5 Themes of Geography Notes

1. Essential Questions

2. For centuries, people in different parts of the
world have been trying to get along with one
another, not always with success. Part of the
problem is a lack of understanding for other
people’s ways of life. Certain advances in
communication and transportation, such as
the Internet and high-speed planes, have
brought people closer together. So have
increased international trade and
immigration. Knowledge of other societies
can be a key to understanding them.

3. Knowing history and geography helps orient you
in time and space. History is a record of the past.
The people and events of the past shaped the
world as it is today. Historians search for primary
sources, such as newspapers, letters, journals
and other documents to find out about past
events.
The 5 Themes of Geography: Geography is the
study of people places and the environment.
Geography deals with the world in spatial terms.
The study of geography focuses on five main
themes that we will learn about later.

4. Every country has laws and a way to govern
itself. Laws are the rules by which people live.
Government is the people and groups within
a society that have the authority to make
laws, to make sure they are carried out, and
to settle disagreements about them. The kind
of government determines who has the
authority to make the laws and see that they
are carried out.

5. Looking at the long list of flavors at the ice cream
store, you have a decision to make. You have
only enough money for one cone. Will it be mint
chip or bubble gum flavor? You will have to
choose. Economics is the study of how people
manage their resources by producing
exchanging, and using goods and services.
Economics is about choice.
Some economists claim that people’s desire are
unlimited. Resources to satisfy these desires,
however are limited. These economists refer to
the conflict between people’s desires and their
limited resources as scarcity.

6. Some people wear saris. Others wear T-shirts. Some
people eat cereal and milk for breakfast. Others eat
pickled fish. Some people go to church on Sunday
morning. Others keel and pray to Allah five times a day. All
these differences are expressions of culture. Culture
consists of the beliefs, customs, laws, art and ways of
living that a group of people share.
Religion is part of most cultures; so is a shared language.
The ways people express themselves though music, dance,
literature, and the visual arts are important parts of every
culture; so are the technology and tools they use to
accomplish various tasks. Each kind of food, clothing,
language or technology that is shared by a culture is called
a culture trait. Taken together the culture traits of a people
shape their way of life.

7. Geography is : the study of our Earth; our
home
◦ OR
Anything that can be mapped!

8. Someone who analyzes the Earth from many
different points of view!

9. Oceans
Plant Life
Landforms
People
How the Earth and its People Affect Each
Other
Oceans
How
People
Affect
the
Earth

10. There are 5 different ways to look at the earth
When geographers work, they are guided by
two basic questions:
◦ Where are things located?
◦ Why are they there?
To find these answers, geographers use 5
themes to organize the information . . .

11. 1) Location: Geographers begin to study a
place by finding where it is, or its location.
2) Place: Geographers study the physical and
human features of a location.
3) Human-Environment Interaction:
Geographers study how people affect or
shape physical characteristics of their natural
surroundings and how does their
surroundings (environment) affect them?

12. 4) Movement: Helps explain how people,
goods, and ideas get from one place to
another.
5) Regions: Geographers compare the
climate, land, population, or history of one
place to another.

14. There are two ways to think about location:
◦ Absolute location: describes the place’s exact
position on the Earth
◦ Relative Location: explains where a place is by
describing places near it
Absolute Center
Location: 86°16'W
39°53.7'N
Relative Center
Location: 14 miles
North West of
Indianapolis
Where is the center of Indiana?

15. This includes a location’s physical and human
features.
◦ To describe physical features, you might say that
the climate is hot or cold or that the land is hilly.
◦ To describe human features, you might discuss how
many people live there, what types of work they do,
or what they do for fun.
How would you describe the PHYSICAL FEATURES of
Columbus, Indiana?
How would you describe the HUMAN FEATURES of
Columbus, Indiana?

16. How do people adjust to and change their
environment? How does the environment
adjust to and change the people?
Geographers also use interaction to study the
consequences of people’s actions.
People Changing their
Environment
Environment Changing People

17. Explains how people, goods, and ideas move
from one place to another.
Helps geographers understand cultural
changes.
Spread of the Black Death in Asia
Slave Trade Across the Middle Passage
What could these maps help us
discover?

18. A region has a unifying characteristic, like
climate, land, population, or history.
On maps, geographers use color and shape
or special symbols to show regions.

19. How are these maps different? How can
regions changed based on who describes
them?

20. Globes and Maps:
◦ As people explored the Earth, they
collected information about it.
◦ Mapmakers wanted to present this
information correctly.
◦ The best way was to put it on a
globe, a round ball that represented
the Earth.

21. ◦ Because globes are not practical or
easy to use to carry, flat maps were
invented.
◦ However, the earth is round and a
map is flat.
◦ Mapmakers had to find ways to make
maps accurate.

22. The most accurate way to present information
on the islands, continents, and bodies of
water of the world is to put it all on a globe, a
round ball like the Earth itself.
The only difference between a globe and the
Earth itself is the scale, or size, represented
on the globe.

23. Africa on the Globe
Africa on a Flat Map
Looking at the Flat
Map, Would you
Believe that Africa is
3 TIMES LARGER
THAN THE U.S.?