The Five themes of Geography
· The five themes of geography are 1. Place, 2.Location, 3. Human Environment Interaction4. Movement 5. Regions.
· In geography we study the earth’s surface and how people use it.
· The first theme of geography is Place.
· Features are what make one place different from another place.
· Physical features are formed by nature. Some places have distinct physical features.
· Examples of physical features are mountains, valleys, climate, landforms, and natural resources.
· Places can also have human features such as buildings, highways, airports, and railroads.
· The next theme of geography is location.
· The lines that go from east to west are called latitude lines.
· The lines that go from north to south are called longitude lines.
New Orleans is 30 ̊N and 90 ̊W this is its absolute location.
· Landmarks are a way for describing a location for directions.
· The next theme of geography is human environment interaction.
· Physical environment of a place can affect the people who live there.
· Mountains, weather, and ocean are all part of the physical environment.
· The physical environment can make places hard to live in.
· It can also give people much needed things such as fresh water and hills (protection).
· The fourth theme of geography is movement.
· Movement describes how people, goods, and ideas move from place to place.
· Humans interact with one another.
· People move goods from place to place by airplanes, ships, trains, trucks, and cars.
· Ideas also move by phones, computers, newspapers, and TV.
· After gold was discovered people moved (migrated) to the Western United States.
· Many of the biggest cities are near oceans because it easier to transport goods.
· Movement also allows the exchange of culture, an example is Tex-Mex food found in Texas.
· The last theme of geography is regions.
· Geographers organized the places on earth into groups.
· A region is an area with at least one common feature that makes it different from an area around it.
· The common features that make an area a region are landforms, climate, and the kind of plants that live in an area.
· Urban regions include cities.
· Suburbs are the areas outside of the cities.
· Rural regions include areas far away from the cities such as farmland.
· Regions are also defined by culture and the language it shares.
· Regions have their own history and heritage.
· A region can also have their own borders and government.
· The United States is divided into 5 regions:
1. Southeast
2. Middle west
3. Southeast
4. East
5. West
· Physical features, Industries, Culture, and heritage, can divide a region.
· Even your school can be divided by regions such as the library and cafeteria.