Geography 12
The Five Themes of Geography
• Location
• Nature of Place
• Relationships Between Places
• Regions
• Movement
Location
• Location of a place can be expressed in terms of its proximity or distance from another place.
• Absolute location pinpoints a place on the surface of the Earth.
• It is based on a grid system such as latitude and longitude.
• “Where is it?”
Examples of Location:
• Latitude and Longitude
• UTM Grid References
• Topographic features
Nature of Place
• The physical, natural, and human characteristics that describe a place and distinguish it from other places.
• “What is it like when you get there?”
Examples of Place:
• Topography• Climate• Cultural features• Economics• …
Relationships Between Places
• The nature of the interactions between physical, natural, and human environments, and the consequences of those interactions for people and places.
• “What is happening there?”
Examples of Relationships Between People and Place:
• How one aspect depends on another (abiotic and biotic)
• How one aspect adapts to another apsect (abiotic and biotic)
• How one element can modify the environment for all the other aspects (biotic and abiotic)
Regions
• Areas that have similar characteristics, according to a set of chosen criteria.
• Regions are the basic units of geographic study
• “What is it similar to?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZyXSksHqho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chUU-0OvOEU&feature=related
Example of Regions:
• Common or distinctive characteristics (human, natural, abiotic or biotic)
– Ethnic Regions– Physiographic Regions– Climate Regions– Language Regions– …
Movement
• The interactions, interrelationships, and interdependencies of people and places across the face of the Earth.
• Movement can involve ideas, information, communications of many kinds, as well as the physical movement of people and goods.
• “What is going where and why?”
Examples of Movement:
• Identify patterns of movement with living populations
• Identify patterns with physical systems of the earth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J3_Qi7AOFg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i95OOkTudI8&feature=related
Review of: The Five Themes of Geography