6 Essential Elements & 5 Themes Of GeographyBy Mrs. Davalos

ELEMENT 1: THE WORLD IN SPATIAL TERMS Maps, photographs, and satellite images are principal

tools for investigating the relationships between people, places, and environments. When information is shown using those tools, it is in a spatial context. The spatial context for geography is the Earth.

How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.

How to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environments in a spatial context.

How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth's surface.

ELEMENT 2: PLACES AND REGIONS People are attached to particular places and

regions. Regions and places have been given meaning by people, and in turn those places and regions help people to organize and understand the complex world. The geographically informed person knows and understands:

The physical and human characteristics of places. That people create regions to interpret Earth's

complexity. How culture and experience influence people's

perceptions of places and regions.

ELEMENT 3: PHYSICAL SYSTEMS The Earth is always changing. Many of the changes

are the result of physical processes. Geography includes four types of physical processes that are important to understanding the Earth.

The atmosphere (weather and climate), the lithosphere (plate tectonics, erosion), the hydrosphere (oceans, water cycle), and biosphere (ecosystems, vegetation) are the physical systems that shape and change the surface of the Earth. The geographically informed person knows and understands:

The physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth's surface.

ELEMENT 4: HUMAN SYSTEMS Human systems are in constant change on the Earth.

People migrate, increase, decrease, or stabilize their numbers in different places, and learn ways of living that distinguish a group from other groups. Human systems are comprised primarily of population, culture, settlement, and the cooperation, conflicts, and relationships among those components.

The geographically informed person knows and understands: The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth's surface.

The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics.

ELEMENT 5: ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY Human history has witnessed many different

instances of people interacting with the environment. People sometimes adjust their lives to fit the environmental conditions, while in other settings the natural environment has been greatly altered to meet the needs of people. Some societies have benefited greatly from environmental resources and others have created environmental hazards and crises in the way the resources have been used.

How human actions modify the physical environment.

ELEMENT 6: THE USES OF GEOGRAPHY Geography provides a means to look at the past,

present, and future. Events and issues, regardless of their past, present, or future nature, have a geographical context. The geographical context is important to explaining what happened and where, and what the consequences were or might be, both historically and geographically.

How to apply geography to interpret the past. How to apply geography to interpret the present

and plan for the future.

5 Themes of geography There are actually five themes of geography. They are: Location, Place, Region, Movement, (Human/Environmental)

Interaction. An acronym (to remember it) is: Lily plays racquetball more inside. HOPE THIS HELPS! actually there are 6 elements. Another way to remember this is

Mr. Help M- Movement R- Region . HE- Human/ Environmental L- Location P- Place

Location Is your exact location example an address LOCATION "Where are we?" is the question that the theme Location answers. Location may be absolute or it may be relative. These locations, whether relative or absolute, may be of people or places.

An absolute location is a latitude and longitude (a global location) or a street address (local location).

Florence, AL is 34o46' North latitude and 87.40' West longitude Paris, France is 48o51' North latitude and 2.20' East longitude Marshall Islands are 10o00' North latitude and 165o00' East longitude

Location

Relative locations are described by landmarks, time, direction or distance from one place to another and may associate a particular place with another.

Place All places have certain characteristics that

distinguish them from other places. For example, think of Florida. When describing it, people say, "It's hot, humid, has a lot of tourists, and beautiful beaches. Its Near Georgia.

Write down the first three things they think of when Florida is mentioned

Place PLACE What kind of place is it? What do you think of when you imagine China?

Japan? Russia? Saudi Arabia?

Places have both human and physical characteristics, as well as images.

Physical characteristics include mountains, rivers, soil, beaches, wildlife, soil. Places have human characteristics also. These characteristics are derived from the ideas and actions of people that result in changes to the environment, such as buildings, roads, clothing, and food habits.

The image people have of a place is based on their experiences, both intellectual and emotional. People's descriptions of a place reveal their values, attitudes, and perceptions.

How is your hometown connected to other places? What are the human and physical characteristics of Florence? How do these shape our lives?

Human/Environment Interaction Geographers study the positive and

negative effects of how people interact with their environment. What are changes people make to the land or water that affect their everyday lives? Examples would be they build dams, create highways, and clear forests.

Stop Population Posters

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 in the mid-West, Hurricane Emily (Hatteras), and earthquakes and mudslides in California.

There are three key concepts to human/environmental interaction:

Humans adapt on the environment. Humans modify the environment. Humans depend to the environment.

HUMAN/ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION People depend on the Tennessee River for our water

and transportation. People modify our environment by heating and coolings buildings for comfort. People adapt to the environment by wearing clothing that is suitable for summer and winter; rain and shine.

All places on Earth have advantages and disadvantages for human settlement. One person's advantage may be another person's disadvantage. Some like the excitement of large cities whereas others prefer remoteness. Environment is not just trees, spotted owls, and rain forests. Environment is a feeling. What is the environment of a big city? Boston? Los Angeles? Dallas?

HUMAN/ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION

Given the choice, where would you live? Why? What is the environment? How do people interact with the environment? How do the physical features affect us?

How have we adapted to or changed our landscape? For example, in the Sudan even though everything is seemingly barren, the land sustains farmers and nomadic herders. People and animals have adapted to a hot, dry climate.

Movement The movement of people, the import and export of

goods, and mass communication have all played major roles in shaping our world. People everywhere interact. They travel from place to place and they communicate. We live in a global village and global economy.

People interact with each other through movement. Humans occupy places unevenly on Earth because of the environment but also because we are social beings. We interact with each other through travel, trade, information flows (E-Mail) and political events.

Movement Not only do humans move but also ideas move;

fashions move; fads move. What is an example of an idea that moves?

Fashion? Fad? How do we depend on people in other places? How would our lives change if our movement

options changed? What would happen if we traveled by camel or

horse? How do we move from place to place? How do we actually get food?

Movement This theme of geography has to do with

how and why people move from one place to another.

Why do people move from crowded cities is ?

Region Regions is the study of sections of the

earth and the characteristics that make them up, including industry, landforms, and water.

Look at the region you live in with your students.

What is your region known for?

Region A region is the basic unit of study in

geography. A region is an area that displays a coherent unity in terms of the government, language, or possibly the landform or situation. Regions are human constructs that can be mapped and analyzed.

Region There are three basic types of regions.

Formal regions are those defined by governmental or administrative boundaries (i. e., United States, Birmingham, Brazil). These regional boundaries are not open to dispute, therefore physical regions fall under this category (i. e., The Rockies, the Great Lakes States).

Functional regions are those defined by a function (i. e., TVA, United Airlines Service area 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).

Region Q & A What region do we live in? What type of region is it? What are its characteristics? South, North

Alabama, the Shoals, the University community?

What states do you define as the South? The Northeast?

The Bible Belt? What characteristics and perceptions go

along with these regions?

Review Location -- Where are things located? A location can be specific (for

example, it can be stated as coordinates of longitude and latitude or as a distance from another place) or general (it's in the Northeast).

Place -- What makes a place different from other places? Differences might be defined in terms of climate, physical features, or the people who live there and their traditions.

Human-environment interaction -- What are the relationships among people and places? How have people changed the environment to better suit their needs?

Movement -- What are the patterns of movement of people, products, and information? A study of movement includes learning about major modes of transportation used by people, an area's major exports and imports, and ways in which people communicate (move ideas).

Regions -- How can Earth be divided into regions for study? Regions can be defined by a number of characteristics including area, language, political divisions, religions, and vegetation (for example, grassland, marshland, desert, rain forest).