1. How Geographers Explore the World
What is Geography?

2. Welcome to Geography!

3. You are about to embark on an adventure of discovery…
About the planet you live on…
About the earth’s physical features…
About the living things that inhabit the planet..
About where all these elements are located and how they interact

4. So what is Geography anyway???
Good question…..
It has changed over the years…
There is no single snappy answer.
A couple of millennia ago it was about discovery: Was the Earth round or flat?
Several centuries later geography was propelled by exploration and mapmaking

5. Today Geography is in the space age…
Satellites transmit information to computers whose maps are used for analysis and decision making
Despite these new developments, geography does have some traditions…

6. Geography deals with the natural as well as the human world

7. It is not just a “social” science
Geographers do research on..
A hurricane….
Glaciations
Coastlines
Desert dunes
Limestone caves
Weather
Climate
Even on plants and animals

8. Geographers also study human activity…
Such as…
And human interaction with the environment
Religion
Language
Population
And provide information that helps with…
City planning
Boundary making

9. They ask questions like…
Why do people persist in living on the slopes of active volcanoes and in the floodplains of flood-prone rivers?
Where are diseases found? How do they spread?
How does the location of a health-care facility affect the opportunity to obtain care?
How many schools should we build to serve the city of Louisville?

10. So geographers…
Make huge contributions to make the world a better place for people…
And to make people aware of how to use the resources of the world wisely…

11. A third geographic tradition…
Is simply this…
We like to know and understand different cultures and distant regions
In the past it was rare to find a geographer who did not have expertise about a foreign area…or speak a foreign language…

12. Finally, the “location” tradition
Which asks questions like…
And makes products like….
Why are things located on the Earth’s surface where they are?
What does location mean to the success or failure of an area?
Where should a new shopping center be built?

13. So, we don’t have a short-answer definition to geography…
The book says: Geographers are specialists who describe the earth’s physical and human features and the interactions of people, places, and environments
Geographers search for patterns in these features and interactions….
Geographers try to explain why they exist or occur..
They use this information in all sorts of ways……

14. Geographers….
….may study volcanoes and why they erupt….

15. Or they may….
Analyze a city’s location in relation to climate, transportation, or population to help a city make decisions about planning

16. There is almost nothing…
In this wide, wonderful world of ours that can’t be studied geographically…
So hang on to your hat, you’re in for a ride!