What Is GEOGRAPHY all about An Introduction to

What Is GEOGRAPHY all about? An Introduction to understanding Important Geographic Ideas

What does Geography mean to you? • Geography allows you to enquire into the world you live by developing skills needed to make decisions

THINKING SKILLS PRACTICAL SKILLS SOCIAL AND VALUING SKILLS DECISION MAKING

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Physical Biological NATURAL ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT Social Economic Political

The major aim of Geography is to develop an understanding of the environment as the home of people. Geographers do this by accounting for all the factors that make up the cultural and natural environment and then see how they interact

Important Geographic Ideas These main ideas help give us simple meanings to the world around us Combined together they enable us to understand the idea of environment

Location Distance Accessibility Culture and Perception Patterns Processes ENVIRONMENT Regions Systems Interaction Change

LOCATION Refers to the position of a phenomena (thing) in terms of distance and direction. The place it occupies in an environment.

DISTANCE Not only measured as a length but can also by measured by travel time, transport cost or position in a rank.

ACCESSIBILITY The measure of how easy it can be to move from one location to another. (people, objects and ideas)

PATTERNS Things that interact or are related often form a pattern in an environment.

PROCESSES A sequence of actions which modify or maintain the environment.

REGIONS The surface of the earth can be divided into units. This can be at many scales. Often arranged due to a set of patterns and processes

INTERACTION Things in an environment can affect each other. Landscapes are the visible result of processes interacting in the environment.

CHANGE People, as a group or as individuals, through their decisions and actions may cause change. It is a normal process in both cultural and natural environments. It may be small or great in its effects.

Systems A set of natural and/or cultural phenomena which are linked together in some way. The main components of a system are; sources of energy, linkages, flows, processes, dimensions.

Culture and Perception People respond to the world as viewed through their culture. People living together develop a common way of life (culture) which influences the way they view and understand their environment (perception).