Geography

What is geography?

Geography is the study of the earth’s surface, land, features and people.

Why classify geography into 5 Themes?

The five themes of geography were created to help geographers organize

information.

5 Themes of GeographyLocation

MovementRegionPlace

HEI (Human Environment Interaction)

Location2 types:

Absolute location – Describes an exact spot on earth. This type of location requires latitude and longitude coordinates or a postal address.

Relative location – Describes the position of a place in relation to another place. Uses directions, landmarks, time or distance from one place to another.

Absolute Location

Washington, D.C. is located at 40N latitude and 80W longitude.

Absolute Location

Durant Road Middle school is located at 10401 Durant road, Raleigh, NC 27614.

Relative Locationexamples

• “The hospital is one mile north of Durant Road Middle School.”

• “Take Capital blvd. north. Turn right on Main street. Go about ½ a mile and turn right to get to The Factory.”

• Can you think of an example of relative location?????

PlaceWhat’s it like? The physical and human features

(characteristics) of a location that make it unique. There are 2 categories of place:

1) Physical Features

2) Human Features

Place – Physical FeaturesLandforms, climate, wildlife, natural resources,

architecture, and other factors that make a place unique.

Place – Human FeaturesLanguage, food, religion, ethnicity, clothing, customs

and other factors related to people and how they live.

HEI (Human Environment Interaction)

Describes the ways in which humans interact with the environment. It also describes the effect of the environment on people.

1)Depend2)Adapt3)Modify

HEI – DependPeople involved in farming,

fishing, mining raw materials and tourism DEPEND on the environment to live or make a living.

HEI - Adapt

* This is the most difficult way! It means leaving the environment unchanged.

* Environmentalists, especially those concerned with preserving the wilderness, like to leave the air, water, and land alone. Tourism relies on preserving things as they are.

* People must adjust their lifestyles (clothing, housing, sports) to adapt to the environment in which they live.

* How can climate/weather affect the settlement of people and how they live?? Give an example.

HEI - Adapt

HEI - Modify

Modify means to change in some way. People change the environment when they build roads, bridges, canals, dams, houses, and buildings.

Positive change – Can you think of ways that humans change or modify the environment in a positive (good) way??? Negative (bad) way???

Region

Regions are parts of the world that share one or more common characteristics/features that distinguish it from surrounding areas.

Regions can be defined in many different ways. For example:

1) Language type2) Landform groups (Piedmont, Coastal plain, mountains)3) Government or political regions

Regions

Movement

Includes the movement of people, products/goods, information and ideas within and between countries.

*How do goods/products get from one place to another?

* What methods do people use to communicate ideas and information?

Movement of goods/products

Movement of ideas/information