UNIT 1: Texas Geography

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UNIT 1Texas Geography

• Understanding the physical and human
  characteristics of our state

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Era of Natural Texas and Its People

• What is an era? A fixed period of time
  characterized by particular events, features,
  developments, or people.
• Why do historians divide history into eras?
  Historians divide history into eras in order to
  create blocks of time that have similar
  characteristics in order to organize and present
  information about the past.

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Era of Natural Texas and Its People

• TEKS 1A
• Identify the major eras in Texas history,
  describe their defining characteristics, and
  explain why historians divide the past into eras,
  including Natural Texas and its People Age of
  Contact Spanish Colonial Mexican National
  Revolution and Republic Early Statehood Texas
  in the Civil War and Reconstruction Cotton,
  Cattle, and Railroads Age of Oil Texas in the
  Great Depression and World War II Civil Rights
  and Conservatism and Contemporary Texas

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6 Geographical Questions

• Location Where is it?
• Place What is it like?
• Regions How does it compare to other places?
• Human-Environment Interaction How do humans
  react to their environment and how does it affect
  them?
• Human Systems
• Physical Systems

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Location Where is it?

• Absolute Location The exact location of a place
  on the earths surface
• Relative Location The location of a place in
  relation to other places
• The Absolute location and Relative location of
  Texas affect it in many ways How has Texas
  relative location to Mexico affected it?

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Place What is it like?

• Place refers to the physical and human
  characteristics of a location
• Physical Characteristics include
• Landforms, Climate, plants, animals
• Human Characteristics include
• Language, Religion, Architecture, Music,
  Politics, ways of life

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Physical Characteristics
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Human Characteristics
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Regions How does it compare to other places?

• Geographers divide areas into regions in order to
  better study them.
• Regions are places that are united based on
  common characteristics
• Regions can be based on physical, human, business
  and other characteristics

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4 NaturalRegionsof Texas
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Human-Environment Interaction

• How do humans react to their environment and
  how does it affect them?
• Ex Pollution
• Deforestation
• Hurricanes/Tornadoes
• Farming
• Damming Rivers to make lakes

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Human Systems

• Movement - How people move through the
  environment
• Cultural Diffusion - new ideas brought by
  migrating people become widely accepted.
• People bring ideas and goods with them when they
  move from one place to another.

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Physical Systems

• Geographers analyze physical systems such as
  mountains, volcanoes, hurricanes, glaciers to see
  how they interact with and shape places and
  regions.
• They also study plant and animal ecosystems that
  depend on each other and their surroundings in
  places and regions for their survival.

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Movement in Texas
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Why Geography?

• Geography prepares us for modern life
• People, businesses, governments depend on
  geography everyday to meet their needs
• Computer software such as GIS and GPS use
  geography to help people

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Roy Bedichek

• He was an author and speaker considered a
  Naturalist
• who traveled and
• documented the
• Texas landscape for
• over 30 years. Died in
• 1959.

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TEXAS GEOGRAPHY NOTES PART 2
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CLIMATE
Texas has the most varied climate of any other
state in the United States. It even varies
greatly from one area of the state to the next.
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Absolute Location

• Texas lies in what are called the middle
  latitudes, the region about midway between the
  equator and the north pole.

• Because of this absolute location of Texas being
  
• not very far north
• of the equator, it has mild winters, and
  because it is not very far south of the north
  pole is has mild summers.

TEXAS
EQUATOR
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Northers

• Sudden, icy blasts of cold air, called northers,
  extend south from Canada and sweep across the
  plains of Texas.
• Despite its overall warmth, Texas is subject to
  periods of cold weather.

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Storms

• Violent storms form when cool air from the north
  collides with moist warm air from the Gulf of
  Mexico.
• Because Texas is
• on the Gulf,
• destructive storms
• such as hurricanes
• sometimes sweep
• across the state.

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Relative Location

• Because Texas is on the gulf coast, breezes from
  the Gulf of Mexico cool Texas in the summer and
  warm it in the winter.
• Moisture from the Gulf gives Texas a lot of its
  rainfall. However,
• some parts of
• Texas are so far from
• The Gulf it has little
• effect on climate there.
• In the hot, dry areas,
• water is a precious,
• natural resource.

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Elevation

• Elevation also affects the Texas climate. The
  temperature cools by 3 degrees every 1000-foot
  rise in elevation.
• The temperature rises as elevation decreases

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ECONOMY
Texas has various economic industries such as
petroleum (oil), agriculture, ranching, and
tourism. Texas has also used its natural
resources to produce alternative forms of energy.
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Energy Production

• Petroleum and natural gas are the most important
  mineral resources
• The oil boom of the early 1900s contributed to
  Houstons expansion and growth.
• Many Texas oil refineries around the greater
  Houston area produce gasoline from petroleum.
• Offshore drilling jobs in the Gulf of Mexicohigh
  risk, high reward!

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Energy Production

• Texans have adapted and modified the environment
  by
• building dams on rivers to harness power for
  electricity.
• irrigating the farms in the Great Plains region
  to yield sufficient crops such as cotton, wheat,
  rice, corn, etc.

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Economic Growth

• Agribusiness (combines farming and ranching) has
  contributed to the economic rise of Fort Worth as
  a major city.
• San Antonios tourism industry has boomed thanks
  to the states most popular and visited historic
  landmark The Alamo!
• El Paso has sustained economic prosperity through
  maquiladoras.

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CULTURE
Texas has a rich, cultural history with a
European influence headlined by Spanish and
Mexican heritage.
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TEX-MEX
Caliente!

• Much of the Texas culture has been influenced by
  Spanish/Mexican heritage such as food,
  architecture, and language (vocabulary).
• Tex-Mex is a blend of Texas and Mexican culture
  widely accepted.

Yummy!
Hola!
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Texas Growth by Ethnicity
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Texas Population 1800-1850
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Texas Population 1850-2040
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TX Population 1800-2000
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Texas Metropolitan Growth
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TX Population By Age