700: The Maya Empire reaches its peak
 10,000 BC: Last Ice Age ends (Ice Age was the




reason the nomadic Asian hunters followed
their food source across the Bering land bridge
into North America
A.D. 1325: The Aztec establish Tenochtitlan in
South America
A.D. 1215: England’s King John signs the Magna
Carta
7,000 B.C.: Farming develops in Mexico
A.D. 1400: Inca Empire begins to expand
What in the world is Geography
anyway?
Discussion
In order to hold discussion, please do not talk over one
another. Raise your hand, stand up, state your name
and your contribution.
 What makes up geography?
 What importance does the land have on humans?
 Why do we need to study these elements of
geography?
5 Themes of Geography
•Place
•Region
•Interaction
(HumanEnvironment)
•Location
•Movement
#1 LOCATION
Where is ____? Where is ____ relative to where I am?
Absolute Location vs. Relative Location
•
•
Absolute or Exact Location-every point on earth has a
specific location determined by latitude and
longitude
• Ex: GPS
Relative Location-where a place is in relation to other
places; deals with the interaction the occurs between
and among places
• Ex: My house is down the street from Sonic
Activity
 Grid
 Coordinates
 Hemispheres
 Latitude and Longitude are imaginary lines that make a
grid across the globe and the coordinates on that grid tell
us exactly where something is located.
 Take turns drawing lines of latitude or longitude on the
Styrofoam ball I am passing around




Start with the Equator (0 degrees latitude)
Tropic of cancer (23 ½ degrees North of Equator)
Tropic of capricorn (23 ½ degrees South of Equator)
Prime meridian (0 degrees longitude)
Northern/
Western
Northern/
Eastern
Southern/
Western
Southern/
Eastern
#2 PLACE
•
•
•
What does _____ look like? Why? How is it
different from _____?
All places have characteristics that give them
meaning and character that distinguish them from
other places on earth.
Geographers describe places by their physical and
human characteristics
•
•
Human Characteristics
• Architecture, patterns of livelihood, land use and
ownership, town planning, communication and
transportation networks, language, religious, and
political ideologies
Physical characteristics
• Landforms, animal life, etc.
Activity
 Make a circle map
 Inside circle- put your neighborhood, home, or
school
 Outside circle-put characteristics of the place-be sure
to include physical and human characteristics
 Square-What makes your place different from other
ones in the area?
#3 INTERACTION
What human-environment relationships are occurring?
How do they affect the place and its inhabitants?
Environment means different things to different people,
depending on their cultural backgrounds and technological
resources
 When studying human/environment interaction,
geographers look at all the effects-positive and negative-that
occur when people interact with their surroundings
Studying the consequences of human/environment
interaction helps people plan and manage the environment
responsibly
Human acts, like damming a river to prevent flooding or
provide irrigation, requires consideration of the potential
consequences
Ex:
Hoover dam-changed landscape but created a reservoir that helps
provide water and electric power for the arid Southwest
Activity
 Make a list of things you would want in order to have
a good life.
 Which of those things do you really need?
 How many of those things can be found in the
natural environment?
 Which things must be made by people?
#4 MOVEMENT
•
•
•
•
What has this spatial pattern developed? Will it
continue to change? What does it mean for the
places involved?
People interact with other people, places, and things
almost every day of their lives. They travel from one
place to another, the communicate with each other,
and they rely upon products, information, and ideas
that come from beyond their immediate
environment.
Need to be able to recognize where resources are
located, who needs them, and how they are
transported over the earth’s surface.
You are connected with, and depend on other
regions, cultures, and people in the world
Activity
 How do different ideas travel from one place to
another? (Music, literature, folk tales)
 How do people react-personally, professionally,
politically, technologically-when they are able to
freely communicate with one another?
 In what ways are people prevented from
experiencing the movement of ideas? (Censorship,
Geographic barriers, language barriers)
 What happens when people are not able to
communicate?
#5 REGION
•
•
•
•
•
An area on the earth’s surface that is defined by
certain unifying characteristics (Formal region)
• Ex: Scottish Highlands
An area on earth believed to exist as part of a
cultural identity (Perceptual region)
• Ex: Southern Region=country music and
confederates
The unifying characteristics may be physical,
human, or cultural
Along with unifying characteristics, geographers
study how a region changes over times
Using regions, divides the world into manageable
units for study
Activity
 United States Climatic Regions
 Desert
 Tundra
 Tropical
 Humid subtropical
 Highland
 Mediterranean
 Humid continental
 Need to know: Time zones
 Why do time zones exist?
 How do time zones affect your lives?
 What happens when we fly from place to place?
 What time is it right now in other parts of the world?
http://www.worldtimezone.com/
HOMEWORK
 “Understanding Timelines” Worksheet
 Due next class period
EXPECTATION FOR LEAVING
 In this class….You will NOT leave until everyone is
seated, quiet, and trash is picked up off the floor
NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!!!!
Stack up papers neatly in the middle of the groups…I
will pick up as I dismiss your table…seated, quiet,
and clean