Download The Basics of Geography

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• Make a map of your house and its surrounding
area
– Including landscape, landmarks, businesses, etc….
The Basics of Geography
The Basics of Geography
• Geography- the study of everything on Earth
– From rocks and rainfall to people and places
• Geographers-people who study geography
– How natural environment influences people, how
people affect the Earth, and how the world
changes
Two Main Branches:
Human and Physical
• Human Geography: people study the distribution
and characteristics of the world’s people
– Where they live, work, and ways of life
• Physical Geography: focuses on Earth’s natural
environment
– Landforms, water features, atmosphere, animals,
plants, etc…..
• These two branches link together by how people
interact with their environment
Who uses geography??
YOU DO!!
•How you choose to get to and from school,
hear about other countries, watch the news, use
your phone…
•Most jobs require the use of geography:
– Restaurant owner?
– Politician?
– Clerk at gas station?
The Five Themes of Geography
• Help geographers describe the use of space on
Earth.
• The Five themes of Geography:
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Location: Where is it?
Place: What is it like?
Region: How are places similar or different?
Movement: How do people, goods, and ideas from
one location to another?
– Human-Environment Interaction: How do people
relate to the physical world
Location
• Described in two ways:
– Absolute: the exact place on earth where its found
– Relative: describes a place in comparison to other
places around it
• Absolute Location:
– Geographers use a grid system of imaginary lines
for locating places on earth
– The earth is then organized!
Organizing the Globe
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Latitude
Longitude
Meridians
Parallels
Hemispheres
Continents
Latitude
• Runs East-West
• Measures
distance NorthSouth of
equator
• Also called
parallels
Longitude
• Runs NorthSouth
• Measures
distance EastWest of Prime
Meridian
• Also called
Meridians
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Measure distances in Degrees and Minutes
Latitude= 0-90 N/S
Longitude= 0-180 E/W
Globe is also organized into Hemispheres (4)
– Equator divides globe into North and South
Hemisphere
– Prime Meridian divides globe into Eastern and
Western Hemispheres
Also organized into Continents
Place
• Includes the physical features and cultural
characteristics of a location
– Physical features: climate, landforms, vegetation
– Cultural (human) features: highways, houses,
buildings, etc…
Region
• A region is an area of the earth’s surface with
similar characteristics
• Usually have more than one characteristic that
unifies them
• Geographers categorize regions in three ways
– Formal
– Functional
– Perceptual
Types of Regions
• Formal- Based on any feature or combination of
features
– Physical, economical, etc….
– Examples: United States, The South, the Rocky
Mountains, Europe, South Asia
• Functional- Different places that are linked
together and function as a unit
– Example: City with its suburbs, Shopping Mall
• Perceptual-reflect human feelings and attitudes
– “Back home” easy to know but hard to define exactly
– Dixie: seen in different ways
Human-Environment Interaction
• The relationship between humans and their
environment
• People may view the environment as recreation:
the beach, or they may view the same
environment as an opportunity: grow citrus,
grapes, olives
• People may alter the environment to fit their life
– May drain swamps or dig ditches or cut down trees
Movement
• How goods, people, and ideas move from one
place to another
• Linear distance: how far across the earth a
person, idea, or product travels
• Time distance: amount of time it takes for person,
idea, or product travels
• Psychological distance: the way people view
distance
– As we become familiar with a place we think it is
closer than it actually is
A Geographers Tools
• Maps and Globes
• Oldest known map is a Babylonian clay tablet
created 2,500 years ago
• Maps function: show locations of places,
landforms, and bodies of water
• Globes: three dimensional representation of
earth
• Maps: two dimensional graphic
representation
Types of Maps
• Reference Maps: topographic map- a
representation of natural and man-made
features on earth
• Thematic Maps: Emphasize specific kinds of
information such as climate map or population
map
• Navigation Maps: mostly used by sailors and
pilots
Understanding Maps
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Atlas- collection of maps in one book
Scale
Directional Indicators
Legends
Other Elements