Unit 2.Lesson 1 - What is Geography

What is Geography?

Knowledge Check - What do you know?
Unit 2, Lesson 1

Geographic Information (GIS)
Geography
Global Positioning System (GPS)
Population
Port
Rural
Spatial Thinking

Vocabulary

1. Construct geographic questions

2. Use a map to identify a geographic pattern

3. Describe uses of geographic information

Objectives/Goals

What is Geography?

Essential Question: How is geography useful?

Poll

If you could choose any place in the world to visit, what type of geographic location would you pick?

• Andes Mountains, Peru, South America

• Black Forest, Germany, Europe

• Zambezi River, Zambia, Africa

• Arabian Desert, United Arab Emirates

• Mongolian Steppes, Mongolia

What is Geography?

1. Geography: the study of the physical and human characteristics of places on Earth as well as the relationship between people and their environment.

   1. Study the physical features on earth

   2. Study the human-created features on earth

   3. Study why people live in an area on earth

   4. Study how people use the physical features on earth

   5. Study how people adapt to the physical features on earth

Open Ended

Choose one of the geographic locations. Think about how you would help this city survive.

How would you provide food to the thousands of people living there?

How would you provide jobs for the thousands of people living there?

How would you keep the city clean?

How would you support the citizens of this city?

Asking Geographic Questions

1. Spatial Thinking: thinking about the features of space around you to understand the world

2. Ask Geographic Questions

   1. How does a place impact the environment and the people that live in that area?

      1. How do you grow food in the mountains?

      2. How do you heat your house in a cold region?

      3. How do you have enough space to build houses in a rainforest?

      4. How do you get enough water for people living in the desert?

3. As a geographer, you need to ask questions about the environment and where and why people live in that region?

Open Ended

Practice Spatial Thinking and Asking Geographic Questioning.

Look at the location of this city on the Mongolian Steppes.

What is one question you could ask about how to help this city support the citizens?

​How does the sea impact the way people live in Cape Town, South Africa?

Looking for Geographic Patterns

1. Geographers notice patterns when they examine maps and other geographic tools to answer questions about people, places and how they interact. 

2. What are Geographic Patterns?

   1. How long have people lived in a specific location?

   2. Why do people move to an urban (city) location?

   3. Why do people move to a rural (countryside) location?

3. Why do we look at geographic patterns?

   1. Make predictions about the future

   2. Use of the land

   3. Make changes to improve the land

   4. Look at the population (the number of people living in an area)

   5. Looking at the location of Ports (a place where ships arrive and depart)

Draw

What geographic pattern do you see with all of South America's largest cities?

Open Ended

The US Cencus Beura stated that the San Antonio had the most people move to that city, in 2023. What is a geographic question you could ask about this geographic pattern?

Draw

During the Covid Pandemic, geographers used charts and maps to determine information about the spread of Covid. What is one geogrphic pattern that you can identify?

How do Geographers Gather Information?

• Geographers examine data (information) from maps, computer systems, images, and other sources to identify geographic patterns 

• Geographic Information System (GIS): a computer system that analyzes and displays information about places or where something is located.

  1. Show multiple layers of information

  2. Helps geographers identify geographic patterns

• Global Positioning System (GPS): uses satellites to show exactly where a receiver is located

  1. Shows a route (path) to a specific destination

• Census: a survey that gathers data about the population of a place

  1. Occurs every ten years

• Field Work: Geographers go and visit a destination and gather information through observations and interviews

• Remote Sensing: satellites, drones, etc., to send images and data to computers

Google Earth

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Draw

Draw an image of how you use geographic information in your life or

Draw an image of how geographic information can be used to solve problems.