UNIT 1:UNIT 1:Texas GeographyTexas Geography

Understanding the physical Understanding the physical and human characteristics of and human characteristics of

our stateour state

Era of Natural Texas and Its PeopleEra of Natural Texas and Its People

• What is an era? A fixed period of time characterized by particular events, features, developments, or people.

• Why do historians divide history into eras? Historians divide history into eras in order to create blocks of time that have similar characteristics in order to organize and present information about the past.

Era of Natural Texas and Its PeopleEra of Natural Texas and Its People

• TEKS 1A– Identify the major eras in Texas history, describe their

defining characteristics, and explain why historians divide the past into eras, including Natural Texas and its People; Age of Contact; Spanish Colonial; Mexican National; Revolution and Republic; Early Statehood; Texas in the Civil War and Reconstruction; Cotton, Cattle, and Railroads; Age of Oil; Texas in the Great Depression and World War II; Civil Rights and Conservatism; and Contemporary Texas

6 Geographical Questions6 Geographical Questions• Location

• Place

• Regions

• Human-Environment Interaction

• Human Systems

• Physical Systems

LocationLocation – Where is it? – Where is it?• Absolute Location – The exact

location of a place on the earth’s surface

• Relative Location – The location of a place in relation to other places

• The Absolute location and Relative location of Texas affect it in many ways – How has Texas’ relative location to Mexico affected it?

Latitude and LongitudeLatitude and Longitude

Latitude Longitude

Using Latitude and LongitudeUsing Latitude and Longitude

• The Absolute Location of a place is given using latitude and longitude coordinates

• Coordinates are written using a numerical measurement and a directional label.

• Latitude is given first followed by longitude

• (29° N, 95° W) is the approximate location of Kingwood on the earth’s surface

PlacePlace – What is it like? – What is it like?• Place refers to the physical and

human characteristics of a location

• Physical Characteristics include:– Landforms, Climate, plants, animals

• Human Characteristics include:– Language, Religion, Architecture,

Music, Politics, ways of life

Physical CharacteristicsPhysical Characteristics

Human CharacteristicsHuman Characteristics

RegionsRegions – – How does it compare to other places?How does it compare to other places?

• Geographers divide areas into regions in order to better study them.

• Regions are places that are united based on common characteristics

• Regions can be based on physical, human, business and other characteristics

4 4 NaturalNaturalRegionsRegions

of of TexasTexas

Human-Environment InteractionHuman-Environment Interaction How do humans react to their environment and

how does it affect them?• How people use, adapt to, or change their

surroundings and how the physical environment often affects humans

• Ex: Pollution

Deforestation

Hurricanes/Tornadoes

Farming

Damming Rivers to make lakes

Human SystemsHuman Systems• Movement - How people move through

the environment

• Cultural Diffusion - new ideas brought by migrating people become widely accepted.

• People bring ideas and goods with them when they move from one place to another.

Physical SystemsPhysical Systems• Geographers analyze physical systems

such as mountains, volcanoes, hurricanes, glaciers to see how they interact with and shape places and regions.

• They also study plant and animal ecosystems that depend on each other and their surroundings in places and regions for their survival.

Human SystemsHuman Systems• Movement - How people move through

the environment

• Cultural Diffusion - new ideas brought by migrating people become widely accepted.

• People bring ideas and goods with them when they move from one place to another.

Movement in TexasMovement in Texas

Why Geography?Why Geography?• Geography prepares us for modern

life

• People, businesses, governments depend on geography everyday to meet their needs

• Computer software such as GIS and GPS use geography to help people

Sizing Up TexasSizing Up Texas

• Second largest U.S. State

• The area of Texas is 267,277 square miles

• Some parts of Texas are closer to the capitals of other states than to Austin.

Sizing Up TexasSizing Up Texas• Texas is the size of all of these

states combined:

New York Pennsylvania

Ohio Illinois

Connecticut Rhode Island

Massachusetts Vermont

New Hampshire New Jersey

Maine

Sizing Up TexasSizing Up Texas

• El Paso, Texas is closer to the Pacific Ocean than to Houston.

• Some students in Texas live 4 hrs from the nearest school

• How could these geographic facts affect Texas?

Roy BedichekRoy Bedichek

He was an author and speaker; considered a “Naturalist”

who traveled and

documented the

Texas landscape for

over 30 years. Died in

1959.