1. Introduction to Geography
What is Geography and why do we study it?

2. Let’s start with “why”
You have 3 minutes to brainstorm, with your partner, all the reasons we should study geography.

3. These reasons are from Brainscape Geography

4. Look Smart
Let’s be honest: we all care about what other people think of us. That’s why our first important reason for studying geography is that it makes you look smart. Knowing basic geography can help you avoid embarrassing moments, impress a date, maybe even land a job.
But geography doesn’t just make you look smart. It actually does make you smarter.

5. Put the News in Context
How are you supposed to understand the news if you don’t know geography?
For example, knowing that Hong Kong, a city in southern China, was controlled by the British from until 1997, can help a person understand why it is politically different from the rest of China.

6. Chart the Course of History
Geography not only puts current events in perspective, it help us understand history.
Want to better understand history? Study geography.
Knowing that the North was better suited to industry and the south to farming helps you understand why each region developed as it did economically.

7. Build Navigation Skills
The most basic skill in navigation is understanding the “lay of the land.” Studying geography helps develop spatial (how things are located) thinking.
For example which way do I need to go on I-40 to get to Durham, East or West?

8. Travel Smart
Without a basic sense of geography, it’s impossible to get the most out of travel experiences.
If you want to see misty mountains and rocky coastlines on your vacation you need to know whether you head to Ireland or Africa.

9. Understand Your Home
Geography allows you to understand the place where you live. People settle in specific places because of the landscape.
For example, cities are almost always built on or near a river or other reliable water supply. 
What river is in/near Raleigh that would have brought people to this area?

10. Neuse and Cape Fear

11. Get a Grasp on Globalization
Globalization has been one of the biggest forces in world history for decades. The saying “it’s a small world” reflects this change: the world is as big as it always was, but it’s just more interconnected than ever. 
Geography can help you understand how
and why countries have cooperation
and conflict.

12. Make Sense of Different Cultures
Human culture is place-based: the land determines or influences the food, clothing, architecture, even social relationships. Every aspect of a culture is affected by its geography.
To understand a people, you have to know something about their land.

13. Prepare for the Future
Geographic skills guide important decisions every day. From architecture to politics to business, the physical landscape frames the debates happening today that will be in the history books tomorrow.
For example, where will the southern loop of I-540 be built? Through the middle of Garner or around it?

15. What is Geography?
The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere,
and of how human activity affects and is affected by the physical features and the atmosphere, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries.

16. Maps v Globes People who make maps are called cartographers
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics (looks), and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.

17. Maps v Globes Globe A globe is a sphere on which
is depicted a map of the earth 

18. Map - A map is a representation, usually on a flat surface, of the features of an area of the earth, showing them in their forms, sizes, and relationships

19. What do you notice about the map compared to the globe?

20. If you were traveling which would you rather have a map or a globe?
But taking a round object and making it flat does not always turn out a useful product.

21. http://nationalgeographic.org/act ivity/investigating-map- projections/

22. You do not want to be these people.
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