Unit 1 GEOGRAPHY THE STUDY OF THE EARTH

Unit 1: GEOGRAPHY

THE STUDY OF THE EARTH and THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE…

FIVE THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY

5 Themes • Location • Place • Human-Environmental Interaction • Movement • Regions

LOCATION: Where is it? ABSOLUTE LOCATION (mathematical location) – THE EXACT POINT WHERE A PLACE OR PHYSICAL FEATURE IS LOCATED ON THE EARTH’S SURFACE – Examples: LATITUDE (parallels) & LONGITUDE (meridians), MAP POINTS, ADDRESS…. .

LOCATION: Where is it? RELATIVE LOCATION (situation) • DESCRIBES THE LOCATION OF A PLACE IN RELATIONSHIP TO ANOTHER PLACE • Examples: Cardinal/Intermediate directions, landmarks, words like “near the…. ”, or turn right at, left

Questions • 1. What is the difference between absolute and relative location? • 2. Describe GWCP’s relative location.

PLACE: What is it like? What are the physical and human/cultural characteristics of this place? • Climate, Vegetation, Land/water forms, Resources/industries, People and cultures. . • Toponym – place names

REGIONS Grouping of places that have something in common and can be given a name based on similar features. -What is an example of a region?

Types of Regions • Formal (uniform) regions – Example: Montana • Functional (nodal) regions – Example: the circulation area of a newspaper • Perceptual (vernacular/cultural) regions – Example: the American South

The Gulf Coast Region

Questions • 3. Apply theme of place to your neighborhood • 4. Which type of region do you think is most helpful when learning about a new place? • 5. What are some examples of a perceptual region?

MOVEMENT How and why do people, ideas, products, and events such as disease move from one place to another?

Movement - The connections and relations that develop among places and regions as a result of the movement or flow of people, goods, or information • Transportation networks • Electronic communications

Diffusion • The process by which a characteristic spreads across space and over time • Hearth = source area for innovations • Two types of diffusion – Relocation – Expansion • Three types: hierarchical, contagious, stimulus

EXAMPLES • • • Exploration and trade routes Transportation methods / routes Cultural borrowing/diffusion Patterns of settlement Spread of disease (plague) Migration/immigration

After Before

Questions • 9. Economic development through international trade is an example of what type of diffusion? Explain your choice. • 10. The spread of a new fashion first in large cities, and later to smaller towns is an example of which type of diffusion?

HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION How do people adapt to and/ or change their environment? This includes the impact of physical processes like hurricanes, floods, drought…

EXAMPLES: • Wearing cool clothing in hot weather (adapt) • Building the ship channel to connect Houston to the Gulf of Mexico (modify) • Dams and bayou flood control projects (modify) • Using adobe bricks in the dry, desert areas of Texas (adapt) • Air-conditioning (modify). .

• We depend on our environment • We adapt to the environment • We modify the environment