GEOGRAPHY’S 5 THEMESBROUGHT TO YOU BY POWERPOINTPROS.COM

5 THEMES

Geographers use 5 different themes, or ways of thinking. These 5 themes are: Location Place Region Movement Human-Environment Interaction

These themes can help geographers answer two basic questions: Where are things located? and Why are they there?

Next, we will look at each of those 5 themes in more detail…

LOCATION

Geographers begin their quest for knowledge about a place by finding its location, or where it is. There are two different ways to talk about location:

ABSOLUTE LOCATION

The absolute location of a place is its exact location, found using latitude and longitude. Using latitude and longitude, we can specifically pinpoint exactly where something is on the Earth. There is still one other way to talk about location, and it is…

RELATIVE LOCATION

Relative location is a more general way of finding location. People who use relative location tell the location of a certain place as it relates to another place. As an example, you could say that your house is next to a certain place, or that it is 12 miles north of a certain place. In both cases, you would be using relative location.

PLACE

Place is the second of Geography’s 5 themes that we are going to look at. Place refers to the mixture of both human and nonhuman features in a certain location. Examples include how people live in a place and the types of work they do. You may also mention some of the physical geography and climate when talking about place.

REGION

Geographers use the geographical theme Region to group places together that have something in common. A region is an area with at least one physical or human feature that unifies it. These unifying features could be climate, landforms, population, or history.

MOVEMENT

The theme of movement simply refers to how people, goods, and ideas can get from one place to another.

HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION

This theme considers how people affect their environment (natural surroundings). It also considers how their environment affects them.

CONCLUSION

All five of these themes are very important to geographers. These themes help geographers study a place and look at it from all aspects. Additionally, these themes can help geographers answer their two basic questions: Where are things located? and Why are they there?