Geography’s Five Themes
CORE CONCEPTS 1.2
Essential Question: What are Themes of
Geography?

Geographers use five different themes or ways
of thinking

They help geographer’s two basic questions:
Where are things located?
What is it like there?
Theme one: Location

1.
2.
Two types of location.
Absolute location- describes a place’s exact position
on Earth in terms of longitude and latitude.
-Your address is an example of an absolute location.
Relative location-the location of a place relative to
another place.
-
Where in the Universe is Cedar Lake,
Indiana?

Finding Absolute Location

Create a flip book-Quiz tomorrow!
Theme two: Place

Place refers to the mix of human and nonhuman
features in a given location.
 May
include geographic features such as mountains,
lakes and rivers as well as climate.
 Example:
Cedar Lake is a small town in Northwest
Indiana that has hot summers, cold winters and a
mild fall and spring season.
Theme three: Region

A region is an area with at least one unifying
physical or human feature such as climate,
landforms, population, or history.
 Example:
A desert is a region based on
landforms and climate.
A
city on population and history. Chicago
Theme four: Movement
 Movement
explores how people, goods
(things) and ideas get from one place to
another.
 Why
are you living in Cedar Lake?
Theme five: Human-Environment
Interaction
 Human-Environment
Interaction considers
how people affect their environment and
how their environment affects them.