Geographers
Toolbox

 “Geo”-earth
 “graphy”-to write
 Geographers ask “where” things are and “why” they are there
 Geography-The study of the distribution and interaction of physical and human features on the earth.

 Physical Geography-focus on natural environment.
 Human Geography-focus on people.
 The earth’s natural phenomena, like soil, plants, climate and topography.
 This is what most think of when they think
Geography.
 Processes, and locations of the earth’s human creations and their interactions.

 Continents
 County
 State/province/territory
 Islands
 Oceans

 Cartographer-A person who makes maps
 How do you know where things are without a map?

 Scale
 Compass Rose
 Symbols
 Title
 Key/Legend
 Color

Maps


 Maps-a two dimensional or flat scale model of the earth’s surface
Globe-scale model of the earth
Great Circle Route-shortest distance between 2 points on the earth

During the course of the year we will look at all types of maps, here are a few:
 Thematic
 Flow-line
 Chloropleth
 Dot Density
 Proportional
 Symbol thematic
 Reference
 Isoline Thematic
 Cognative or mental maps

 Projections are the scientific method of transferring locations on the Earth’s surface to a flat map.
 Think of a projection of making the skin of an orange lay flat.
Four types of distortions can occur:
1. shape of an area is distorted.
2. distance between two points may increase or decrease.
3. relative size of different areas may be altered.
4. Direction from one place to another can be distorted.

 Cylindrical (compromise)-shows true direction but loses distance.
 Planar-shows true direction and examines the earth from one point.
 Conic-cone over the earth, loses direction but keeps distance intact.
 Oval-combination of cylindrical and conic

Geographic
Information
Systems (GIS)
• Information on a location is stored in layers.
• Layers can be viewed individually or combined.
Remote Sensing
• Remote sensing satellites scan the earth.
• Google maps
Global Positioning
Systems (GPS)
• Accurately determines the precise position of something on earth.
• Originally designed for aircraft and ships, now available for autos.

 Put yourself in groups of 3. HURRY! DO THIS
BEFORE THE TARDY BELL RINGS!

 Analyze your picture:
 What do you see in the picture?
 What do you think is "different" in the picture?
 Does this look like everywhere else in the world?
 What affects the “look” of this place?
 Is the location of this place important?
 If I were trying to get to this place, how I might I travel there?

Describe Manvel High School using the 5 Themes of
Geography- there should be a characteristic for each
Theme

Five Themes of Geography
 Location
 Human/Environment
Interactions
 Regions
 Place
 Movement

 How do Geographers know where things are?
Absolute Location : refers to a position on the global grid.
Relative Location : a location as described in relation to places around it.

Absolute or Mathematical Location
 Mathematical location-location described by meridians and parallels, otherwise known as latitude and longitude.
Absolute location is unique for each place on earth.
 The absolute location of the ACC radio tower.
 Latitude: 29-24'02'' N
Longitude: 095-12'14'' W

 Meridians or longitude
 Parallels or Latitude


Prime Meridian
 GMT-Greenwich Mean Time
International Date line
 Equator
 Hemispheres

Why is each point on Earth Unique?
Four ways to identify a place on earth by it’s location.
1. Place name
Toponym or name to distinguish them from others.
Some names reflect history—New York
Some reflect the founder-Alvin-Alvin Morgan
Some are reflective-Three Rivers

.
2. Site- physical character of a place
Climate
Topography soil water resources
Vegetation elevation

3. Situation-location of a place relative to another place.
This characteristic refers to relative location.

Human
Environment
Interaction
People and their environment.

 Changes to environment to suit people.

 Interconnections between areas
 What connects people and places
 How do people move from one place
To another?

The organization of the earth’s surface into distinct areas that are viewed as different from other areas.

 There are three types of regions:
1.
2.
3.
Formal region
Functional Region
Vernacular or perceptual region

 Other wise known as uniform or homogeneous region.
 Everyone within the region shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics.
 Creation of a state or province is a formal region

 The North America Wheat Belt is a formal region.
 Persons in the USA who vote Republican or
Democratic .

 Functional or Nodal Regions are organized around a core, node or focal point.
 Geographers use functional regions to display information about economic areas.
 Newspaper circulation
 TV Station reception area
 People in our are who follow the Texans.

 The core area has distinct characteristics that lessen in intensity as one travels to the periphery, or the region’s margins.
 Traveling West from Denver persons will venture to the periphery of Salt Lake City.

 They are places that people believe to exist as part of their cultural identity.
 The reflect feelings and images more than any objective reality.

 Emerging mega regions of the USA

 A force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope.
 Human activities are rarely confined to one location.
 Multinational Corporation-located in more than one country. Can affect the culture of other nations.

 Distribution -the arrangement of a feature in space
 Density -frequency in which something occurs
 .

 Concentration-the extent of a features spread over space.
 Are they clustered (close together)?
 Are they dispersed (far apart) ?
 Concentration is not the same as density. You can have the same density but different concentrations. Think housing in communities.

 Pattern-the geometric arrangement of objects in space.
 Some are geometric-houses on a street are linear.
 Some are random and irregular

 Historically-settlers, explorers created interaction between locations
 Today- Airplanes, computers, Television, internet

Distance Decay-the farther away one group is from another group, the less likely they are to interact with each other.
Electronic communication
Has lessened this concept.

 North America, Western Europe and Japan are the centers of global culture and economy.