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. 1. 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. 2. Relative location -the location of a place relative to another place. -

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.  A city on population and history. Chicago

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.