LOCATION
Answers the question: "Where are we?"
Absolute locations: latitude and longitude or a street address. For example, Paris, France is 48o51' North latitude and 2.20' East longitude. Or, the street address of JFK is 100 Bridge Road.
Relative locations are described by landmarks, time, direction or distance from one place to another and may associate a particular place with another.
PLACE
When studying the theme of Place, think about both the physical features and the human features.
What kind of place is it? What do you think of when you imagine it? How is the place connected to other places?
Places have both physical and human characteristics, as well as images. Physical characteristics include mountains, rivers, beaches, wildlife, and soil. Places have human characteristics also which we call culture such as religion, clothing, sports and food.
HUMAN/ENVIRONMENTAL INTERACTION
How do humans and the environment affect each other? We change the environment and sometimes Mother Nature changes it back with force. Think about environmental catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina, tsunamis and earthquakes and tornado damage.
There are three key concepts to human/environmental interaction:
1. Humans adapt to the environment
2. Humans modify the environment
3. Humans depend on the environment
For example, People adapt to the environment by wearing clothing that is appropriate for different climates. People modify our environment by heating and cooling buildings or building dams. People depend on rivers for our water and transportation, and farmers depend on certain weather for successful crops.
MOVEMENT
The movement of people, goods and ideas
The movement of people, the import and export of goods, and communication shape our world. People around the planet interact all the time. We travel from place to place and share our ideas. Not only do humans move but also ideas and culture move: think about fashion, games, food and music. Think about the things you own and rely on.
This theme asks you to think carefully about the movement of the things you own, the things you do, the people on the earth. How do we depend on people in other places? How would our lives change if people and things could no longer travel the globe? How do we move from place to place? How do the things we use actually get to us?
REGION
A region is the basic unit of study in geography. A region is an area that displays a clear unity in terms of the government, language, or the landform. Regions are human creations that can be mapped and thought about. There are three basic types of regions.
Formal regions: defined by governmental boundaries, like countries, cities or towns (i. e., United States, Birmingham, Brazil).
Functional regions are those defined by a function (for example a paper route or an airline flight map). If the function ceases to exist, the region no longer exists.
Vernacular regions are those loosely defined by people's perception of the place (for example, The South, The Middle East, the Northeast).
