Unit 1: GEOGRAPHY

THE STUDY OF THE EARTH and THE

PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE…

FIVE THEMES OF

GEOGRAPHY

5 Themes• Location

• Place

• Human-Environmental Interaction

• Movement

• Regions

LOCATION: Where is it?

ABSOLUTE LOCATION(mathematical location)

– THE EXACT POINT WHERE A PLACE OR PHYSICAL FEATURE IS LOCATED ON THE EARTH’S SURFACE

– Examples: LATITUDE (parallels) & LONGITUDE (meridians), MAP POINTS, ADDRESS…..

RELATIVE LOCATION(situation)

• DESCRIBES THE LOCATION OF A PLACE IN RELATIONSHIP TO ANOTHER PLACE

• Examples: Cardinal/Intermediate directions, landmarks, words like “near the….”, or turn right at, left

LOCATION: Where is it?

Questions

• 1. What is the difference between absolute and relative location?

• 2. Describe GWCP’s relative location.

PLACE: What is it like?

What are the physical and human/cultural characteristics

of this place?

• Climate, Vegetation, Land/water forms, Resources/industries, People and cultures....

• Toponym – place names

REGIONSGrouping of places that have something

in common and can be given a name based on similar features.

-What is an example of a region?

Types of Regions

• Formal (uniform) regions– Example: Montana

• Functional (nodal) regions– Example: the circulation area of a

newspaper

• Perceptual (vernacular/cultural) regions– Example: the American South

The Gulf Coast Region

Questions

• 3. Apply the theme of place to your neighborhood

• 4. Which type of region do you think is most helpful when learning about a new place?

• 5. What are some examples of a perceptual region?

MOVEMENTHow and why do people, ideas,

products, and events such as disease move from one place

to another?

Movement

- The connections and relations that develop among places and regions as a result of the movement or flow of people, goods, or information

•Transportation networks

•Electronic communications

Diffusion

• The process by which a characteristic spreads across space and over time

• Hearth = source area for innovations

• Two types of diffusion– Relocation– Expansion

• Three types: hierarchical, contagious, stimulus

EXAMPLES

• Exploration and trade routes• Transportation methods / routes • Cultural borrowing/diffusion• Patterns of settlement• Spread of disease (plague)• Migration/immigration

Before

After

Questions

• 9. Economic development through international trade is an example of what type of diffusion? Explain your choice.

• 10. The spread of a new fashion first in large cities, and later to smaller towns is an example of which type of diffusion?

HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION

How do people adapt to and/ or change their environment?

This includes the impact of physical processes like hurricanes, floods, drought…

EXAMPLES:• Wearing cool clothing in hot weather

(adapt)• Building the ship channel to connect

Houston to the Gulf of Mexico (modify)• Dams and bayou flood control projects

(modify)• Using adobe bricks in the dry, desert

areas of Texas (adapt)• Air-conditioning (modify)....

• We depend on our environment

• We adapt to the environment

• We modify the environment