Geography: The Basics.

1
Geography The Basics.

• What you should remember from the 6th and 7th
  grade !!

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The 5 Themes of Geography

• THEME - 1 LOCATION
• "Where are we?"   is the question that the theme
  Location answers. Location may be absolute or it
  may be relative. 
• An absolute location is an exact location, for
  example, latitude and longitude (a global
  location) or a street address (local location).  
  
• Relative locations are described by landmarks,
  time, direction or distance from one place to
  another and may associate a particular place with
  another. ( 2 blocks past McDonalds or 100 miles
  North of Lexington.)

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• Theme 2 PLACE
• What kind of place is it?  Places have both human
  and physical characteristics, as well as images.
• Physical characteristics include mountains,
  rivers, soil, beaches, wildlife, etc...  
• Places have human characteristics also.  These
  characteristics are created by the ideas and
  actions of people and result in changes to the
  environment such as buildings, roads, clothing,
  and food habits.

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• Theme 3 HUMAN/ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION
• How do humans and the environment affect each
  other?  We change the environment and then
  sometime Mother Nature changes it back.  For
  example, floods , Hurricanes, tornados and
  earthquakes.There are three key concepts to
  human/environmental interaction
•  Humans adapt to the environment.  Humans modify
  the environment.  Humans depend on the
  environment. People depend on rivers for water
  and transportation.   People modify our
  environment by heating and cooling buildings for
  comfort.   People adapt to the environment by
  wearing clothing that is suitable for summer and
  winter rain and shine.
• How have we adapted to or changed our landscape? 
  For example, in the desert even though everything
  is seemingly barren people and animals have
  adapted to a hot, dry climate and have learned to
  farm and raise animals.

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• Theme 4 MOVEMENT
• The movement of people, the import and export of
  goods, and mass communication (phones, internet,
  etc) have all played major roles as people
  interact.  They travel from place to place and
  they communicate. People interact with each other
  through movement.  Humans occupy places unevenly
  on Earth because of the environment but also
  because we interact with each other through
  travel, trade, information flows (E-Mail) and
  political events.
• Not only do humans move but also ideas and
  culture move. Things and ideas such as fashions,
  fads, music, technology move.

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• THEME 5 REGION
• A region is the basic unit of study in
  geography.  A region is an area that displays a
  clear unity in terms of the government, language,
  or possibly the landform or situation.  Regions
  are human designated that can be mapped and
  studied.
• There are three basic types of regions.
• Formal regions are those defined by governmental
  or administrative boundaries (i. e., United
  States, Lexington, KY).  These regional
  boundaries are not open to dispute, therefore
  physical regions fall under this category (i. e.,
  The Rockies, the great lakes).

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• Functional regions are those defined by a
  function (for example, Leestown school district,
  or a newspaper service area).  If the function
  ceases to exists, the region no longer exists.
• Vernacular regions are those loosely defined by
  people's perception (i. e., The South, The Middle
  East, The bluegrass).  

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Maps and Projections

• Map projections are attempts to portray the
  surface of the earth or a portion of the earth on
  a flat surface.
• Some sizes or shapes may be distorted, or
  stretched unrealistically.

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Mercator Robinson Projections

• The Mercator Projection is excellent for
  navigation because it shows direction clearly.
  The Mercator Projection, however, has a great
  deal of distortion. In order to get the parallels
  and meridians to cross at right angles, Mercator
  stretched the areas further away from the poles
  and squeezed the areas closer to the equator.
• The Robinson projection is unique. Its primary
  purpose is to create visually appealing maps of
  the entire world. It is a compromise projection
  it does not eliminate any type of distortion, but
  it keeps the levels of all types of distortion
  relatively low over most of the map.

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Latitude and Longitude

•       Any location on Earth is described by two
  numbers--its latitude and its longitude. If a
  pilot or a ship's captain wants to specify
  position on a map, these are the "coordinates"
  they would use.
• On the globe, lines of constant longitude
  ("meridians") extend from pole to pole.
• On a globe of the Earth, lines of latitude are
  circles of different size. The longest is the
  equator, whose latitude is zero.

Longitude
Latitude
11
Modern Mapmaking

• Early mapmakers used stories and information from
  sailors to make their maps.
• Modern maps are made with the help of satellites
  like Landsat.

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Lands and ClimatesLandforms of North America
form 7 major regions.

• Pacific Coast
• Intermountain
• Rocky Mtns.
• Interior Plains
• Appalachian Mtns.
• Coastal Plains
• Canadian Shield

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Weather and Climate

• Weather What the condition of the atmosphere is
  like at a specific time.
• Climate The average weather over a period of 20
  30 years.
• There are many varying climates in North America
  that may run from hot to cold and dry to wet.
• Physical landforms, distance from the equator,
  and distance from coasts are important factors.