How Geographers Look at the World Chapter 1: Geography Skills and Craft

Important Vocabulary Site: a place’s specific location (physical setting). Ex: San Francisco. Situation: an expression of relative location. Ex: San Francisco as a port city. Place: a particular space with physical and human meaning. Region: areas with similar characteristics. Ex: Switzerland.

Vocabulary (Cont’d) Formal Region: defined by common characteristics. Ex: The Corn Belt. Functional Region: a central place where the surrounding area is linked to it. Ex: Metropolitan Areas. Perceptual Region: classified by popular feelings and images, not objective data. Ex: The Heartland.

Vocabulary (Cont’d) Ecosystem: a community of plants and animals that depend upon one another, and their surroundings, for survival. Movement: of people, goods, and ideas. Human-environment interactions: the study of the inter-relationship between people and their physical environment.

Vocabulary (Cont’d) Cartography: the designing and making of maps. Geographic information systems (GIS): computer tools that process and organize data and satellite images with other types of intel.

Introduction What is geography? Why is it important?

Maps A cartographer creates maps. Great Circle Route: Curved Line. Shortest distance. Map Projections: Planar, Cylindrical, and Conic. Finding Absolute Locations. The Hemispheres.

Maps (Cont’d) Small-Scale vs. Large- Scale. Physical Map – Topography. Political Maps – Human- made. Qualitative Maps. Flow-Line Maps.

Geography Breakdown Geography is broken into two major branches: Physical and Human. Physical Geography focuses on the earth’s physical features. Human (or Cultural) Geography centers on human activities.

Geographic Usages Geography interprets the past, understands the present, and plans for the future. This is accomplished through: observation, mapping, interviewing, statistical analysis, and technology. Final Examples: Politics, Culture, and Economics.