1. Five Themes of Geography
Unit 1

2. PLACE: Finding Map Location
Chapter 1

3. What is Geography? Geo means Earth Graph means visual picture
Comes for Ancient Greek
Geography is the study of patterns on the Earth’s surface
E.g. Climate, Continents, Countries, People, Industries, and Products

4. Five Geographic Themes
Geographers use five themes to organize their studies
Place and Location
Identify places using characteristics and the location
Movement
Looks at flow of people, product, and animals between places
Interaction
Focus on connections between people or places and their surroundings

5. Five Geographic Themes (cont.)
Environment
Explores the balance of living systems on Earth
Region
Identifies the unique physical and human characteristics of whole areas of the world

6. Place
The most basic theme – every study in geography includes a sense of place
Focus on unique characteristics that identify a place
Physical characteristics of a place include the shape of the land, weather conditions, natural vegetation, and the animals that live in it.
E.g. Niagara Falls – because of the falls

7. Location Location describes where a place is on the Earth’s surface
Location can be given in two ways
Relative location – describes a place in relation to another
Next to the library
Absolute location – describes the location of a place independent of any other location
43 degrees North by 82 degrees West

8. Absolute Location Earth is divided in sections called hemispheres
There are 4 hemispheres – Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western

9. Latitude and Longitude
Latitude – horizontal line
Longitude – vertical line
Latitude and longitude are imaginary lines that cross each hemisphere
They allow geographers to pinpoint the exact (absolute) location on the map

10. Latitude and Longitude (cont.)
Equator is a line of latitude half way between the North Pole and the South Pole
Latitude lines run parallel to the Equator and have a numerical value
Equator has a value of 0
Latitude is used to pinpoint how far north or south is from the Equator

11. Latitude and Longitude (cont.)
Longitude lines originate at the North Pole and run North to South
Prime Meridian – line of longitude that passes thorough Greenwich, England, has a value of 0
International Data Line – on the opposite side and has a value of 180
Longitude is used to pinpoint how far east or west a place is from the Prime Meridian

12. Atlas and Street Maps
Map is an overhead representation of the Earth’s surface
Alphanumeric grid has letters along one side and numbers along the other
Used for street and road maps
Example on pg. 17

13. Relative Location Not very accurate Used to give general directions
People use landmarks – left at the corner of Shoppers
Geographers describe relative location more precisely using compass directions and kilometric distance

14. Compass Direction Compass rose shows four Cardinal directions North
South
East
West
And four ordinal directions
Northeast
Southeast
Northwest
Southwest

15. Finding Distance
Map scale compares distances on the map to the actual distance on the Earth’s surface
Given in three different ways
Ratio scale – indicates the actual distance on the Earth’s surface is X times greater than the distance shown on the map
Bar scale – measures the distance on the map against a bar that represents the distance on the Earth’s surface in kilometers
Statement scale – uses words to express the scale of the map
Example of pg. 20

16. Road Distance Roads don’t always run straight
Road distance between two places is often greater than straight-line distance