Download The Five Themes of Geography

The Five Themes of Geography
What is Geography
What are the five themes
How are the five themes used
How will I use this in class
What is Geography?
• Comes from the Greek word
“geographia”—meaning “to describe the
earth”
• Geographers view the world by looking
at how space is used on earth and the
interactions that take place
• Geography is the study of the
distribution and interaction of
physical and human features on the
earth
The Five Themes of Geography
• Tools used in Geography—
Maps, Charts, Graphs, tables,
observations and the five themes
• The themes organize information to make
it easier to study—geography is very
broad
Theme: Location
• Where is it?
• Location can be described either relatively
or absolutely
Absolute Location
• The exact location of
a place on the globe
or map
• To find exact
location you use the
grid system on the
globe or map
• The grid system is
made up of
Longitude and
Latitude lines
Relative Location
• Describing location of one place
in terms or relation to another
place
• McDonalds is one block down
from the Kroger
• Cairo, Egypt is located near the
mouth of the Nile River in Africa
• For relative location to be useful,
you must already have some
grasp of where certain things are
located.
Theme: Place
• What is it like?
• Can be described
physically or culturally
• Physically– mountains,
rivers, lakes, climate,
vegetation
• Culturally– religion,
population, language,
ethnic background
Theme: Region
•
•
How are areas similar or different?
A region is an area of earth’s surface
with similar characteristics—physical,
cultural, economic, or political
• There are Three types of regions
1. Formal
2. Functional
3. Perceptual
Formal Regions
• Defined by a limited number of
related characteristics
• Example: The Sahel region in
Africa is a desert area
characterized by specific climate,
vegetation, and land use patterns
• Political regions– continents,
countries, or states
• Economic regions—The
Breadbasket of the U.S.
• Cultural regions– The Middle East
Functional Regions
• Two or more places connected by
interactions or connections usually through
movement.
• Example: a city and its suburbs connected
by highways, railroads, subways, and bus
lines
Perceptual Regions
• A place in which people perceive, or see, the
characteristics of the region in the same way
Example:
The
South
Theme: Human-Environment
Interaction
• How do people relate
to the physical world?
• Adapting- Humans
changing themselves
to meet the
• Altering– Humans
surrounding
changing the
environment
environment to meet
Example: using
their personal needs
air conditioning in a
Example: Building
hot climate
a dam to control
flooding or cutting down
trees to create farm
land
Theme: Movement
• How do people,
ideas, and products
move from one
location to another?
• Geographers analyze
movement by looking
at three types of
distance: linear
distance, time
distance, and
psychological
distance
Theme: Movement
• Linear Distance: how far a person, idea,
or product moves across the earth
Example: geographers look at how
physical geography can prevent linear
movement (mountains, oceans)
• Time Distance: amount of time it takes for
a person, idea, or product to reach a place
Example: how long did it take for
Christianity to spread, trade of products
Theme: Movement
• Psychological Distance: the way people
view distance. The more familiar you are
with a place the closer it seems to be to
you.