Teaching Geography

5 Themes

• Location• Place• Region• Movement• Human-Environment Interaction

Location

• Where is it?• Absolute location vs. relative location• Longitude and Latitude• Prime Meridian, Equator, Tropics• Google Earth, of course

Maps and their messages

• Different types (political, climate, topographical, etc)

• Different uses and projections

Mercator Projection

Robinson

Peters Projection

What’s up with this?

Place

• What is it like there?• Landforms, rivers, climate, etc.• Have students draw and label

physical features on a blank map

Landform sample

Climates

• Steppes, Savannah, permafrost, rainforest, boreal forest, desert and desertification, etc.

• What are these places like and why does it matter?

• How does the climate affect the culture?

• What would you pack if you went there?

Steppe

Savannah and Boreal Forest

Desertification

Location: what are the people like?

• Government• culture• language• religion • Economics• History• natural resources • education, population density, birth/death

rates, etc.

Possibilities

• Lots of great activities for exploring these things– Learn about and practice customs– Read and interpret charts and graphs– Best source:

www.nationalgeographic.com

Region: how do we identify larger areas?

• Like place, but on a bigger scale• Do regions really exist?

– What is Africa?– Why is Europe a region?– Why do we call it the Middle East?

Movement

• How do goods, people, and ideas move from one region to another?

• Transportation• Cultural exchanges• Immigration• Disease

Human-Environment Interaction

• A two-way street• How do people adapt to the

environment?– Irrigation, dams, mining, farming,

desalination,etc.• How does the environment adapt to

us?– Global warming– Deforestation– Water scarcity and water stress– Pollution

What are people doing about it?

• Prof. Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate“When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope.”

Project ideas

• What could your students do about these issues?

• Water in developing nations?• Pollution?• Deforestation?

What about the location of natural resources?

• How does this affect power relationships?

• See article on the Arctic and oil• What about Central Asia?• Where will power be located in the

future?• Where will future conflicts be?• Future business opportunities?