Download The Five Themes of Geography

The Five Themes of Geography
Location
Place
Human/Environmental
Interaction
Movement
Region
1. LOCATION
Location is the answer to the question
“Where are we?”
2 types of location: relative & absolute
Relative Location
Describes where something or someone
is based on things that can be found
nearby
Example: Kernersville Middle is on
Piney Grove Road near the Quality Mart
“I live on Chinchilla Ave.”
Absolute Location
This is the exact location on the surface
of the Earth where something can be
found
Uses latitude and longitude or a street
address to pinpoint where a site is
located
Example: KMS is at 110 Brown Road,
Kernersville, North Carolina
Using latitude and
longitude, you can
pinpoint an exact spot
on the Earth’s surface.
More commonly, we
use our street address
for our absolute
location.
2. PLACE
This includes the physical and human
features of a location.
Physical Features: includes information
about climate and land forms (hills,
mountains, etc…)
Human Features: buildings, roads,
clothing, food habits, etc…
Physical Features
Things like mountains,
beaches, cliffs, plains and
forests could be used to
describe a place.
Human Features: Buildings
Does your neighborhood look like this one???
Human Features: Clothing
These ladies are all ready for
a special event… can you tell
who is headed to the prom??
Human Features: Food Habits
Is this what you would expect to be served for dinner tonight??
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT
INTERACTION
Three main questions:
How do humans adapt to their
environment?
How do humans affect/modify their
environment?
How do humans depend on their
environment?
How do humans adapt to their
environment?
People wear clothing that is appropriate
for the climate where they live.
Houses are built to meet the needs of
people -- igloos, houses on stilts in
flood prone areas, etc…
Many SE Asian countries terrace farm
due to mountainous terrain.
Humans Adapt
How do humans affect/modify
their environment?
People heat and cool buildings for their
comfort.
Often farmers build dams or irrigation
canals to water their crops.
Pollution has caused acid rain problems
and changes in climate.
Humans Modify
The Hoover Dam was
built to provide
electricity to millions
of Americans. The
dam stops the flow of
the Colorado River
and creates Lake
Mead. When the
doors of the dam are
opened, the water
rushes through and
produces electric
power.
How do humans depend on their
environment?
People depend on the Mississippi River
for transportation of goods.
People depend on the rainy season to
water their crops.
Ancient Egyptians depended on the
flooding of the Nile River to fertilize the
soil for farming.
Humans Depend
Each year, Egyptian farmers await the flooding of the Nile to bring fertile
silt to the land to fertilize their crops.
MOVEMENT
This explains how people, goods and ideas
get from one place to another.
Today, we live in a global community where
information travels much more freely than in
the past.
Inventions/improvements in technology and
transportation have made our world one with
many connections to each other.
Ideas, such as fashion trends, move from
place to place just as goods do.
Ways things move …
REGION
This is an area that has something in
common.
This could be a type of government, a
language, religion, a landform situation,
history, or climate.
The South is a region- people share
common culture traits such as food
choices and language.
Three Types of Regions
Formal Regions: areas defined by
government boundaries (Ex. North Carolina,
Forsyth County, Brazil, etc…)
Functional Regions: areas defined by a
function (Ex. Newspaper route, area
controlled by phone or cable company,
American Airlines service area, etc…)
Vernacular Regions: areas loosely defined by
people’s perception of something in common
(Ex. the South, the Middle East, the MidWest)
Formal Regions
Functional Regions
Pop Warner Football Regions Map
Vernacular Regions