The Five Themes of Geography: US States or Canadian Provinces Mobile Project
Lt. Wetz
6th Grade Social Studies
APA Pre-Academy
Name:___________________________________________
Due Date: Friday, October 31st
Directions:
 Each Cadet will create and build a mobile project that will blend the topics of a specific assigned state
on the United States or Canadian province and the “Five Themes of Geography” which are basis for
studying the topic of Geography in our class.
 Requirements:
1. An actual working mobile
 Top of mobile designed to incorporate the name and theme of the state/province
assigned (Cadet’s name & flight should be included).
 There are no specific set of design standards for the mobile, except that it must hang
from an attached string or rope from the ceiling.
2. One mobile drop for each of the five themes
 Each drop must have the name of the theme.
 A color picture, prop, or artifact that describes that theme (from that state).
 A small essay describing the theme & how it applies to that state/province (min. 50
words).
 The Essay must include how state/province answers or defines that theme.
 Example: Location must include both absolute & relative location for that state.
 Example: Place must list both Physical and Human characteristics of the state.
 Example: Region must include Formal, Functional & Vernacular descriptions.
 Example: Movement must give at least 2 examples of types of movement in
that state/province.
 Example: Human & Environment Interaction must give at least 2 examples of
HEI from that state.
 The essays are not definitions of the theme; they are examples and
evidence of that theme from the area assigned!!!
 Page 2 of this handout defines all five of the themes and the required topics.
3. Presentation
 Each student will present their mobile the class in a short five minute show & tell.
Grading:
 120 total points
 Point Breakdown
o Each mobile drop worth 20 points
 10 for design (color, picture or artifact & creativity)
 10 for the information essay
o 10 points for class presentation
o 10 points for overall creativity
The Five Themes of Geography
Location

Where is it?
o Absolute Location: A location can be absolute (specific) as in coordinates of a map using
longitude and latitude.
o Relative Location: A location describes a place with respect to its environment and its
connection to other places.
 Example: next door, nearby, a short drive, down the road a ways.
 Example: Indiana is south of Michigan.
Place
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What is it like there?
Place describes the human and physical characteristics of a location.
Physical characteristics include a description such things as the mountains, rivers, beaches,
topography, and animal and plant life of a place.
Human characteristics include the human-designed cultural features of a place, from land use and
architecture to forms of livelihood and religion to food and folk ways to transportation and
communication networks.
Region

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Region divides the world into manageable units for geographic study. Regions have some sort of
characteristic that unifies the area. Regions can be formal, functional, or vernacular.
Formal regions are those that are designated by official boundaries, such as cities, states, counties,
and countries. For the most part, they are clearly indicated and publicly known.
Functional regions are defined by their connections. For example, the circulation area for a major
city area is the functional region of that paper.
Vernacular regions are perceived regions, such as "The South," "The Midwest," or the "Middle East;"
they have no formal boundaries but are understood in our cultures of the world.
Movement
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Movement refers to the way people, products, information and ideas move from one place to
another. This can be local such as how did you get to school today, or it can be global such as how did
humans get to North America?
Air traffic, automobiles, waterways, migrations or people and animals, etc…
Human-Environment Interaction

Human-environment interaction looks at the relationships between people and their environment; how
people adapt to the environment and how they change it.
o How do people depend on the environment? (Example: Food production, energy needs,
living conditions, natural resources.)
o How to people adapt to the environment? (Example: Living in extreme conditions, i.e.
flood zones, low or high temperatures, extreme weather or remote areas.)
o How do people modify the environment? (Example: Dams, deforestation, irrigation, wind
and solar power.)