Download The Five Themes of Geography

Name________________
Date___________
Section_____
The Five Themes of Geography
With a partner, below list what you think the subject of
geography includes (Think about what you learned about in
Social Studies last year).
Geography-
In their work, geographers are guided by two basic
questions: (1) Where are things located? (2) Why are they
there? To find the answers, geographers use five themes
(topics) to organize information. These themes are
location, place, human-environment interaction,
movement and regions.
Theme 1
I.
________________________- Geographers use this
to study where a place is.
A. Two types of location
1. ____________________- you might call
this a locations geographic address.
Geographers identify absolute location by
using two kinds of imaginary lines around
the earth. These lines are known as
____________________ &
____________________.
a. ______________________- are the
east-west circles around the globe.
They tell us north-south locations.
Latitude lines are also called
__________________ because they
never intersect with each other. In the
middle of the Earth the latitude line is
known as the ________________. This
latitude line divides the Earth into two
equal parts known as the northern
________________ and southern
________________. The equator is
located at _____ latitude. The farthest
latitude north of the equator is 90 N,
this location is called the
______________ ____________. The
farthest latitude south of the equator is
90 S, this location is called the
______________ ____________.
b. ______________________- are the
lines that run from north to south on the
globe. They tell us ______________________ locations. These lines
are also called meridians. All
meridians run through the north and
south poles. The ____________
Meridian runs through Greenwich,
England and is located at ____
longitude. The Prime Meridian divides
the Earth into two equal hemispheres
known as the ___________ &
_____________ hemispheres. The
maximum longitude is 180, which is
halfway around the Earth.
2. _____________________- this explains
where a place is by describing places near
it. Example: New Jersey’s relative location
is directly east of PA along the Atlantic
Coast.
YOUR TURN: Describe Prospect Park’s relative
location.
Theme 2
II.
__________________- this includes a locations
physical and human features. Think of this theme
of how you would describe a place you were
visiting.
A. An example of a places ___________ features
could be climate, landforms, plants or animals.
B. An example of a places ___________ features
could be the people, culture, population, types
of buildings or type of government.
YOUR TURN: Describe the place/city of Philadelphia.
Theme 3
III. ___________-________________ ___________This theme describes how the environment affects
the people living in that particular area and how
people can affect the environment. Geographers
also discuss the consequences of each.
YOUR TURN: Fill out the chart below with how we
affect the environment and how the environment affects
us.
How We affect the
Environment
How the environment
Affects us
Theme 4
IV. ___________________- this theme helps
geographers understand the relationship among
places.
A. It explains how and why people, goods and
ideas move from place to place
1. _________________- problems in a place
that “push” people to move to another
location.
2. _________________-advantages in a place
that “pull” people to a new location.
YOUR TURN: Answer he following questions about
immigration patterns in the United States by using the
theme of movement.
1. What explains the large percentage of people that
speak Spanish in the United States near the U.S.Mexico border?
2. Identify a push factor.
3. Identify a pull factor.
Theme 5
V.
___________________- This theme helps
geographers make comparisons. A region is a group
of places that share a common/unifying
characteristic such as climate, land, population,
language or history.
A. The state of Pennsylvania is located in a larger
region called the Mid-Atlantic region in which
several states are located in the same area with
similar land features and climate.
YOUR TURN: Correctly identify the region or
common/unifying characteristic.
1. California, Oregon and Washington
State are part of a region called the
______________ coast because they have
at least one common characteristic such
as _____________________________.
2. Cape May, Wildwood, Sea Isle, Avalon
and Ocean City are part of the _____
________ _______ because these
locations are beach towns located in New
Jersey.