Unit 1

Geography and Characteristics

of Society

Geography is the study of:

•Man•His/her environment•Available resources

Why do we study geography?• To understand basic physical systems that affect everyday life (e.g.

earth-sun relationships, water cycles, wind and ocean currents).• To learn the location of places and the physical and cultural

characteristics of those places in order to function more effectively in our increasingly interdependent world.

• To understand the geography of past times and how geography has played important roles in the evolution of people, their ideas, places and environments.

• To develop a mental map of your community, province or territory, country and the world so that you can understand the “where” of places and events.

• To explain how the processes of human and physical systems have arranged and sometimes changed the surface of the Earth.

• To understand the spatial organization of society and see order in what often appears to be random scattering of people and places.

• To be able to make sensible judgments about matters involving relationships between the physical environment and society.

• To appreciate Earth as the homeland of humankind and provide insight for wise management decisions about how the planet’s resources should be used.

• To understand global interdependence and to become a better global citizen.

5 Themes of geography

•Location•Place•Human-environment interaction•Movement•Region

5 Themes of Geography- location

•  Location•Your position on the earth’s surface.•People can find the location of an area using…

Latitude:

• Lines that run east to west on a map & measures distances north and south of the equator

Equator:

• an imaginary line that divides the Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

Longitude:

• Lines that run north/south on a map that measure distance east and west of the Prime Meridian (Greenwich, England)

Prime Meridian:

• an imaginary line that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemisphere

Hints to remember:

LOCATION=LATITUDE & LONGITUDE (3 L’s)

All lines of LONGITUDE are LONG

5 Themes of Geography- Place•Physical characteristics•ex. landforms, water, climate, animal life, etc.

•Human characteristics•ex. where we live, languages, religious beliefs, economic activity, etc.

5 Themes of Geography- Human-Environment Interaction

a) Relates to the effects that humans have on their environment

b) Where people live, they change the world around them. This includes:

I. Farming and irrigationII. Clearing landIII.Mining

c) Changes in technology enable humans to have great environmental impacts, both positive and negative

Movement• Occurs as people and their

ideas go from one place to another.• Reasons for movement: •Search for food•Look for jobs•Trading goods/money•Desire to be free•Escape religious persecution

5) Regiona. A geographers way of

subdividing the world into small parts for study.•This creates an area with its own unifying characteristics.Ex.) Cultural divisions: The

Orient (China/ Japan)

Economic divisions: Ex. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world countries• Physical divisions:

Continents, etc.