The Five Themes Of Geography

The Five Themes of Geography

During the 1980's the United States showed unacceptably low test scores

on simple Geographic tests. The point Committee on Geographic Education could

only attribute these results to Geographic Illiteracy, not only on the part of

the students, but more importantly on the educators themselves. By 1984 it had

become inexplicably clear that immediate action must take place to counteract

this ongoing problem in our educational institutions (Journal of Geography 89).

In response, the Joint Committee on Geographic Education produced a landmark

publication entitled "Guidelines for Geographic Education". This document

contained a scope and sequence in Geography with suggested learning results for

the nations primary and secondary school systems, as well as suggested

educational strategies for analysis on the part of the students and teachers.

Most importantly, this article provided the Five Fundamental Themes in Geography,

which have evolved to become an integral element of social studies education,

because they take the world of geographic study beyond the realm of basic

memorization, and into a new plane of analysis and implementation. These five

themes include location, place, human-environment interactions, movement, and

regions.

Location answers the question of "where?". If you plan to meet someone

at a specific time, and a specific place, the question of "Where will you meet?"

must first be answered. To resolve this situation, Geography employs Absolute

Location, and Relative Location.

Absolute Location applies a grid-matrix system to the earth's surface

in the form of coordinates. These coordinates, longitude and latitude, allow

geographers to pinpoint exact areas of the earth's surface, and other planetary

bodies as well. If Geographers wish to apply satellite technology to observe

an area of the earth's surface, coordinates are used to pinpoint an exact

location.

Relative Location answers the simple question of where you would meet a

person. For example: "Let's meet at Martin Hall, the building next to the

Library." But, relative location is much deeper than simple location. It also

involves interdependence of a location based upon its resources, people, and

environment.

If one wishes to build a ski resort, the location of that resort must be

relative with the environment of the location. It would be illogical, and non-

profitable to build a ski resort in the Mojave desert. However, it would be

logical to build a resort in the higher elevations of the Rocky Mountains in

Colorado, Idaho, or Montana.

Every area on the surface of the earth is defined by some type of

characteristic. Siberia is known to be very cold, but also a part of the Soviet

Union, a formerly communist country. Belize is known to be very warm, but it is