5 Themes of Geography

The Five Themes of

Geography

What are the five themes of geography?

●Geography is the study of Earth’s physical and cultural features.

○Physical features are sites or surroundings that you can hear, see, smell,
taste, and touch.

○Cultural features include the customs, values, and heritage among a
group of people.

●A theme is a pattern or main idea that consistently repeats itself throughout a
site or topic.

○Example: A grocery store contains many groupings of foods throughout
the building, such as produce or dairy.

○Example: We often talk about achievements and progress when studying
different eras of history.

●The five themes of geography allow us to more effectively study the people
and spaces around the world, their historical backgrounds, and their
relationships with one another.

What are the five themes of geography?

● Location

● Place

● Region

● Human-Environment Interaction

● Movement

The spot

where a site
can be found

on Earth

How do geographers study location?

●Geographers can identify
the location of any site or
space by either its
absolute location or its
relative location.

●Absolute location is the
exact coordinates or
address of a site on Earth.

●Relative location is where
a site can be found in
relation to another site.

Example:

White House in

Washington,

D.C.

Absolute Location:
Latitude and Longitude: 39° N, 77° W
Address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,
Washington, D.C.

Relative Location Examples:
The White House is several blocks
northwest of the U.S. Capitol Building.
Washington D.C. is 565 miles/910 km from
Ottawa, Canada.

What are

some

examples

of location?

Latitude and

Longitude
Coordinates

Statements of Relative Location

New York Stock

Exchange:

11 Wall St, New

York, NY

Address

Sydney,
Australia:

34° S, 151° E

New Orleans, Louisiana: 30° N, 90° W

Mexico City is
southeast of
Guadalajara,

Mexico.

Calgary is 79
miles/127 km

from Banff

National

Park.

123 N. Main

Street

2 Memorial
Dr, Kansas

City, MO

The store is
across the

street from the

gas station.

The characteristics and features of

a site that make it unique

How do geographers study place?

●

Geographers study both the physical and human
characteristics of places.

●

The physical characteristics of a place include
the climate, landforms, bodies of water, plants,
and animals at the site.

●

The human characteristics of a place include
the population, language, architecture, religion,
government, and culture at the site.

What are some examples of place?

Bora Bora,

French

Polynesia

Venice, Italy

Denali National

Park, Alaska

Dubai,
United

Arab

Emirates

Lagos, Nigeria

Amazon
Rainforest

Grand Canyon

National Park, Arizona

An area that shares

common

characteristics with

other areas

How do geographers study regions?

●Geographers often classify areas as regions to make it easier
to make comparisons.

●Regions can be as small as a neighborhood or as large as a
continent.

●Some regions have defined borders, such as states and
countries, while others do not.

●Geographers usually group areas into formal regions,
functional regions, or vernacular regions.

What are some examples of regions?

Formal regions are areas

that share a common

physical or human

characteristic, and are

often formally defined by

a government.

Functional regions are
areas that are centered
around a focal point and
their surrounding areas,
often in the case of big

cities and the surrounding

suburbs or towns

Vernacular regions

are based on

people’s different
perspectives and
do not have clearly

defined

boundaries.

San Antonio, Delaware,

France, South Korea, New
England, Latin America,
Rocky Mountains, Sahara

Desert, Corn Belt

New York Metropolitan
Area, Chicagoland, Los

Angeles Metropolitan Area

The South, the

West, the Midwest,

etc.

The relationship between humans

and nature in an area

How do geographers study human-environment interaction?

●The environment includes the climate, landforms, bodies of
water, plants, animals, and other factors that affect life in a
place.

●Geographers study human-
environment interaction by
looking at how people use and
change their environments, and
how the environment influences
the behavior of the people who
live there.

Effects of a

hurricane in Florida

Skiing during

the winter

Banana
farm in

Costa Rica

The environment
affects humans.

What are some examples of

human-environment interaction?

Humans affect

the environment.

Air pollution from
an industrial plant

Great Pacific

Garbage

Patch

Environmental scientists collecting data

Home Construction

The travel of people,

plants, animals,

objects, ideas, and
weather between
different locations,
places, and regions

How do geographers study movement?

●Geographers study how and why people, animals, goods, and
ideas move from place to place.

●Geographers examine the transportation, technology, push
factors, and pull factors that support and cause movement, in
addition to the barriers that prevent
movement or make it more difficult.

●Movement takes place every day on a small
scale in local neighborhoods and on a large
scale with international trade between
different countries.

What are some examples of movement?

Immigrating to
a new country

Moving for a new job

Hurricane Catarina in

2004 (viewed from
the International

Space Station)

Travel

Fruit sold at a
farmers market

Wildebeest

migration in Kenya

Warehouse

distributing goods

Ideas shared through

social media