The 5 Themes of
Geography
•Location
•Place
•Region
•Movement
•HumanEnvironment
Interaction
Location
• There are 2 ways to define location.
• Absolute Location: a place’s exact position on
Earth using latitude and longitude.
• These are imaginary lines drawn around
Earth to help geographers describe places.
• Example: Philadelphia is located at about
39°N and 75° W on Earth.
• Relative Location: the location of a place
relative to another place.
• Example: Philadelphia is located on the East
Coast of The U.S
How can you find an exact
location of a place?
Longitude and Latitude
Longitude and Latitude
• Imaginary lines that are drawn around Earth to
help geographers study location of places.
• Latitude: Horizontal lines that run EAST to
WEST. Latitude is the distance north or south
of the Equator, measured in units called
degrees.
• Longitude: Vertical lines that run NORTH to
SOUTH. Longitude is the distance east or west
of the Prime Meridian, measured in degrees.
• Philadelphia is located at about 39°N and 75°
W on Earth.
Equator and Prime Meridian
• The Equator marks 0 latitude. Think of
it as Earth’s belt. It runs directly
around Earth’s middle.
• The Prime Meridian marks 0 longitude.
It runs from top to bottom of Earth.
• Each half of Earth is called a
hemisphere.
Place
• Human and physical features at a
specific location.
• Example (physical feature): Hawaii is an
archipelago, a series of islands.
• Example (human feature): Hawaiian
people speak the Hawaiian language and
have festivals called luaus where they
practice the hula dance.
Region
• A region is an area with a unifying
human or physical feature such as
population, history, climate, or
landforms.
• Example: The Rocky Mountain Region in
Colorado is a region of the United
States.
Movement
• Movement explores how people, goods, and
ideas get from one place to another.
Movement helps to explain cultural changes
• Example #1: Computers spread information
to mass amounts of people.
• Example #2: Foreign countries shipping
goods to be sold globally.
• Example #3: Action News on Channel 6
reports current events.
Human-Environment Interaction
• Considers how people affect their
environment, or their natural surroundings,
and how their environment affects them.
• Example: Students take on a recycling
project and clean up a park in their town.
• Example: The Nile River was the source of
life for the Egyptian people.