Five Themes of Geography and Metageography

Five Themes of Geography

• Developed in 1984 to improve geography learning.
• Focuses on Location (absolute and relative), Place (physical and human characteristics), Human-Environment Interaction, Movement, and Region (formal, functional, vernacular).
• Themes work best when used together to understand the world.

Metageography

• Study of how individuals perceive geographical concepts (e.g., East/West).
• Influenced more by culture and personal experiences than pure geography.
• Coined by Martin Lewis in 1997.
• Perceptions of East and West differ based on perspective.

Thematic Maps

• Used to display data in specific locations.
• Cartography is the art of map-making, including thematic maps.
• Uses geospatial data to illustrate relationships.
• Seven common types:
  • Isoline maps: Use lines to represent continuous data (e.g., elevation).
  • Cartogram maps: Distort space to show data (e.g., larger countries with denser populations).
  • Choropleth maps: Use color/shade to show amounts of data (e.g., political affiliation).
  • Graduated symbol maps: Use symbol sizes to show data (e.g., larger cities represented by larger circles).
  • Heat maps: Use shaded areas to represent density (e.g., weather patterns).
  • Dot distribution maps: Use dots to represent data (e.g., disease incidence).
  • Flow-line maps: Use directional lines to show movement and quantities (e.g., goods shipments).

Locating Places on a World Map

• Continents are large landmasses separated by oceans.
• Countries are sovereign nations.
• States/counties are political regions within a country.
• Locating a place involves determining the continent, country, state/county, and then the specific location.

Geographic Coordinate System

• Locates points on a three-dimensional sphere.
• Uses latitude (north/south from the equator) and longitude (east/west from the prime meridian).
• Measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds.
• Latitude & Longitude can be converted to decimals for plotting on a Cartesian coordinate plane.

Scale Maps

• Use a ratio (e.g., 1:50,000) to represent distances.
• The ratio relates map distance to real-world distance.
• Scale is unit-less; you can use any unit of measure.
• Creating a scale map involves measuring distances on and off the map and finding a ratio.

Earth's Solar System

• Composed of the sun, eight planets, and other celestial bodies.
• Planets:
  • Must have enough gravity to form a sphere and clear their orbital path.
  • Orbit the sun.
• Moons: Orbit planets.
• Asteroids: Composed of metal, rock, or both; sometimes called planetoids.
• Comets: Small icy bodies with gas tails.
• Meteoroids: Float in space.
• Meteors: Meteoroids entering Earth's atmosphere.
• Meteorites: Meteors that strike Earth's surface.
• Two planet categories:
  • Terrestrial (solid surface, smaller, metal core): Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars.
  • Jovian (no solid surface, primarily gas): Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.