Five Themes of Geography

1. Five Themes of Geography How does studying geography help you understand the world in which you live?

2. Cornell Notes

3. Geography

4. Location/Place • There are five themes or ideas in geography. The five themes are location, place, interaction, movement and region. Location and place are very similar. Location is where something is. For example, the desk is in the corner of the room. The desk is located in the corner. Location answers the question, “Where is it?” Place is what you find and see at a location. Place describes what a location looks like. For example, the mountains in North Carolina are very hilly with a lot of trees. Place answers the question, “What does the location look like?”

5. Interaction • Interaction is the third theme. Interactionis how people live in their environment. It can be divided into three parts. Number one is how people have been changed by the environment where they live. Our environment is the place where we live. Our environment will affect how we live. For example, people who live in the hot deserts of Mexico often wear light clothing such as shorts and T-shirts. But what would happen if some of these same Mexican people moved to the Rocky Mountains in Canada where it is very cold? Would they still wear the same clothes? Of course they would not.

6. Adapt • They would have to adapt to their new environment by wearing warmer clothes. Adaptmeans to change. The second part of interaction is how people change their environment. Humans change things. For example, people water their lawns when it hasn’t rained. Watering the lawn is changing the environment. Growing crops in deserts using irrigation is another example. Building warm houses to keep in a cold place is another. Air conditioning homes when it is hot is yet another example. The third part of interaction is depending on the environment. A farmer depends on river water to water crops. If there is a drought and the river dries up, the farmer can lose all of his crops. Some people work in a coal mine so they depend on having coal to mine to keep their jobs. If there is no more coal in the mine, the people lose their jobs.

7. Movement • Movement is the fourth theme. Movement is how people get from one place to another place. There are two kinds of movement. The first kind is called migration. Migration is when people move to a new place to live. For example, most of you or your family members moved from your original countries to live in America. People migrate for many reasons such as finding food or finding work. The second type of movement is temporary. Temporary movement is when people travel to an area to trade, work or vacation and then they go back home. It is not permanent or forever. For example, all of you move from your house every day and come to school by bus. At the end of the day you go home. Businessmen often fly to different cities and then go home.

8. Region • The fifth theme is region. As we said, aregion is an area of land that looks very similar or has similar characteristics. A region can be political. Countries are political regions ruled by governments. Regions can be physical. In other words, regions share certain physical features and climate. Climate is weather over a long period of time. Some examples of regions are deserts, mountains, plains and forests. We will look at all types of regions more closely later. Other regions include general terms like urban (city), rural (farming), the North, The Mideast, etc.