The Five Themes of Geography

1. The Five Themes of Geography

2. What the…? • The Five Themes are the way that geographers look at the world and the people in it

3. Location • There are two types of location: • ABSOLUTE- exactly where something is. • We use latitude and longitude to describe Absolute Location • RELATIVE- where a place is based on what is around it

4. Absolute Location (AL) • A place’s or person’s exact position on the globe. • We use latitude and longitude to measure AL • It’s kind of like your home address; I live at 1029 Neipsic Road Glastonbury’s AL 41 N lat, 72 W long

5. Relative Location (RL) • A place’s or person’s position based upon other locations • Connecticut is south of Massachusetts • Burger King is in front of Home Depot • Madagascar is an island off the coast of Mozambique

6. Place • Place is the description of a location • How does this location look? What can I see there? What kind of place is it?  • What do you think of when you imagine China?  Japan?  Russia?  Saudi Arabia? • There are two types of Place…

7. Physical Characteristics • Things you find in nature • Landforms, weather, plants, animals, etc. are all part of nature • Ask yourself…would this item be here if man was not on the planet? • If Yes,then it’s a physical characteristic • If No,then it’s a human characteristic

8. Human Characteristics • Things we as people create or thought up; things not found in nature • Countries, religion, language, goods & products, cities, government, money, etc. are all created by people • Ask yourself…would this item be here if man was not on the planet? • If No,then it’s a human characteristic • If Yes,then it’s a physical characteristic

9. Region • Regions are locations within a country that have common characteristics • Examples?

10. Region (R) • Physical Region (PR) • An area that shares one or many similar physical characteristics • Ex of characteristics: climate region, vegetation region, landform, etc. • Ex: Sahara, Andes, Great Lakes • Human Region (HR) • An area that shares one or many similar human characteristics • Ex of characteristics: political, religion, language, economic activity, etc. • Ex: Latin America, Little Italy the Sahara Great Lakes Andes Latin America Little Italy

11. Movement • Movement is the way people, things, and ideas get from place to place • What types of movement can you think of?

12. Movement (M) • Immigration to the U.S. • Oil shipped from the Middle East all over the world • The spread of Islam across the planet

13. Human/Environment Interaction • Human/Environment Interaction (HEI) is the way that humans use the natural world, • Alternative energy • Using rivers for transportation OR • How the natural world effects humans • Natural Disasters or changes in landforms