Chapter 1
Geography,
History,
and the
Social
Sciences
The American Nation
Textbook
Pages 2-34
A presentation by Mr.
Zindman
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1. Thinking Geography
To understand the issues around the world
and how the change your life we first need
to understand geography.
• What do you think geography is?
• Why study geography?
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Geography is the study of people, their environments, and their resources. A
geographer looks at how the natural environment affects the way we live. TA
geographer also looks at the way we live and how we change the environment in
which we live in. A geographer looks at the natural resources people use.
What do you think is a natural resource?
A natural resource is a material that humans can take from the
environment to survive and satisfy their needs. For example a
mountain range may contain reserves of coal or iron, while a nearby
river or ocean may supply fish. The iron, coal, and fish are examples
of natural resources.
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Maps and Globes
To locate places, geographers used maps and globes. A
map is a drawing of the Earth’s surface.
A globe is a round object shaped like a ball (sphere) that
has a map of the world on it.
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A drawing of a map on a flat surface is
called a map projection.
A person that makes a map is called a
cartographer.
Today they use sophisticated technology
to make maps.
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Five Kinds of Maps
Here are four types of maps that we use in our
everyday lives. They are political, physical,
population, and natural resource maps. Each
type of map serves a specific purpose.
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The political map shows the
boundaries (or lines) that people use
to divide their world into countries and
states.
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A physical map shows natural features,
such as, mountains, deserts, rivers and
oceans.
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A population map lets you know how
many people live in different areas of
the Earth.
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A natural resource map shows the natural
resources in an area. A natural resource is
the raw materials, such as minerals, found
on the land areas.
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Latitude and Longitude
Most maps have lines on it that look like lines
on a sheet of graph paper. These graph lines
make it easier for us to locate the exact location
of a place. These lines on the graph are
measured in degrees °.
Latitude
Longitude
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We use a compass rose to determine directions on a map.
A compass rose shows the directions of North, South, East
and West on a map.
The lines that that run north to south (or up and down) are
call longitude.
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The lines that that run east to west (or left
to right) are call latitude.
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We divide the Earth in half with an
imaginary line at 0° latitude is
called the Equator.
If The Equator divides the Earth into
two halves called hemispheres.
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An imaginary line divides the
earth into two equal east and west
(left and right) halves. This
imaginary line is called the Prime
Meridian.
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Time Zones
Lines of longitude and latitude also help us tell what
time it is all over the world. Why does time differ on the
earth from place to place?
The answer is that the Earth rotates on its axis. As the
Earth moves, the sun appears to rise in some places and
set in other places. Throughout the world people use the
rising and setting of the sun to set their clocks.
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To make this easier the world was divided into 24 time zones. Each time zone
represents 1 hour in time on a clock. As you move from time zone to time
zone you increase or decrease you clock by 1 hour for each time zone you
cross when traveling. If you head West, you lose an hour for each time zone
you cross. If you head East, you add an hour for each time zone you cross.
Each zone you cross is called a Standard Time Zone.
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The Five Themes of Geography
Here are the five themes of geography:
Location
Historians and geographers try to discover where
something important happened. They also try to figure
out why that event happened? A geographers task is to
try to pinpoint the exact location of an event.
Compass Rose
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Place
A geographer looks at the physical features of a
place. They looked at the climate (weather), plant
life, animal life and bodies of water. People often help
to shape the way a place looks by their ideas and
actions.
Wyandanch
revitalization
project
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Interaction Between People and Their Environment
Throughout history, people have adapted and changed their natural
environment. For example, ancient hunters learned to grow food crops in
the Americas.
Later, Native Americans in the Southwest found ways to, or bring water to
the desert so they could farm the land. Ancient American hunters learned
to plant seeds and grow crops.
Later Americans in the Southwest developed methods of irrigation, or bringing
water to dry lands. Today, advances in technology allow people to alter their
environment dramatically.
People have invented ways to
take oil from the ocean floor.
They have cut down thick
forests to build highways.
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Movement
People move around to different places throughout the world because their
resources (raw materials) are spread unevenly around the world.
Resources are things that we get from the Earth to help us survive, such as trees,
water and fish. People need these resources to build their houses and survive.
To get resources they had to move place to place. As they met other people,
they exchanged their ideas and technology. Technology is any new idea or
invention used to improve the life style of people. Examples of technology are
automobiles, televisions and radios. These advances in technology led to the
world we live in today
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Region
Geographers study regions. A region is an area of
the world with similar characteristics. For example,
The Great Plains is a region because it has fairly
level land, very hot summers, very cold winters and
little rainfall.
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2. Lands and Climates
of the United States
Geographers divide the United
States into several different
physical regions with contrasting
landforms. The Hawaiian Islands
located in the North Pacific
Ocean, consist of a chain of
islands. The Pacific Coast is the
mainland’s westernmost region,
with high mountain ranges
stretching from Alaska to Mexico.
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Types of Landforms
(Look and examine the map on page 18-19 of your textbook.)
Mountains- are high steep rugged land. They rise to
an elevation (or height) of at least 1,000 feet above
the surrounding land.
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Hill- Hills are areas of raised land, but
they are lower, less steep and more
rounded than mountains.
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Plains- Plains are areas of flat or level
land.
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Plateaus- Plateaus are large raised areas of flat
land.
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A narrow strip of
land that joins two
large areas is called
an isthmus.
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Rivers and Lakes
There are many great river systems in North America. They collect
water from melting snows and rain and carry it to the oceans.
The Mississippi River and the Missouri River and their tributaries
make up the largest and most important river system in the United
States.
A tributary is a stream or smaller river that flows into a larger one.
These rivers provide transportation by boats. They also provide
moisture (or water) for most part of the plains of the United States.
The rivers of the United States crisscross the country linking
different physicals regions.
The Mississippi River
Missouri River
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The Great Lakes- Five Great Lakes border the United States
and Canada. The Great Lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron,
Erie and Ontario.
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Factors that Affect Climate
Weather is the condition of the Earth’s atmosphere (or
air.) It could be hot or cold, rainy or dry or something
in between.
The United States has 10 different types of climates.
Climate is the average weather of a place over a period of
20-30 years. Two features define the climate. They are
temperature and precipitation. What do you think is
temperature?
Precipitation is the water that falls from the sky in the
form of rain or snow. The location and altitude, or height
of the land above sea level, of a region also influences
climate.
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Section 3 The Tools of History
What is History?
History is an account of what happened in the life of
people. Historians use the past to ask the question, what
happened in this place? Historians look at the location,
place movement and religion to try to explain the life of a
population. Many different cultures have their own
individual history.
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Primary and Secondary
Resources
What document is this?
What can you tell me about
this document?
Historians collect evidence and use it to
interpret events in history.
Historians first use primary sources. A
primary source is firsthand information
about people or events. Primary
sources include official documents
such as laws or court decisions, public
speeches, and eyewitness accounts
such as diaries or letters, and
autobiographies. Primary sources could The Declaration of Independence.
include visual evidence such as an
original news photograph or videotape.
A primary source.
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What do these items have in common?
Historians also make use
of secondary sources. A
secondary resource is an
account provided after the
fact by people who did not
directly witness or
participate in the event.
An example of a
secondary source is a
textbook, encyclopedia,
books and articles written
by historians.
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Archaeology
What is this
cartoon saying?
When dealing with a primary
source, the historian must
determine whether it is
authentic. Authenticity refers
to whether or not the source
is actually what it seems to
be. For example, in 1928, a
magazine published a series
of newly discovered letters
that was said to be written by
Abraham Lincoln. Soon
afterwards they were
discovered to be forgeries or
fakes. A historian must
decide if the source is
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authentic.
Scientists have dug up things from the ground. They have found tools,
weapons, baskets, and carvings buried in the ground. The evidence
that is dug up is called artifacts.
The study of artifacts left by early people is called archaeology.
A scientist that studies archaeology is called an
archaeologist.
artifacts.
archaeology
archaeologist.
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By studying artifacts, archaeologists can
learn much about early people. If they
found in arrowhead that would suggest that
people knew how to make weapons and
hunt.
Each object they found can provide valuable
information about early cultures. Culture is
the entire way of life that people has
developed. It includes the behavior, customs,
ideas, beliefs, and skills that people teach
every new generation.
From artifacts and other evidence,
archaeologists form theories
about the culture of an ancient
people.
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Section 4 Economics and Other Social Sciences
The study of how people manage their limited resources
to satisfy their wants and needs is called economics.
How would you manage your resources in your house?
Would you buy food?
Would you buy water?
Would you buy fuel?
Three Basic Questions About Economics
1. What needs should be fulfilled?
2. How should things be produced?
3. For whom should things be produced?
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Every society must fulfill people’s basic needs of food, shelter, and
clothing. A society must make decisions how they will fill these
needs.
They must make decisions how to use their limited resources to fill
these needs. Even though people agree what to produce, they must
choose how to produce it and how much of it to produce.
Technology plays a large role in these decisions. For example,
Technology uses machines and manufacturing to produce things.
Lastly, a society must decide for whom we should produce goods
and services for. We are all consumers, or users of goods and
services. However, just as resources are limited, supplies and
services can also be limited.
Today we live in a cash economy, that is, an economy where we
exchange money for goods and services.
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The Free Enterprise System
The economy of the United States is based on a principle
known as free enterprise. In a free enterprise system, the
government plays a limited role in the economy.
Businesses are owned by private citizens. Owners
decide what products to make and sell.
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