The Five Themes of Geography

1. The Five Themes of Geography How Do We View the World Around Us?

2. What is Geography? Geography is the “study of the earth''s surface; includes people''s responses to topography and climate and soil and vegetation”. –"geography."Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2013. Web. 4 May 2013. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/geography>. • What the Earth looks like. • How people interact with the environment

3. What are the Five Themes of Geography? The Five Themes of Geography are categories that scientists use to study Earth’s features: • Place • Location • Movement • Region • Human-Environmental Interaction

4. Five Themes of Geography Place and Location

5. Place and Location • Place is one of the most important words in geography. • Every place has a location, a description by which it can be found. What You Will Learn • What is the geographic idea of place/location? • How can the geographic idea of movement help me to understand the connections between places? • What are the geographic terms related to place/location and movement? • How can I interpret place/location and movement by reading a map?

6. Places are Unique • You are an individual, right? There is nobody else exactly like you in appearance, ability, and personality. • Each part of the earth has a special “sense of place” too. • A place is a part of the earth that can be recognized as separate or different from other parts. • Every place on Earth has landmarks (an object or landform that identifies a place) that differentiate it from every other place • Geography – focuses on the relationship between people and the earth • Places occur on the earth’s surface, thus they are of special interest to geography

7. Place The theme Place answers the question: “What is it like there?” • A place is often known by its own special characteristics. • Characteristics are special traits or qualities that a place can have. • Types of characteristics for Place: • Human • Physical

8. Place cont. Human Characteristics: • The main customs, languages, and beliefs of the people in a certain place. • Special traditions or holidays • Clothing styles • Political ideals • Architecture (how buildings are made)

9. Place cont. • Physical Characteristics: • Mountains, plains • Oceans, rivers, lakes • Climate (hot, cold, humid, dry) • Types of animals that live there • What types of plants grow there.

10. Place • Turn to page G7 • With a partner answer questions 1 and 2

12. Location: Where in the World? • What is the geographer’s favourite question? • “Where?” • It is important to be able to answer “where” questions? • Two methods • Relative location • Absolute location Relative Location • “My home is located near professors lake just around the corner from the plaza” • Where I live is related to other places – professors lake and the plaza • Uses familiar landmarks, or directions – “right”, “left”, or “straight ahead”, street names, compass directions, and perhaps distance

13. Where in the World?

14. Where in the world? Absolute Location • the location of place independent of any other place • Have you used and atlas, road map, or GPS? • System of latitude and longitude Latitude and Longitude • Imaginary lines of latitude and longitude can show the absolute location of cities

15. Where in the world? Four Hemispheres • Geographers divide the world into halves called hemispheres North Pole Northern Hemisphere PrimeMeridian Western Hemisphere Eastern Hemisphere Equator Southern Hemisphere South Pole The northern and southern hemispheres are divided by the equator, an imaginary line at the widest part of the earth. The eastern and western hemispheres are divided by the prime meridian, an imaginary line between the earth’s poles.

16. Where in the world? Latitude • Imagine you sliced an orange • You could slice it across the orange, parallel to its widest part • Geographers divide the earth’s surface like this • Latitude lines run parallel to the equator • North latitudes - 0 ̊ at equator  90 ̊ N at North Pole • South latitudes – 0 ̊ at equator  90 ̊ S at South Pole

17. Where in the world? Longitude • You could slice the orange from top to bottom • Longitude lines stretch from the North Pole to the South Pole • Run east or west of the prime meridian (a measured line passing through the Greenwich Observatory in England) • East and west longitude lines are numbered from 0 ̊ at the prime meridian to 180 ̊ at the international date line (cuts through Pacific Ocean