1. Chapter 1: The World of Geography

2. Chapter 1: What is Geography?
*It is the study of our earth and its people. OR
*Anything that can be mapped!
The last definition is really at the heart of geography. Maps are the tools of geographers: If something can be mapped, it’s geography.

3. *Geography shows the relationship between people and the environment.
*Geography mixes up the physical and human aspects of our world into one field of study.
*Geography shows the relationship between people and the environment.

4. What is a geographer?
Someone who analyzes the Earth from many points of view.

5. Geographers study:
Oceans and all bodies of water
plant life
landforms
people
how the Earth and its people affect each other

6. When geographers work, they are guided by two basic questions:
Where are things located?
Why are they there?
To find these answers, geographers use five themes to organize information

7. The Five Themes:
Location – Geographers begin to study a place by finding where it is, or its location.

8. Location There are two ways to think about location:
absolute location – describes the place’s exact position on the Earth.
relative location – explains where a place is by describing places near it.

9. The Five Themes:
2) Place – Geographers study the physical and human features of a location.

10. Place This includes a location’s physical and human features.
To describe physical features, you might say that the climate is hot or cold or that the land is hilly; waterways, landforms, animal life, etc.
To describe human features, you might discuss how many people live there, what types of work they do, or what they do for fun. How they communicate, their religion, their food, etc.

11. The Five Themes:
3) Human-Environment Interaction Geographers study how people affect or shape physical characteristics of their natural surroundings and how does their surroundings (environment) affect them?

12. Human-Environment Interaction
How do people adjust to and change their environment? How does the environment adjust to and change the people?
Geographers also use interaction to study the consequences of people’s actions.
Positive interaction: Plant a tree, clean a river, build a dam…
Negative reaction: Building a highway, clearing a forest, polluting, building a dam…

13. The Five Themes:
Movement – Helps explain how people, goods, and ideas get from one place to another.

14. Movement
Helps geographers understand cultural changes. People and goods move because:
People Goods
Career Manufactured
Family materials
Business/job Crops
Religion Natural resources
Escaping war Oil

15. Movement
How are you connected with, and dependent upon, other regions, cultures, and people in the world?

16. 5) Regions – Geographers compare the climate, land, population, or history of one place to another.

17. Regions
A region has a unifying characteristic, like climate, land, population, or history.
On maps, geographers use color and shape or special symbols to show regions.

18. The Geographer’s Tools
Globes and Maps:
As people explored the Earth, they collected information about it.
Mapmakers wanted to present this information correctly.
The best way was to put it on a globe, a round ball that represented the Earth.

19. Because globes are not practical or easy to use to carry, flat maps were invented.
However, the earth is round and a map is flat.
Mapmakers had to find ways to make maps accurate.

20. Globes and Maps
The most accurate way to present information on the islands, continents, and bodies of water of the world is to put it all on a globe, a round ball like the Earth itself.
The only difference between a globe and the Earth itself is the scale, or size, represented on the globe.

21. Globes have a disadvantage: They cannot be complete enough to be useful and at the same time be small enough to be convenient.
Therefore, people invented flat maps.

22. Maps try to show the Earth (which is round) on a flat surface.
This causes distortion, or a change in accuracy of the shapes and distances of places.
It is impossible to show the Earth on a flat surface without some distortion.

23. The Elements of a Map
Title Tells the subject of the map and gives you an idea of what information is shown.

24. The elements of a Map Compass Rose
It is a model of a compass. It tells the cardinal directions, which are north (N), south (S), east (E), and west (W).

25. Symbols: Represent such items as capital cities and natural resources
Symbols: Represent such items as capital cities and natural resources. The legend explain what the symbols mean.

26. The elements of a Map
Legend: It is the key to unlocking the secrets of a map. Objects or colors in the legend represent something on the map.
Religions Legend

27. Grids: Some maps use a grid of parallels and meridians
Grids: Some maps use a grid of parallels and meridians. On a map of a small area, letters and numbers are often used to help you find your location.
Lines of Longitude:
Measure distances E and W of the Prime Meridian
Lines of Latitude: Measure distances N and S of the Equator

28. The elements of a Map Scale:
Maps are made to scale; that is, there is a direct connection between a unit of measurement on the map and the actual distance.
For example, each inch on the map represents one mile on Earth. So, a map of a town would show a mile-long strip of fast food joints and auto dealers in one inch.

29. The elements of a Map Labels:
Indicates the names of the cities, landforms, bodies of water, etc.

30. The Hemispheres

31. How Latitude and Longitude Form the Global Grid