This course describes man's place. It dwells so much on the geographical components of Social Studies.

1. SSE 124: STRUCTURE AND
CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN’S PLACE
•YAYI, TIMOTHY OPEYEMI

2. THE EFFECTS OF THE ATMOSPHERE
ON MAN
• Difference between importance & Effect
• Weather and Climate
The day-day variations in a given area
constitute weather whereas climate is the
long term synthesis of such variations.
• Weather is measure by thermometers, rain
gauge, barometer and other instruments. The
study of climate on the other hand relies on
statistics which are handled by computers.

3. Terms
• Effect: a change which is a result or
consequence of an action or other cause.
• Importance (important): of great significance
or value.
• Convective (convection): transference of mass
or heat within a fluid caused by the tendency
of warmer and less dense material to rise.
• Gas: the air-like fluid substance which expands
freely to fill any space available irrespective of
its quality.

4. • Climate: the general weather conditions
prevailing in an area over a long period.
• Weather: the state of the atmosphere at
a place and time as regards temperature,
wind, rain etc.
• Physiological (physiology): the branch of
biology concerned with the normal
functions of living organisms and their
parts.

5. Characteristics And Importance of the
Atmosphere

6. Effects of the Atmosphere
Ozone Layer Depletion Erosion

7. • Effect has been described as ‘a change which
is a result or consequence of an action or
other cause’; ‘a change that is produced in
one person or thing by another.’ It is also
defined as ‘power to influence or produce a
result.
• It is in the atmosphere that weather is house,
where water vapour and rain water come
from. This is where air and water comes to the
earth’s surface and produces erosion.

8. • Oxygen, an important constituent of
the atmosphere helps men to
breathe. Respiration is also an
important process for both plants
and animals.. The atmosphere
therefore provides the opportunity
for men to live, cultivate plants and
rear animals for meat, to produce
milk and for general upkeep.

9. • We are living in a world now of air
transport and telecommunications. The
atmosphere provides a medium of
communication. It carries the air waves
for telecommunication, which now make
men more effective in communicating
with one another, both near and far.
Through it, air crafts plot ther routes
which make trips faster and more
comfortable for men.

10. • Agricultural activities
The atmosphere in form of climate dictates
the activities of man. For instance, rainfall,
through precipitation, is very important in
farming. This is because it provides water for
plants to grow well. When there is no rainfall
man cannot plant crops under irrigation. In
another way, when the farmer harvests his
crops, he depends on sunshine to ripe and dry
some of the plants, for example, corn, sliced
yams and some vegetables for the purpose of
preservation.

11. • Decision making processes.
The atmosphere necessitates the people
to move from one place to another. This
situation calls for decision making
regarding where and how to go. For
instance, the Fulani cattle rearers, during
the rainy season, remains in the northern
part of Nigeria because of availability of
pastures on which cattle can graze and
water to drink.

12. • In dry season, they move to better
pastures in the southern part, where rain
would be falling and grass available for
pasture/cattle. This movement from
north to south is a product of decision
making. This decision making is a product
of the effect of atmosphere on man. This
decision-making process could also be on
the choice of when a road could be
constructed, either in the dry or rainy
season.

13. Summary and Conclusion
• The atmosphere is the seat of air or gases.
These gases are of in estimate value in the
impact they make on men. Their positive and
negative effects have been explained in this
module – from the point of the oxygen that
is supplies, to the opportunity it provides for
aviation and telecommunication facilities for
men.

14. • Erosion is an outcome of water vapour or
heavy rain showers. Floods have caused
damaging effects of man’s houses, farms,
and lives. Villages have been forced to
leave their ancestral homes and relocate
to areas they would never have loved to
go psychologically and economically.
There is the very good side of the impact
of the atmosphere on men, but there are
a few bad others.

15. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MAN
AND THE COMPONENT OF THE EARTH
Factors that Promote Man’s Relationship with
his Environment
• Physical Environment
• Social Environment
• Economic Environment
• Man and his Political Environment

16. Physical Environment
• Through time, man has had his home in caves,
on branches of trees, in hurts, in houses built
from different kinds of local materials which
may have been imported from other cultures.
• The rainfall in these places is much less
• The vegetation is savannah
• Riverine Areas Adaptation

17. Social Environment
• Man’s interaction or relationship with his
social environment involves the process of
communication in the society.
• Communities have their language, culture and
family life.
• Socialization.
• Secondary level of socialization.

18. Economic Environment
• Man’s relationship with his economic
environment begins from the process of
production of goods and services.
• Human and natural resources that need
to be explored and exploited for the
survival, development and progress of
man.
• Man is the dynamic factor of production

19. • Man is also involved in the demand and
supply of goods and services that he has
produced.
• He does this through various channels of
exchange of goods and services like
markets, financial institutions, and
entrepreneurship education.
• Ultimately helps in meeting basic needs.

20. Man and his Political Environment
• Human beings are social animals and cannot
live in isolation.
• Need of a leader arose.
• In some social groups, the position of a leader
became hereditary, while in others it became
elective.
• Structure and functions of government.