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5 Themes of Geography
•Place
•Location
•Region
•Movement
•Human/Environmental Interaction
5 Themes of Geography
Content Objective
The student will define and explain examples of
the five themes of geography.
All places have attributes that give them meaning and character and
distinguish them from other places on earth. Geographers describe
place by two specific definitions:
Physical Characteristics The physical characteristics of a place make
up its natural environment and are derived from geological, hydrological,
atmospheric, and biological processes. They include land forms, bodies of
water, climate, soils, natural vegetation, and animal life.
Human Characteristics: The human characteristics of a place come
from human ideas and actions. They include bridges, houses, and parks.
Human characteristics of place also include land use, density of population,
language patterns, religion, architecture, and political systems.
All places have characteristics that give them meaning and character and distinguish them from other places on earth.
Geographers describe places by their physical and human characteristics. Physical characteristics include such elements
as animal life. Human characteristics of the landscape can be noted in architecture, patterns of livelihood, land use and
ownership, town planning, and communication and transportation networks. Languages, as well as religious and political
ideologies, help shape the character of a place. Studied together, the physical and human characteristics of places
provide clues to help students understand the nature of places on the earth.
Physical Characteristics
Those physical features about a place that make it unique
Physical Characteristics
Where are these places??
Physical Characteristics
Where would you find these
animals??
Physical Characteristics
What are some of the physical
characteristics that make
Leland unique
Human Characteristics
Human Characteristics: The human characteristics of a place come from human
ideas and actions. They include bridges, houses, and parks. Human characteristics
of place also include land use, density of population, language patterns, religion,
architecture, and political systems.
Human Characteristics
political systems
Human Characteristics
Architecture
Human Characteristics
Human Characteristics
Location is the second theme of Geography. Location
describes where something is, and is broken into two
areas:
Absolute Location: answers the questions: Where is it?
Absolute location is nothing more than a simple dot--often
identified as a grid coordinate on the surface of the earth.
Latitude and Longitude can be used to pinpoint a location. For
example, the absolute location of New Orleans, Louisiana, is 30
degrees north, 90 degrees west. Finding absolute
location is the starting point for geographic research.
Location is the second theme of Geography. Location
describes where something is, and is broken into two
areas:
Relative Location: answers the question of where a place
is located in relation to other places. For example, New
Orleans is located at the place where the Mississippi
River empties into the Gulf of Mexico, which gives it
easy access to ocean and river shipping. Your home has a
relative location. Where is it located in relation to schools,
stores, and convenient transportation?
Absolute Location in practice
Absolute Location in practice
Not very accurate
in the beginning
Absolute Location in practice
Satellite and Global
Positioning Systems
Relative Location in practice
Near what city??
•Regions are created by geographers to helps study place
– to describe and compare them, for example.
•Various features are used to classify a place as a region.
•A region shares the same physical feature(s) — such as
land, climate, natural resources, vegetation — or
cultural feature(s) — such as language, history,
population, or religion.
•Boundaries of regions change, depending on what
characteristic(s) are being examined.
One of the most basic regions used by
geographers is continents.
Regions Based on
Physical Features
Language
Regions
Population Density
and
Ethnic Regions
•The theme of movement addresses this question:
How and why are places connected with one
another?
•Relationships between people in different places
are shaped by the constant movement of people,
ideas, materials, and physical systems such as
wind, climate, and volcanoes.
Movement of People:
Immigration/Emigration, Urbanization, and Population
Movement of Land:
Plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes
Movement of People:
Understanding the patterns of
human movement, the causes,
and outcomes of that
movement, and the process of
that movement
Movement of Land:
•Refers to how people affect their environment.
•Humans adapt to and modify their environment for
survival.
•Different societies interact with their environment
differently. The earth’s vegetation zones, natural
resources, and energy development play a significant
role in the development of a society.
Humans have settled in virtually every corner of the world
by successfully adapting to various natural settings. For
example, people who live in the northeastern United States
use heating units to keep their homes warm in winter People
in the southern part of the country use air conditioning much
of the year to stay cool in the heat. The ways people choose
to adapt to their settings reflect their economic and political
circumstances and their technological abilities.
Desert
How would people
need to adapt to or
modify their
environment to
survive in the
desert?
Desert
Savanna
Tropical
How would people need
to adapt to or modify their
environment to survive in
these other places?
What about here?
Prairie
How have people adapted to or modified these
environoments?
What kinds of modifications are illustrated here?
5 Themes of Geography
•Place
•Location
•Region
•Movement
•Human/Environmental Interaction
5 Themes of Geography
Content Objective
The student will define and explain examples of
the five themes of geography.