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Geography 7
Introduction to Geography
Cardinals!
The Global World
Artic
Ocean
ASIA
N. America
Europe
Atlantic
Ocean
Pacific
Ocean
Africa
Pacific
Ocean
Indian
Ocean
S.
America
Australia
Southern Ocean
Antarctica
The New Global World – Region
Artic
Ocean
Russia and
Eurasian Republic
N. America
Europe
Atlantic
Ocean
Modern Middle East
M. America
Pacific
Ocean
S.
America
Sub-Sahara
N. America
Africa
S.
Asia
E. Asia
Indian
Europe
Ocean
Pacific
Ocean
S. E. Asia
Oceania
Australia
Southern Ocean
Antarctica
What is Geography?
 Geography is the study of everything on Earth, from
rocks and rainfall to people and places.
 Geographers study how the natural environment
influences people, how people’s activities affect Earth, and
how the world is changing.
 Geographer’s must look at many different things,
including cities, cultures, population, political, economical,
natural resources, and the physical environment.
 Geographer’s focus on “where” things are and “why”
they are there
 Geographer’s organize materials by place, because they
understand that something happening at one place can
result from something that happened elsewhere and can
affect conditions at other places
What is Geography?
 Misconceptions of geography:
 Merely memorizing lists of countries and state
capitals
 Studying rocks and soil
 Looking at maps and pictures of faraway places
Section I
History of Geography
 The word geography, invented by the ancient Greek
scholar Eratosthenes. Geography is based on two Greek
words, Geo meaning “Earth” and graphy meaning “to
write”.
 Geography is one of the oldest human activities.
 An early geographic activity was as simple as a man
taking a journey – deep into the jungle or desert, climbing a
hill or mountain or merely crossing a river and inform
his/her fellow tribesmen of what was on the other side.
 Today everyone uses geography in some form – drawing
a map to their house, watching the weather channel and
even judging migration.
The Six Essential Elements
1. The World in Spatial Terms: Dividing the World into
manageable sizes.
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Continents
Oceans
Grids
Hemispheres
Artic
Ocean
ASIA
N. America
Atlantic
Ocean
Pacific
Ocean
Europe
Africa
Pacific
Ocean
Indian
Ocean Australia
S.
America
Antarctica
The Six Essential Elements
The world in Spatial Terms includes Location (Where a
place is.) Location can be described two ways:
1. Absolute Location: The exact location on the
Earth. This is determined by using the imaginary
geographic grid of parallels (lines of latitude) and
meridians (lines of longitude).
Prime Meridian
Equator
Equator
Section I
The Six Essential Elements
 The Second way Location can be described is in
terms of
2. Relative Location: It is merely a reference to a
place by using a more familiar location.
Example: Next to Publix, On Wickham, in Florida,
Off the Coast of Florida, three houses down on the
left
Section I
The Six Essential Elements
2. Places and Regions:
a. Places: the description of the characteristics
(human or physical) of a location.
 Such as landforms, climate, animal life, human
population.
b. Regions: A number of places united that have one
or more common characteristic.
 Rocky Mountains, tornado alley, The West
Coast, The Great Plains
Section I
The Six Essential Elements
2. Places and Regions:
Section I
The Six Essential Elements
3. Physical Systems: All the physical activity of the
environment.
 Flooding, earthquakes, mountains, rivers,
volcanoes, and weather patterns.
The Six Essential Elements
4. Human Systems: People are central to geography. Our
activities, movements and settlements shape Earth’s
surface.
 Farming vs ranching
 Migration patterns
 Wars
 Governments
 Religions
 Movement-People move for many reasons
including new jobs, to attend special schools, to be
closer to family, to move away from a place (Dust
Bowl), or to move to a place (Gold Rush)
 The movement of ideas or behaviors from one
place to another is called diffusion.
The Six Essential Elements
5. Environment and Society: Human-Environment
Interaction Geographers study how people and their
surroundings affect each other
1. Geographers study how humans depend on their
physical environment to survive
2. Geographers study how humans change their behavior
to be better suited to an environment
3. How humans change the environment
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Flooding
Farming
Hurricane Katrina
The Dust Bowl
The Six Essential Elements
6. The uses of geography: Putting it all together.
Analyzing past events to help us prevent future events.
 Developing transportations networks
 Migration
Who Uses Geography
 Everyone!
 We use it by finding our way to a new place – a
friend, restaurant, amusement park
 When we watch the news – Israel invades Lebanon
 Planning a vacation
 What to wear – shorts vs pants, jacket, sunglasses
 Athletes – winds, sun, rain, temperature, slope of the
field
 Professions:
 Cartographers – the study of maps and mapmaking,
maps are an essential part of geography
 Meteorology – the study of weather, forecasting
 Government – FBI, CIA military study countries
cultures and physical characteristics
 Teachers – develop new geographers
Section I