The 5 Themes of

Geography

Be glad I’m not making you watch the

song on youtube…

no, seriously. Be glad.

The Landscape of

America

https://mwmsteacherweb.wikispaces.hcpss.org/Mrs.+Daley

Geography… what?

Geography is the study of the earth and the

people on it

Because this is a large topic, geographers

give us 5 Themes to start.

1. Location

“Where am I?” The answer is your

location

Absolute location is with latitude and

longitude, like a GPS

Where am I?

(42.928431 N, 123.79455 W)

1. Location

No, really. Where am I?

Most people use relative location.

Describing somewhere is in relation to

another place.

For example: Proviso West is near the

Eisenhowser (I-290) and a

DunkinDonuts. It in the near west

suburbs of Chicago, IL in the Midwest of

USA.

2. Place

“What is Proviso West like?”

Place can help you answer this question

Place refers to human and physical

characteristics that make a place different than

another.

Physical characteristics are like:

Physical setting (mountains, desert, farmland)

Animals and plants

Weather

For example, Hillside is a suburb.

2. Place

Human characteristics include cultural

diversity and things people have made

Language

Arts

Architecture

For example, Proviso West has a

marching band and a chess club.

3. Region

The world is a big place to study all at once

Geographers break the world into regions

Can be as large as a continent

Can be as small as a neighborhood

Has characteristics that set it apart

Political division, climate, language, religion

For example: Hillside is in the Midwest and

enjoys 4 seasons because it is in a temperate

region of the USA (mid latitudes).

4. Movement

Movement refers to the shifting of people,

goods, and ideas from one place to

another.

In recent years, technology is helping

goods and ideas move faster

For example: Jamaican Usain Bolt may

be the fastest man in the world. The Rio

Olympics helped make this known on TV

and the internet.

5. Human-Environment

Interaction

Human-environment interaction refers to the way

humans interact with the environment

like building a dam, cutting down a tree, even sitting in

the sun

Sometimes people change the environment

Like the federal government building I-290 by cutting

down trees, building bridges, and leveling land

Sometimes the environment forces people to

change

Like a building having an extremely steep roof to keep

the snow from collapsing the building

Lets Review

1. Location

2. Place

3. Region

4. Movement

5. Human Environment Interaction

Awesome!

Class work:

1. What is the relative location of your grandparents’ house?

2. What are there characteristics of the region where you grew up?

3. Why do you think we are talking about geography in a history class?

4. How will understanding geography help us understand history?

5. If you could travel to one region in the US, where would it be and why?