Download What is geography? - Clear Falls High School AP US History World

World Geography
5 Themes of
Geography
what is geography?
• Who can tell me what is geography?
• Geography is the study of everything
on Earth!
With a partner,
can you divide
what
is geography?
these items into 2 equal groups?
What would you title each of your
groups?
–
–
–
–
–
Rocks
People
Rainfall
Animals
Cities
–
–
–
–
–
Religions
Agriculture
Rivers
Languages
Deserts
2 Branches of Geography
•
•
•
•
•
Rocks
Rainfall
Animals
Rivers
Deserts
Physical
Geography
•
•
•
•
•
People
Cities
Religions
Agriculture
Languages
Human
Geography
what is geography?
• Geography is a spatial science
• Spatial behavior of people
• Spatial relationships between
places
• Spatial processes that create or
maintain those behaviors and
relationships
Spatial, spatial, spatial
-adjective
1. of or pertaining to space.
2. existing or occurring in space;
having extension in space
Spatial, spatial, spatial
• OK, try this:
• Slap the desk of your neighbor.
• What happened in the room?
Say Hello to PLIRM
The 5 Themes of Geography
Place
Location
Interaction (Human/Environment)
Region
Movement
Five themes of geography: Place
1) Place: the distinctive and distinguishing
physical and human characteristics of
locales
 Questions: What does ____ look like?
Why? How is it different from ____?
five themes of geography: Place
• Every place has characteristics that
are man-made as well as having
those that nature provides.
Examples of Physical or Natural include: weather,
climate, natural vegetation, landforms, bodies of
water, native animal life, etc.
Examples of Human and Cultural include: jobs and
economic activities, population distribution and
density, religion, government, food, types of
homes, education, history, language, etc.
five themes of geography: Place
• Every place is a place – we study the
character and meaning of that place
• We have a “Sense of Place” (ex: the
feeling of home).
• We have a “Perception of Place”
(even if you’ve never been
somewhere, you think you know what
it’s like from TV, movies, others,
pictures, etc.
Five themes of geography: Location
2) Location: the meaning of absolute and
relative position on the earth's surface


Vocab : Global Positioning Systems (GPS),
scale, latitude and longitude, distance
Questions: Where is ____? Where is ____
relative to where I am?
Relative and absolute location
• Everyone Stand up!
• Tell the person next to you:
• Where you live?
(not exact address of course… creepers!)
• That is an example of Relative location!
Location:
Clear Falls High School
• 29.5193716
degrees
North
• 95.014818
degrees
West
Latitude and
Longitude is
absolute
location!
Five themes of geography: INTERACTION
3) Interaction (Human/Environment):
This is how people ADAPT to their
environment.
EX: People that move to a cold climate
would have to change their style by
buying warmer clothes.
Also…
Five themes of geography: INTERACTION
How people CHANGE the
environment!
EX: Building subdivisions on what was
once a forest or building levees
along rivers.
Five themes of geography: Regions
• Region- an area with one or more
common features that make it
different from surrounding areas.
Five themes of geography: Regions
A region can be a place united by
PHYSICAL conditions.
EX: A desert, forest, mountain range,
plain, or a coast can be described
as a region
Five themes of geography: Regions
A region can also be somewhere that
is united by SIMILAR cultural traits.
EX: A place that is largely populated
by people of the Muslim religion
would be considered a region.
Can a place be
included in more
than one region?
Five themes of geography: Movement
5) Movement: patterns and change in
human spatial interaction on the earth
EX: A family goes on vacation and leaves
from Houston to go to Washington D.C.,
they must physically move there
Or…..
EX: You simply go to a friends house to
hang out
Also…..
Five themes of geography: Movement
Movement is the exchange of goods
and ideas.
Ex: UPS moves goods across the
country without people actually
coming into direct contact
Worldwide Net Migration
PLIRM
PLIRM
Day 2
Types of Regions
Five themes of geography: Regions
4) Regions: how they form and change
– Formal Regions
• Regions defined by governmental or administrative boundaries
(States, Countries, Cities)
• Regions defined by similar characteristics (Corn Belt, Rocky Mountain
region, Chinatown).
– Functional Regions
• Regions defined area organized around a NODE or focal point
(newspaper service area, cell phone coverage area, subway).
– Vernacular/Perceptual Regions
• Regions defined by peoples perception of something existing based
on people’s cultural identity (middle east, the south, or home.)
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
Skills: Synthesis, application
Questions: How has this spatial pattern
developed? Will it continue to change?