Geography’s Five Themes Core Concepts 1.2

Essential Question: What are Themes of Geography? Geographers use five different themes or ways of thinking They help geographer’s two basic questions: Where are things located? What is it like there?

Theme one: Location Two types of location. Absolute location- describes a place’s exact position on Earth in terms of longitude and latitude. -Your address is an example of an absolute location. Relative location-the location of a place relative to another place. -Example Statement: I live in Indiana. -

Where in the Universe is Cedar Lake, Indiana? Finding Absolute Location Create a flip book-Quiz tomorrow!

Theme two: Place Place refers to the mix of human and nonhuman features in a given location. May include geographic features such as mountains, lakes and rivers as well as climate. Example: Cedar Lake is a small town in Northwest Indiana that has hot summers, cold winters and a mild fall and spring season.

Theme three: Region A region is an area with at least one unifying physical or human feature such as climate, landforms, population, or history. Example: A desert is a region based on landforms and climate.

Theme four: Movement Movement explores how people, goods (things) and ideas get from one place to another. Why are you living in Cedar Lake?

Theme five: Human-Environment Interaction Human-Environment Interaction considers how people affect their environment and how their environment affects them. Example: deforestation, acid rain, cities built, creation of farmland