This document provides an overview of key concepts in geography, including the differences between physical and human geography, the five themes of geography such as location and human-environment interaction, different types of maps and their purposes, and contemporary geographic tools like GIS and remote sensing. It also discusses similarities among places including globalization, distribution patterns, and connections between locations.

1. Questions Cornell Notes for Unit 1: Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives
1) Physical v. Human Geography
a) Physical Geography
b) Human Geography
2) The Five Themes of Geography
a) Location – identifying where things are and how they affect humans
i) absolute location
ii) relative location
iii) site
iv) situation
b) Human-Environment Interaction (sometimes referred to as cultural ecology)
i) environmental determinism
ii) possiblism
c) Region – an area with similar characteristics
i) formal regions
ii) functional regions
iii) perceptual (vernacular) regions
d) Place – refers to the collective combination of physical and cultural attributes that
gives each place on earth its unique character
e) Movement – we study how information, people, goods and other things move
i) spatial interaction
ii) friction of distance
iii) space-time compression
iv) distance decay
3) Maps (tools geographers use to convey information)
a) History of Mapmaking
i) 8500 BCE
ii) Erastosthenes
iii) Middle Ages
iv) China
v) Renaissance and Age of Exploration
vi) U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785
Summary
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2. Questions b) Projections – problem mapmakers have is putting the round earth onto a flat map
i) Mercator Projection
ii) Peters Projection
iii) Robinson Projection
c) Scale refers to the size of the map to the amount of area it represents on earth
i) small scale
ii) large scale
d) Kinds of Maps
i) reference maps
ii) thematic maps
(1) flow-line map
(2) isoline
(3) choropleth
(4) proportional symbol
(5) dot density
(6) cartogram
4) Contemporary Tools for Geographers
a) Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a computer program that stores
geographic data and produces maps to show these data in layers
b) Remote Sensing
c) Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
5) Similarities Among Places
a) Globalization of Economy
b) Globalization of Culture
c) Distribution (arrangement of features in space)
i) density
ii) concentration
iii) pattern
C. Gender and Ethnic Diversity – sex and race can determine how resources allocation
D. Connection Between Places
i) Tobler’s First Law of Geography
ii) diffusion describes how things, technologies, diseases, ideas, travel over
space (1) relocation diffusion
(2) expansion diffusion
Summary
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