Geography’s Five ThemesCORE CONCEPTS 1.2

Essential Question: What are Themes of Geography?

Geographers use five different themes or ways of thinking

They help geographer’s two basic questions:

Where are things located?

What is it like there?

Theme one: Location

Two types of location.

1. Absolute location- describes a place’s exact position on Earth in terms of longitude and latitude.

-Your address is an example of an absolute location.

2. Relative location-the location of a place relative to another place.-

Where in the Universe is Cedar Lake, Indiana?

Finding Absolute Location

Create a flip book-Quiz tomorrow!

Theme two: Place

Place refers to the mix of human and nonhuman features in a given location. May include geographic features such as

mountains, lakes and rivers as well as climate. Example: Cedar Lake is a small town in Northwest

Indiana that has hot summers, cold winters and a mild fall and spring season.

Theme three: Region

A region is an area with at least one unifying physical or human feature such as climate, landforms, population, or history.Example: A desert is a region based on

landforms and climate. A city on population and history. Chicago

Theme four: Movement

Movement explores how people, goods (things) and ideas get from one place to another.

Why are you living in Cedar Lake?

Theme five: Human-Environment Interaction

Human-Environment Interaction considers how people affect their environment and how their environment affects them.