Transcript Unit 1: An Overview of Geography

Friday, August 15th, Warm-up
• In 20 words or more, explain what the
difference is between a primary and a
secondary source.
• When you are finished, count up the
words, write your word count, and circle
it.
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The Five Themes of Geography
• There are five ways to look at the earth
• When geographers work, they are
guided by two basic questions:
1) Where are things located?
2) Why are they there?
To find these answers, geographers use
five themes to organize information
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Things that geographers study:
• oceans
• plant life
• landforms
• people
• how the Earth and its people affect each
other
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The Five Themes:
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?
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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.
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1. Location
• There are two types:
1. Absolute location – describes a place’s
exact position on the Earth.
like using an address, latitude/longitude
2. Relative location – explains where a
place is by describing places near it.
example- the hotel near the beach
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2. Place
– Physical: Unique natural features due to
“mother nature”. (like the climate,
waterfalls, oceans etc.)
– cultural: Unique cultural or man-made
features due to human beings. (like military
bases, monuments, restaurant, buildings)
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3. Human-Environment Interaction
• 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.
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4. Movement
• People: move temporarily or permanently
• Goods: Move as trade between places and
businesses by truck, train, airplanes,
shipping routes…
• Ideas: Move between people and places
by tv, telephone, newspapers, internet…
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5. Regions
• Physical: A region has a unifying characteristic
for the area (like climate, land, mountains,
population, forests, or desert land).
• Cultural: Areas that share similar
cultural/human characteristics (like language,
art, religion, populations, or food)
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