The Five Themes of Geography

LocationPlaceHuman/Environmental

InteractionMovementRegion

1. LOCATION

Location is the answer to the question “Where are we?”2 types of location: relative & absolute

Relative Location

Describes where something or someone is based on things that can be found nearbyExample: Kernersville Middle is on Piney Grove Road near the Quality Mart

“I live on Chinchilla Ave.”

Absolute Location

This is the exact location on the surface of the Earth where something can be foundUses latitude and longitude or a street address to pinpoint where a site is locatedExample: KMS is at 110 Brown Road, Kernersville, North Carolina

Using latitude and longitude, you can

pinpoint an exact spot on the Earth’s surface. More commonly, we use our street address

for our absolute location.

2. PLACE

This includes the physical and human features of a location.Physical Features: includes information about climate and land forms (hills, mountains, etc…)Human Features: buildings, roads, clothing, food habits, etc…

Physical Features

Things like mountains, beaches, cliffs, plains and forests could be used to

describe a place.

Human Features: Buildings

Does your neighborhood look like this one???

Human Features: Clothing

These ladies are all ready for a special event… can you tell who is headed to the prom??

Human Features: Food Habits

Is this what you would expect to be served for dinner tonight??

HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION

Three main questions:How do humans adapt to their environment?How do humans affect/modify their environment?How do humans depend on their environment?

How do humans adapt to their environment?

People wear clothing that is appropriate for the climate where they live.Houses are built to meet the needs of people -- igloos, houses on stilts in flood prone areas, etc…Many SE Asian countries terrace farm due to mountainous terrain.

Humans Adapt

How do humans affect/modify their environment?

People heat and cool buildings for their comfort.Often farmers build dams or irrigation canals to water their crops.Pollution has caused acid rain problems and changes in climate.

Humans ModifyThe Hoover Dam was built to provide electricity to millions of Americans. The dam stops the flow of the Colorado River and creates Lake Mead. When the doors of the dam are opened, the water rushes through and produces electric power.

How do humans depend on their environment?

People depend on the Mississippi River for transportation of goods.People depend on the rainy season to water their crops.Ancient Egyptians depended on the flooding of the Nile River to fertilize the soil for farming.

Humans Depend

Each year, Egyptian farmers await the flooding of the Nile to bring fertile silt to the land to fertilize their crops.

MOVEMENTThis explains how people, goods and ideas get from one place to another.Today, we live in a global community where information travels much more freely than in the past.Inventions/improvements in technology and transportation have made our world one with many connections to each other.Ideas, such as fashion trends, move from place to place just as goods do.

Ways things move …

REGION

This is an area that has something in common. This could be a type of government, a language, religion, a landform situation, history, or climate.The South is a region- people share common culture traits such as food choices and language.

Three Types of RegionsFormal Regions: areas defined by government boundaries (Ex. North Carolina, Forsyth County, Brazil, etc…)Functional Regions: areas defined by a function (Ex. Newspaper route, area controlled by phone or cable company, American Airlines service area, etc…)Vernacular Regions: areas loosely defined by people’s perception of something in common (Ex. the South, the Middle East, the Mid-West)

Formal Regions

Functional Regions

Pop Warner Football Regions Map

Vernacular Regions