Exploring the Five Themes of Geography

Land use, architectural styles, forms of livelihood, religious practices, political systems, common foods, local folklore, means of transportation, and methods of communication.

People living in cold climates mining coal or drilling for natural gas to heat their homes.

Positive effects include shaping the landscape and improving human lives. Negative effects include damage to the environment and depletion of resources.

Emigration of Syrians during war, flow of water in the Gulf Stream, expansion of cell phone reception.

Formal regions, functional regions, vernacular regions.

By official boundaries, such as cities, states, counties, and countries.

Their connections, such as the circulation area for a major city.

Perceived regions.

The South, The Midwest, or the Middle East.

To make it more manageable for analysis and understanding.

The five themes of geography are location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region.

The five themes of geography were defined by the National Council for Geographic Education and the Association of American Geographers.

The purpose of the five themes of geography is to facilitate and organize the teaching of geography in the K-12 classroom.

The National Geography Standards have supplanted the five themes of geography and provide a new framework for geography instruction.

Absolute location provides a definite reference for locating a place, such as latitude and longitude or a street address. Relative location describes a place with respect to its environment and its connection to other places.

An example of absolute location is 42.2542° N, 77.7906° W.

An example of relative location is a home located 1.3 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and 0.4 miles from the town's elementary school.

Place describes the human and physical characteristics of a location.

An example of a physical characteristic of a place is mountains.

An example of a human characteristic of a place is the human-designed cultural features.