- Geography is the study of Earth's physical features, people, places, and environments. It examines how humans interact with their surroundings and how locations are connected. - There are two main branches of geography - human geography focuses on people and societies, while physical geography examines natural environments and processes. - Geographers use various tools like maps, globes, and diagrams to analyze spatial patterns and regions at different scales. They work in fields like cartography, meteorology, education, and land use planning to understand the world.

1. Studying Geography

2. Themes and Essential Elements

3. What is Geography?
• Geography is the study of everything on Earth from
rocks and rainfall to people and places
• Geographers study how natural environment
influences people, how people’s activities affect
Earth, and how the world is changing
• Geographers look at many different things including
cities, cultures, plants, and resources
• Geographers use spatial perspective to study the
world
• Spatial perspective is looking for patterns in where
things are located on Earth and how they are
arranged

4. • Geographers try to explain these patterns
• Geographers look at landscapes and how they
shape the world
• Landscapes include physical, human, and cultural
features
• Geography has two main branches: Human
Geography and Physical Geography
• Human geography looks at the distribution and
characteristics of the world’s people
• H.G. studies where people live, work and their ways
of life, how people make and trade things they need
to survive

5. • Physical geography focuses on Earth’s natural
environments
• Includes Earth’s landforms, water features,
atmosphere, animals, plants, soils, and the
processes that affect them
• The interaction between people links human &
physical geography together

6. Human Physical
Geography Geography
• Studies distribution Both • Focuses on Earth’s
and characteristics natural environments,
of the world’s people including landforms,
(where people live • Studies how water features, plants,
and what they do) people interact animals, and other
with their physical features
• Examines how environments
people make and • Studies the processes
trade things that they that shape physical
need to survive environments

7. Who Uses Geography?
• We use geography everyday
• Most jobs require an understanding of geography
Subfields of Geography
• Cartography-the study of making maps and
mapmaking
• Maps help geographers study location
• Cartographers work for companies that publish
maps, atlases, newspapers, magazines, and books
as well as city planning agencies and other areas of
government

8. • Meteorology-the study of weather
• Meteorologists forecast how the weather will
develop so people know what to expect
Geographers at Work
• Many geographers work for governmental agencies
• One of the largest employers of cartographers in
the U.S. is the United States Geological Survey
(USGS)
• USGS produces detailed maps of the whole country
• Geographers decide where to place new stores and
plan shipping and trucking routes as well as identify
new markets

9. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT!!!!!!!
• Schools hire geography teachers
• Geographic knowledge is needed for good
citizenship
How Do We Study Geography?
• The idea of regions are an important concept in
geography
• Regions have one or more common features that
make them different from surrounding areas
• Regions are defined by their physical and human
features
• Physical features include kinds of climate, river
systems, soils, and vegetation you find there

10. • Human features include languages, religions, and
trade networks of an area
• Sometimes boundaries are clear like the U.S.
political boundaries while others are not as clear
• Ex. The Corn Belt is a farming region in the
Midwestern U.S. but it does not have clearly set
boundaries
• Regions can be any size. Countries, deserts and
mountain ranges are large regions. Suburbs and
neighborhoods are small regions

11. Types of Regions
• Formal Region – has one or more common features
that make it different from surrounding areas
• Formal regions can be based on
landforms, population, income
levels, crops, temperature, or rainfall
• EX. Corn Belt. Rust Belt. Sun Belt. Piedmont. Sahel.
Rocky Mountains

15. • Functional Region – made up of different places
that are linked together and function as a unit
• Ex. City transit system
• Many functional regions are organized around a
central point & surrounding areas are linked to this
point
• Ex. Shopping malls are centers to link surrounding
neighborhoods. Cities connect to suburbs and
industry which all function together
• Perceptual Region – regions that reflect human
feelings and attitudes
• Ex. “back home”, Midwest, Dixie in the South
• These areas have their own special features that
make them different from anywhere else

19. The Five Themes and Six Essential Elements
• The study of geography has long been organized
according to five important themes
• Location-deals with exact or relative spot on Earth
• An exact location on Earth is absolute location
• Relative location is its position on Earth relative to other
locations
• Place-includes physical & human features of a
location

20. • Human-Environmental Interaction-covers ways
people and environments interrelate with and
affect each other
• Movement-involves how people and things change
locations and the effects of these changes
• Region-organizes Earth into geographic areas with
one or more shared characteristics

21. • By the early 1990s 18 Geography Standards were
created and grouped into 6 Essential Elements:
-The World in Spatial Terms
-Places and Regions
-Physical Systems
-Human Systems
-Environment and Society
-The Uses of Geography

22. Using the Geographer’s Tools

23. Organizing the Globe
• Globes are scale models of Earth
• Globes show grids
• Grids are made by lines of latitude and longitude

24. • Lines of latitude measure distance north and south
of the equator
• Lines of latitude are called parallels
• Lines of longitude measure distance east and west
of the prime meridian
• Lines of longitude are called meridians

25. • Parallels and meridians measure distances in
degrees
• Degrees are further divided into minutes with there
being 60 minutes in each degree
Hemispheres, Continents, and Oceans
• Geographers use grids to utilize how we look at the
world
• The equator divides the globe into Northern and
Southern hemispheres while the prime meridian
and 180 degree meridian divides it into Eastern and
Western hemispheres

27. • The planet’s land surfaces are divided into seven
continents
• Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North
America, and South America
• Landmasses surrounded by water are called islands
• Greenland is the world’s largest island
• Earth’s water surfaces are organized into separate
areas: oceans, seas, gulfs, lakes, rivers, etc.
• The four oceans are Pacific (largest), Atlantic,
Indian, and Arctic (smallest)
• Seas are connected to oceans while lakes are
inland, Caspian Sea is world’s largest lake

28. Making Maps
• Maps are flat representations of all or part of
Earth’s surface
• A collection of maps in a book is called an atlas
• Mapmakers have different ways of presenting our
round Earth on flat maps called map projections
Map Projections
• Maps with cylindrical projections are designed as if
a cylinder has been wrapped around the globe
• A Mercator map is a cylindrical projection that
shows true direction and shape
• Landmasses at high altitudes or near the poles are
exaggerated/distorted in size in a Mercator map

29. • Conic projections are designed as if a cone has been
placed over the globe
• Conic projections are most accurate along the lines
of latitude where it touches the globe
• Flat-plane maps are those that appear to touch the
globe at one point, such as the North Pole or South
Pole
• Flat-plane projection is useful for showing true
direction for airplane pilots and ship navigators and
shows true area sizes, but it distorts shapes

34. Great Circle Route
• Drawing a straight line on a flat map will not show
the shortest route between two places
• Maps represent a round world on a flat plane
• The shortest route between any two places on the
planet is called a great-circle route
• Airline pilots and ship captains use great-circle
routes to help them navigate

36. Understanding Map Elements
• Study of geography includes looking at places at
different scales
• Almost all maps have common elements such as
distance scales, directional indicator, and a key
Distance Scales
• Distance scale helps us determine real distance
between points on a map
Directional Indicators
• Most maps will include a compass rose,
which has arrows that point to all 4
principal directions

37. Legends
• Legends are keys to identify symbols on a map and
what they represent

38. Other Elements
• Maps may compare physical size of an area
• Contiguous is connecting
• Ex. Hawaii and Alaska are not part of the contiguous
U.S. because they do not connect with the other 48
states
• An insert map is used to focus in on a small part of a
larger map

39. Using Special Purpose Maps
• Geographers use maps that focus on certain
information about places and regions
• Political maps show borders, cities, countries, states
and other political features
• Physical maps show natural features like mountains,
rivers, and other bodies of water
Climate and Precipitation Maps
• Climate maps use color to show various climate
regions of the world
• Precipitation maps are paired with climate maps
which show the average amount of precipitation
that a region gets each year

42. Population and Economic Maps
• Population maps give you a snapshot of the
distribution of people in a region
• Generally these maps deal with population density
• Economic maps show a region’s important natural
resources and the ways in which land is used

46. Elevation Profiles and Topographic Maps
• Elevation profile shows a side view of a place or
area
• The purpose of some maps is to show the
topography of the land
• Special kinds of topography maps are called contour
map
• Contour maps connects points of equal elevation
above or below sea level

48. Climate Graphs and Population Pyramids
• Two common diagrams that show important
geographic characteristics: climate graphs and
population pyramids
• Climate graphs show the average temperatures and
precipitation in a place
• Population pyramids show the percentage of males
and females by age group in a country’s population

49. Munfordville