Download the five themes of geography

Gifted World Geography Summer Reading Assignment For
Incoming 9th Grade Students
Level of Difficulty: 9th Grade Pre-AP World Geography
Five readings: (links on p. 5 )
1. To Build a Fire by Jack London
2. Hidden Assets by Ginny Swart
3. An Indian Odyssey by David Iglehart
4. Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
5. A Handful of Dates by Tayeb Saleh
These short stories are diverse in both their setting and their subject matter. Each
was chosen for what it can help World Geography students understand about the
themes of geography as well as the various cultures of the world. Each Gifted World
Geography student will need to complete the following:
I. Read and familiarize yourself with each of the five stories, as well as the
background material concerning the Themes of Geography.(p. 3-4)
II. To promote vocabulary development, choose ten words from each of the stories
that you either did not know or did not know in the context used. Type those 50
words along with their definitions. Use 12-point Times New Roman font. You may
use a dictionary or an online source such as dictionary.com to look up the
definitions. Do not simply cut and paste...actually work to develop knowledge of
these new words as you work to develop your own personal and academic
vocabulary.
III. Choose two of the prompts below to write about. Answers are to be typed in 12point Times New Roman font. Each answer should be no less than 750 words and no
more than 1200 words. Please include the word count at the end of each essay.
A. To Build A Fire by Jack London
1. Write an essay in which you explain the positive and negative humanenvironment interactions found in the story. Give specific examples of ways the
environment helps and hurts humans, as well as specific examples of ways humans
help and hurt the environment. Explain whether you feel the story best
demonstrates positive human- environment interaction or negative humanenvironment interaction and explain your answer.
B. Hidden Assets by Ginny Swart
1. Examine the reading for the concept of movement. Look at the variousitems that
move in the story as well as how and why they are moved. In an essay explain the
various types of movement you found. Give examples of different ways people and
goods moved as well as the different motives for the movement. Then, choose one
particular example of movement found within the story and explain whether you
feel it was positive for the society or negative for the society. Fully explain your
answer.
C. An Indian Odyssey by David Iglehart
1. In an essay compare and contrast the physical and human features of
place found in the story to the physical and human features of place in Midland,
Texas. (If you were not in Midland for school last year you may use the place from
which you have moved.) Give specific examples of ways the lives of the characters in
the story are different than yours based upon the differences in the physical and
human features of place. Also, give examples of ways the lives of the characters are
similar to yours.
D. Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
1. Part of the concept of place is the idea of perception...how a person views a place
or other people. In an essay explain the perceptions found in the story. Give specific
examples of positive and negative perceptions the police officer has toward the
Burmans and that the Burmans have toward the police officer. Then, explain
whether you feel the concept of perception played a role in the actions of the police
officer concerning the elephant. Give specific examples to support your answer.
E. A Handful of Dates by Tayeb Saleh
1. In an essay explain two ways you feel the setting of the story qualifies
as a functional region. Give specific examples as support. Also, look at the setting of
the story as a perceptual region. Using the reading and your knowledge of world
events in your lifetime, explain how the perceptions of the characters of the story
about their home would likely differ than the perceptions of the average American
about the place described in the story. Use specific examples in support of your
answer.
THE FIVE THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY
The following explanations are meant to help you understand the five themes of
geography.
LOCATION
"Where are we?" is the question that the theme location answers. Location may be
absolute or it may be relative. These locations, whether relative or absolute, may be
of people or places.
An absolute location is a latitude and longitude (a global location) or a street
address (local location). Examples: Paris, France is 48o51' North latitude and 2.20'
East longitude
Marshall Islands are 10o00' North latitude and 165o00' East longitude
Relative locations are described by landmarks, time, direction or distance from one
place to another and may associate a particular place with another. Examples: Over
by Dallas. Down by the coast.
PLACE
What kind of place is it? What do you think of when you imagine India? Alaska?
South Africa? Burma? The Sudan?
Places have both human and physical characteristics, as well as images.
Physical characteristics include mountains, rivers, soil, beaches, wildlife and climate
to name a few. Places have human characteristics also. These characteristics are
derived from the ideas and actions of people that result in changes to the
environment, such as buildings, roads, clothing, religion and food habits to name a
few.
The image people have of a place is based on their experiences, both intellectual and
emotional. People's descriptions of a place reveal their values, attitudes, and
perceptions.
How is your hometown connected to other places? What are the human and
physical characteristics of Midland? How do these shape our lives?
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION (HEI)
How do humans and the environment affect each other? We change the
environment...sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. The
environment also impacts us in the same way. Sometimes the environment benefits
human society and sometimes it destroys human society. People depend on the
environment for many things. They adapt to the environment in some cases and
they change the environment to meet their needs in other cases. All places on Earth
have advantages and disadvantages for human settlement. One person's advantage
may be another person's disadvantage. Some like the excitement of large cities
whereas others prefer remote areas. Environment is not just trees, rivers, prairie
dogs and rain forests. Environment is a feeling. There is a big difference between the
environment of Dallas and the environment of Stanton.
MOVEMENT
The movement of people, goods, ideas and elements of culture have all played major
roles in shaping our world. People everywhere interact. They travel from place to
place and they communicate. We live in a global village and global economy. All of
this interaction and informational exchange happens through movement. The ways
people, goods and ideas move have changed dramatically over time, but the fact that
movement occurs has remained a constant.
Three parts of movement are: Time Distance, Linear Distance and Psychological
Distance
Time distance is the time it takes to go from point-A to Point-B. Linear distance is
the distance in some unit (miles, meters, etc.) from Point-A to Point-B. Psychological
distance involves how close or far away something or someplace seems or feels.
These factors each exert great influence over decisions made concerning human
activities.
REGION
A region is the basic unit of study in geography. A region is an area that displays
some kind of unity in terms of the government, language, or possibly the landform
or situation. Regions are human constructs that can be mapped and analyzed. There
are three basic types of regions.
Formal regions are those defined by governmental or administrative boundaries (i.
e., United States, Midland County, North America).
Functional regions are those defined by a set of interactions or connections (i. e., a
newspaper service area, cities like Midland and Odessa that are close together and
have many commuters back and forth, the Permian Basin, etc.) If the function ceases
to exists, the region no longer exists.
Perceptual (or vernacular) regions are those loosely defined by people's perception.
People’s perceptions differ, so the characteristics of these regions can be viewed
differently. (i. e., The Northeast: some view that region as cold and snobby, while
others view it as open and close-knit. Some view the Permian Basin as a region that
keeps America running through the oil industry, while others look negatively
on any area that produces fossil fuels.)
Links to the five assigned readings:
1. http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html
2. http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/HiddAsse.shtml
3. http://www.en8848.com.cn/e/DoPrint/?classid=500&id=52940
4. http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/
5. http://www.arabworldbooks.com/Readers2004/articles/handfulofdates.html