Geography-+Its+Nature+and+Perspective





[|Citation for Picture] I. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives 5–10% **A.** Geography as a field of inquiry **B.** Evolution of key geographical concepts and models associated with notable geographers **C.** Key concepts underlying the geographical perspective: location, space, place, scale, pattern, regionalization, and globalization **D.** Key geographical skills 1. How to use and think about maps and spatial data 2. How to understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in places 3. How to recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and processes 4. How to define regions and evaluate the regionalization process 5. How to characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places **E.** Geographic technologies, such as GIS, remote sensing, and GPS **F.** Sources of geographical ideas and data: the field, census data, and satellite imagery

This unit may be considered simple or non-important but in all actuallity covers the basics of all the things we do in this class. It's important to be able to use and understand what maps and case studies tell us. In this unit it discuses more physical geography, but human geography is made up of both, cultural geography and physical geography.

The course introduces students to the importance of spatial organization — the location of places, people, and events, and the connections among places and landscapes — in the understanding of human life on Earth. Geographic concepts emphasized throughout the course are location, space, place, scale, pattern, regionalization, and globalization. These concepts are basic to students’ understanding of spatial interaction and spatial behavior, the dynamics of human population growth and movement, patterns of culture, economic activities, political organization of space, and human settlement patterns, particularly urbanization. Students learn how to use and interpret maps.[|AP College Board Course description]

In our wiki, we discuss the map projections, all required vocabulary for the unit, current events that have to do with this unit. In depth, we go over the five themes of geography, and we also have some extra information for the curious.

**Flashcards/Review Page** mhsaphuge3/Intro to Geography Flashcards

** Map Projections: **

map projections: media type="custom" key="21880792" align="center"

map types: media type="custom" key="21880802" align="center"

Click here for Questions involving these map projections:

Location and Place: Click for interactive Vocabulary!

Perception of place describes the way we develop a place that we've never been to by using information we have recieved from books, movies, stories and pictures.

Absolute Location - accurate location, sometimes determined by its exact longitude and latitude points. Relative Location - A place in relation to other features around it. example: North Carolina is located North of South Carolina, east of Tennessee, and South of Virginia. Mental Maps are the maps we create in our minds of places that we have been or have heard about, allowing us to envision what they look like.

Activity Spaces are spaces in which we visit often or daily and are more accurately detailed in our minds.



All of our activity spaces will include Millbrook High School because we come here everyday.

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**Geocaching: ** media type="youtube" key="-4VFeYZTTYs" height="273" width="407" align="center"

[] On the geocaching website under the search North Carolina, there are over 12,000 search results for valid geocache sites!
 * Related Vocabulary **

Google Earth: Google earth is a virtual world map that allows you to view, zoom and explore different regions of the earth. Google earth manipulates its images by using satellite pictures received from space as well as satellite trucks that take pictures on the streets. [|Google Earth Videos]--This youtube page has a collection of videos that show different interesting pictures found within the Google earth maps. [|Google Earth-Official Site]--To learn more about the cool things that google earth can do!
 * Current Event**-related to maps.

GPS: Global Position System A GPS can show your exact position on earth by using a series of satellites with extreme accuracy. If you have a GPS or other navigation system, such as a smart phone, then you are able to go geocaching!

Basic Information: Each GPS satellite transmits data that indicates its location and the current time. All GPS satellites synchronize operations so that these repeating signals are transmitted at the same instant. The signals, moving at the speed of light, arrive at a GPS receiver at slightly different times because some satellites are further away than others. The distance to the GPS satellites can be determined by estimating the amount of time it takes for their signals to reach the receiver. When the receiver estimates the distance to at least four GPS satellites, it can calculate its position in three dimensions. There are at least 24 operational GPS satellites <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">at all times plus a number of spares. The satellites, operated by the US DoD, orbit with a period of 12 hours (two orbits per day) at a height of about 11,500 miles traveling at 9,000mph (3.9km/s or 14,000kph). Ground stations are used to precisely track each satellite's orbit.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">To read more about GPS systems and how they work visit: GPS Information

**<span style="color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 150%;">Five Themes of Geography: **



Picture citation: [|geography.pppst.com]


 * <span style="color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">1. Location -** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">highlights how the geographical position of people and things on the Earth's surface affects what happens and why

<span style="color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">**3. Region** - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">an area on the Earth's surface marked by a degree of formal, functional, or perceptual homogeneity of some phenomenon
 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Absolute Location <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">provides a definite reference to locate a place(latitude/longitude)
 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Relative location <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">describes a place with respect to its environment and its connection to other places.
 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Location Theory - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">a logical attempt to explain the locational pattern of an economic activity and the manner in which its producing areas are interrelated
 * <span style="color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">2. Human-Environment Interactions **- <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">reciprocal relationship between humans and environment and how the human modifys to it


 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Formal Regions - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">are those that are designated by boundaries (Ex: cities, states, counties, and countries); they are clearly indicated and publicaly known
 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Functional Regions - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">a region deifined by the particular set of activities or interactions that occur within it (connections)
 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Vernacular Regions - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">perceived regions, they have no formal boundaries (Ex: The "South", "North". and the "Midwest")


 * <span style="color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">4. Place **- <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">uniqueness of a location

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Two types:


 * 1) <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Physical Differences - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">include mountains, rivers and wildlife and things that occur naturally
 * 2) <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Human Differences - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">are things that have changed due to people, such as roads and buildings


 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Sense of Place - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">state of mind derived through the infusion of a place with meaning and emotion by remembering important events that occurred in that place or by labeling a place with a certain character
 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Perception of Place - <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">belief or "understanding" of a place that is developed through books, movies or media


 * <span style="color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">5. Movement **- <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">travel of people, goods and ideas from one location to another (Ex: America's westward expansion and immigration)


 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Distance: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">measurement of the physical space between two places
 * Accessibility: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">the degree of ease with which it is possible to reach a certain location from other locations; varies from place to place and can be measured
 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Connectivity: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">the degree of direct linkage between one particular location and other locations in a transport network

<span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 140%;">These themes can be answered using these questions:


 * 1) Location: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Where is it located?
 * 2) Human- Environment Interactions: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">What is the relationship between humans and their environment?
 * 3) <span style="background-color: #2fff00; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Region: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">How and why is an area similar to another?
 * 4) Place: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">What's it like there?
 * 5) <span style="background-color: #2fff00; color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Movement: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">How and why are areas connected to each other?

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">In addition to these themes--- Landscape is a core element of geography it refers to the material character of a place, the complex of natural features, human structures, and other tangible objects that give a place a particular from.
 * <span style="background-color: #2fff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Cultural Landscape : <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">the visible imprint of human activity on the landscape
 * <span style="background-color: #00ff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Sequent Occupance : <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">the notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape

FIVE THEMES VIDEO: media type="youtube" key="HyvsaPSKFYY" height="315" width="420" align="center"

LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE VIDEO: media type="youtube" key="cKT16DjHo_8" height="315" width="444" align="center"

MAP PROJECTIONS AND GIS VIDEO: media type="youtube" key="e2jHvu1sKiI" height="315" width="420"

MAPPING THE OCEANS VIDEO: media type="youtube" key="OQCoWAbOKfg" height="315" width="420" Citations:


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**<span style="color: #0013ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 150%;">Current Event: ** <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Geography Current Events: [] (third article down) *as of 1/4/12 ====‍This article is about how people are now making very large topographic maps. They are up to eight feet tall! I posted the link below that gets you to the website where you can order them.====

‍Link:
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