The World of Geography
Bellwork:
• On a piece of paper, write the top 10 things you
would hate to live without.
• Together, let’s narrow the list of things that
humans cannot TRULY live without to 5 things
• You have 2 minutes in groups to narrow that to 3
things
• What’s the #1 thing that humans can’t live
without?
• If you don’t settle near water, you MUST have a
system for irrigation: bringing the water to you!
Resources
• Resource: available material that can be used
for survival or economic gain
• Natural resources: water; rocks and minerals
(gold, limestone, marble); oil; natural gas;
trees; land
• Resources (and the struggle for control of
them) are at the heart of almost every major
conflict in the history of the world
Human Geography
Type of soil in
Saudi Arabia
A volcano’s
impact on a
Hawaiian town’s
population
Human slave
trade in Albania
Mating habits of
killer whales
Annual rainfall
in Salt Lake City
Physical Geography
Sunflower varieties in
North America
Wedding rituals
in Eastern Africa
Average income and
education level for single
mothers in Indiana
A volcano’s impact on
the plant life in
Hawaii
Voting systems
and fraud in
Cambodia
Population growth
in Bountiful, Utah
Human vs. Physical Geography
• Human/Cultural Geography: study of human
activities and their relationship to the cultural
and physical environments
– Political, economic, social, and cultural factors
– Population growth, urban development, and
economic production and consumption
• Physical Geography: study of the Earth’s physical
features
– Climate, land, water, plants, and animals
– Relationships of these things to one another and to
humans
Site vs. Situation
• Situation: the location of a place in relation to
other areas and regions
– More like relative location
– San Francisco is a port city on the Pacific coast, close
to California’s agricultural lands
• Site: the specific location of a place, including its
physical setting
– More like absolute location
– San Francisco is on the end of a peninsula, surrounded
by the Pacific Ocean, and San Francisco Bay
Regions
• Region: areas with similar characteristics
– Can by physically or culturally similar
– Our units are separated mainly by region
– May not match up by continent
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The US and Canada
Latin America
Western Europe
Eastern Europe and Russia
North Africa, Southwest Asia, and Central Asia  not the same Continent
Africa South of the Sahara
South Asia
East Asia
Southeast Asia
Australia, Oceania, and Antarctica
List and Define the 6 Elements of Geography starting on p. 17
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
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• 5.
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Jobs of Geographers
• Most professional geographers don’t have the word ‘geographer’ in
their job title
• Here’s a very small list of the many things that skilled geographers
can do professionally:
– Analyze the soil, plants, water levels, and the animal populations in an
area to determine if a new housing development will be
environmentally safe
– Study census data for a city to see if the ethnic make-up has changed
over the last 30 years
– Climb mountains and map remote mountain villages nestled in the
peaks
– Study satellite images of deserts to determine if ancient water sources
were once there and if water could be found deep underneath
– Plan the new path for TRAX and set up the system for mapping and
calculating distance on Google Maps
– Teach Geography to fabulous youngster such as yourselves!