Download The Five Themes of Geography

THE FIVE THEMES
OF
Our Lens of Study this Term
GEOGRAPHY
LOCATION : POSITION
ON
EARTH’S SURFACE
This geographic theme answers the question:
Where is it?
LOCATION : POSITION
ON
EARTH’S SURFACE
Absolute Location: The exact position of something on Earth’s surface, identified by
using a grid system of latitude and longitude
Relative Location: Relative location is the relationship of one place to other places –
how near or far they are to each other.
PLACE: PHYSICAL AND HUMAN
CHARACTERISTICS
Physical Characteristics come from geographical, hydrological,
atmospheric, and biological processes.
They include: landforms, bodies of water, climate, soils, natural
vegetation, and animal life. They form the natural
environment.
Human Characteristics come from human ideas and actions that result
in changes to the environment.
They include: buildings, farms, and other human environments
that people create.
This geographic theme answers the question:
What’s it like there?
HUMAN/ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS:
SHAPING THE LANDSCAPE
This theme addresses the question: What is the relationship between humans and the environment?
Humans depend on the environment.
o Humans modify the environment.
o Humans adapt to the environment.
o
MOVEMENT: HUMANS INTERACTING
THE EARTH
ON
This theme addresses the question of: How and why are places related to one another?
1)
Movement of People: People travel –moving from one place to another.
2)
Movement of Goods: People rely on goods that come from beyond their own
environment.
3)
Movement of Ideas: People communicate with each other
REGIONS: HOW
THEY
FORM
AND
CHANGE
The study of regions helps us answer the question: How and why is one area similar to
another?
There are three steps to determining a region:
1)
Selecting geographic facts as criteria
2)
Mapping distribution of those criteria
3)
Making boundary decisions