What are the five themes? Tools geographer’s use to study features on earth. – Location – Place – Movement – Region – Human Environment Interaction

The Five Themes of Geography 1.Location: Asks the big question… Where is it? Why is it located there? This deals with maps Tell me how to get your house..

The Five Themes of Geography 1.Location: 2 types Absolute Location— to locate a place using a coordinate system (given in degrees of longitude and latitude) Ex: 30 0 N and 70 0 W, or st Street Relative Location— to locate a place in relationship to other landmarks or places Ex: “Down the street from my grandma’s house on the corner with the big elm tree”

The Five Themes of Geography 2. Place: Asks the big question… What is it like? How is it different from other places?

The Five Themes of Geography 2. Place: Physical Characteristics—landforms (mountains, plains), bodies of water (oceans, lakes, rivers) ecosystems (soil, plants, animals, & climate) features that make places different from one another Human Characteristics—bridges, roads, buildings, culture, language

The Five Themes of Geography Examples: Canada, U.S., and Mexico are all in North America, but politics makes them different places and countries Economics also make places different—North vs. South Korea Religion makes a place different—Jerusalem in the Middle East Can you think of one of your own?

The Five Themes of Geography 3.Human-Environment Interaction: Asks the big question… How do people interact with and change their environment?

The Five Themes of Geography 3.Human-Environment Interaction: People depend on the environment People adapt to the environment People modify the environment

The Five Themes of Geography 4. Movement: Asks the big question… How are people and places linked by communication and the flow of people, ideas and goods?

The Five Themes of Geography 4. Movement: Transportation, communication, trade Patterns of movement such as migration Ways that ideas are transferred from one location to another Trade and Migration change our world

The Five Themes of Geography 5.Region: Asks the big question… What are their unifying features and how do they form and change over time?

The Five Themes of Geography 5.Region: Areas that share common features Region is a basic unit for geographic study Geographers divide the world into regions to help them interpret and understand the world Regions can be defined on the basis of: physical and human characteristics