Transcript HowGeographyWorks 16x

How Geography Works
How to think like a
geographer
Vocabulary
• Spatial- relating to, occupying, or having the character of space
• Phenomenon- a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen
• Location- where something is
• Place- all the things in a location
• Space• how the things in a place interact
• distance between places
Geography: The art and science of:
determining what is there,
understanding why it is there,
categorizing it with other places, and
describing how things appear on the
planet.
So what is the process?
•Anything you can map has a spatial
property and you can describe it with:
• Areal Distribution
• Density: how many things are in an area
• Dispersion: how far apart are the things
• Diffusion: how things spread
• Pattern: how things are arranged
Notice the mathematical basis for the above. Yes, geographers like to count.
So…
Figure A
Figure B
Figure C
Figure D
Which area has the highest density?
Which area has the least density?
Which area has the most equidistant dispersion?
Figure E
So…
Figure A
Figure B
Figure C
Figure D
Which area has the highest density? D
Which area has the least density? A
Which area has the most equidistant dispersion? D
Can you think of a name for each pattern?
Figure E
So…
Linear
Rectangular
Triangular
Circular
Random
Give some real world examples of these patterns.
Note on using words correctly:
When describing patterns you could say like a line or linear, or like a circle or circular.
Saying the pattern is a line or a circle is incorrect.
Sorry, that’s just the way it is.
So…
So how could these patterns diffuse (spread out)?
There are two major categories of diffusion:
Expansion &
Relocation
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Go to the Teacher Made PowerPoints
for more detail.
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Categories:
things regarded as having particular shared characteristics
• Find 3 different ways to categorize the following things in 2-3 groups:
Aardvark
Alpaca
Baseball
glove
Binder
Cat
Caramel
Chicken
nuggets
Cockroach
Emerald
Football
Fork
Frog
Glasses
Hammer
Hose
Jack-o-lantern
Knife
Octopus
Opossum
Orange tree
Orangutan
Orchid
Paper
Potato
Razor
Saw
Shawl
Shovel
Tomato
Uniform
Vanilla bean
Watermelon
So if you can put these things in in a particular area
you can create a region.
Regions:
Regions are categories of similar places.
macro regions often share the same
language
religion
ethnicity
micro regions would share
a specialized purpose (delivery area)
accents
beliefs
customs
Some Regions of the World
Eastern
Europe
Western
Europe
North
America
North
Africa
Latin
America
Middle
East
SubSaharan
Africa
South
Asia
East
Asia
Southeast
Asia
Regions can be based on different characteristics
Which of these
maps cover the
most/least area?
So how would a geographer
describe this?
Scale
• a : a proportion between two sets of dimensions (as
between those of a drawing and its original)
• b : a distinctive relative size, extent, or degree
When do you use different scale maps?
Large scale maps Small scale maps
• cover small areas and give a • cover large areas and have
little detail
great amount of detail.
• Used when you need to find • Used when you want to find
or examine a relative
or examine an exact
location
location
Finding distance on a map
• Find the scale for the map you're going to
use - it might be a ruler-looking bar scale or
a written scale, in words or numbers.
• Use a ruler to measure the distance between
the two places. If the line is quite curved,
use a string to determine the distance and
then measure the string.
• If the scale is a representative fraction (and
looks like 1/100,000 or 1:100,000), multiply
the distance of the ruler by the denominator,
giving distance in the ruler units. If the scale
is a word statement (i.e. "One centimeter
equals one kilometer") then determine the
distance.
• For a graphic scale, you'll need to measure
the graphic and divide the scale into the
measured units on the ruler.
• Convert your units of measurement into the
most convenient units for you (i.e. convert
63,360 inches to one mile)
How do geographers
use this stuff?
Pick any problem
facing a group of
people.
To answer these
questions you have to
have some background
knowledge.
4. What other things appear in these
patterns?
5. What processes are probable causes this
distribution?
6. What and how can you test for validity?
Prediction makes it valuable!
Name occupations and/or
businesses that rely on
geography to be successful.
Give criteria the different
businesses would use.
After this Power Point you should be able to:
Explain the difference between place and location (and from years of experience, this
is a common problem).
Know what geographers are looking for (basically things that you can count).
Understand that a thing that humans do is categorize (lump things together), and
some categories make sense and others, well, not so much.
Be able to come up with the patterns some phenomena commonly appears. If they
can be placed in particular areas you can describe this by creating regions.
You can map these regions and show these relationships/patterns.
Now that you’ve done all this you can make generalizations like, “this is a good place”,
or “these things generally are found in this arrangement”.
Finally you have something you can actually use. Now if you are looking for a thing
you have an idea where to find it, or if you change a particular location this will
probably happen”.
If you can do this you are thinking like a geographer.