Download The 5 Themes of Geography - Chandler Unified School District

Mapping & Geography
“Writing the World”
geo = world or earth
graph = to write or to chart
Part I Themes of Geography
What is geography?
Geography is: the study or charting of the
Earth
Geography is much more than just knowing your
states, continents or different countries.
• Those are just the basics of really learning
about the geography of the world you live in.
• What are the 7 continents, 4 oceans,
Hemispheres, Equator, Prime Meridian,
North/South Pole. What is a compass rose?
The World “divided”
Geographers are guided by two
basic questions:
1) Where are things located?
2) Why are they there?
• The answers to these questions can be
organized according to the
5 themes: (MR LIP) movement, regions,
location, interaction between man &
environment, and place.
MOVEMENT
How are people, goods, and ideas
moved?
1. Transportation (railroads, ships, planes)
2. Communications (Twitter, telephones,
computers, TV)
3. Mass Migration
REGIONS
How are areas linked together? (Unifying
Common Characteristics)
1. Political (Palestine, Middle East)
2. Physical Features (climate zones,
deserts)
3. Cultural features (languages, religions)
• What are the Regions?
LOCATION
• Geographers begin a study of a place by
describing its location. There are two
types of location: absolute and relative.
• Absolute location can be found by using
latitude and longitude to pinpoint a
place’s absolute, or exact, location.
• Relative location shows where a place is
in relation to other places
INTERACTION
(Human & Environment)
How do people relate to their
environment?
1. How do people depend on their
environment (farming, fishing, mining)
2. How do people adapt to their
environment? (igloos, irrigation, clothing)
3. How do people change the environment?
(roads, canals, harbors)
PLACE
What is it like?
1. Climate (humid, tropical)
2. Physical features (mountains Mt.
Everest, rivers Nile River, vegetation.
3. Man-made features (buildings, dams,
bridges) Hoover Dam
4. Human characteristics (food, clothing,
language) Navajo Code Talkers
A. Location
B. Place
C. Movement
D. Region E. Interaction (human/Environment
1.____ Great Plains used to be a wide open area with no settlements or farms.
Today towns and cities dot the Great Plains, and much of the land is used for
farming
2. ____ Areas that receive very little rainfall are called deserts.
3._____ Texas is south of Oklahoma.
4._____ Hawaii is made up of islands and it offers a variety of tourist attractions
5. _____ Goods are shipped in large tractor-trailer trucks across interstate
highways.
6. _____ Maine has many different economic areas including heavy forests and
tourist areas.
7. _____ The country of Guam is at 13 degrees N. Latitude,
145 degrees E. longitude
8. ____ One way to communicate information is to write letters to our friends
And relatives.
9. ____ The building of new houses on areas that had always been forests
frequently makes it difficult for animals to find homes
10.____ Swiss Chalets and high mountains called the Alps are two of the ways
we can identify the country of Switzerland
Answers
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•
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1. E
2. D
3. A
4. B
5. C
6. D
7. A
8. C
9. E
10. B
Mapping & Geography
“Writing the World”
• geo = world or earth
• graph = to write or to chart
• Part 2
Mapping and Location
Globes and Maps
A globe is a round,3-d model of the
earth that is spherical and 3-D
• Most accurate view of the Earth is a
Globe but it is not practical
• A map is 2-dimensional view of the
world. It is more detailed but is
distorted (shapes change)
• Cartography or mapping is the study or
practice of making maps.
• Cartographers or mapmakers are the
people who do this
•flat maps are forced to exaggerate some sense
of scale, or size
Mercator’s Projection
Map
• Mercator projection (method of putting a map of the
Earth onto a flat piece of paper)
• still used by sailors today
• Geographer-Gerhardus Mercator created a flat map
(in 1569) to help sailors navigate long distances
around the globe.
• To make flat he expanded the area between
longitudes near the poles. This distorts size, for
example, on Mercator’s map, Greenland looks bigger
than South America when it is only one eighth the
size. (not)
Robinson’s Projection
Map
• Arthur Robinson’s projection shows
the size and shape of the land quite
accurately.
• Some Geographers think it is one of
the best World map’s available
• However, even a Robinson projection
has distortions (in areas around the
edges of the map).
Map Projections
• Other techniques have been tried
but it’s like the ripped peel of an
orange
• By creating gaps in the picture of
the world, mapmakers showed
the size and shape of land
accurate, but the gaps made it
impossible to figure distances
correctly.
Effects of Latitude
• lines of latitude, are imaginary east-west
circles around the globe.
• The lines divide the Earth into regions
according to the amount of sunlight they
receive.
• Equator is a latitude line that circles the
Earth exactly halfway between the North and
South Poles, or zero degrees
• Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn
are at 23.5 degrees N. and S.
• These two lines are called the low
latitudes, or the tropics. Because this
region receives direct sunlight throughout the
year, it is almost always hot.
High Latitudes
• high latitudes, or polar zones.
Receive no direct sunlight, it is
often bitterly cold there.
• far north of the Equator - Arctic
Circle.
• Far south of the Equator lies the
Antarctic Circle
Middle Latitudes
• In between is called Middle
Latitudes of the northern and
southern hemispheres, or temperate
zones
• middle latitudes have seasons: spring,
summer, fall, and winter.
• these areas receive fairly direct
sunlight and at other times of year,
they receive fairly indirect sunlight.
Vocab of Mapping
• Lines of latitude are also called
parallels, because they are parallel to
one another running east and west.
• Lines of longitude (imaginary lines
that circle the globe from north to
south) are also called meridians.
• All longitude lines begin and end at
the North and South poles. The Prime
Meridian, which runs through
Greenwich, England, is 0 degrees
longitude.
Parts of a Map
• compass rose, a figure on a map or
nautical chart used to display the
cardinal directions
• cardinal directions: north, south, east,
and west
• scale - tells what a certain distance on the
map stands for
• symbols are explained in the key, or
legend.
• grid. uses lines to make rows and
columns on a map Some maps use a
grid of latitude and longitude lines
Types of Maps
• Political maps: No physical features.
Includes state and national boundaries
or countries boundaries.
• Road maps: show major—some
minor highways—and roads, airports,
railroad tracks, cities and other points
of interest in an area.
• Topographic: includes shape and
elevation of an area. steep or flat
terrain.
Physical and Political Map of AZ
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