Location
Place
Human-Environment Interaction
Movement
Regions
The position of a place on the Earth’s surface
Answers the question “Where is it?”
ABSOLUTE: the exact location of a place usinglatitude & longitude
EX. Where is Manila? It is located at 15ºN, 121 ºE.
RELATIVE: the location of a place in relation toother places nearby
Ex. Where is Manila?
Manila is located in the northern part of thePhilippines, south of Japan, and near Vietnam
LOCATION comes to play in our lives everyday!
When we watch the news and hear a storyabout a car accident in a nearby town, you thinkin terms of the LOCATION of the accident.
When we run an errand at a store, we have tothink of its LOCATION in order to get there.
When you go to class, you have to rememberthe LOCATION of the room within the school.
The physical & humancharacteristics on theEarth’s surface
Answers the question “What is it like there?”
Every place on Earth has its own special qualities thatmakes it different from other places
PHYSICAL Characteristics: “things” made by nature
-landforms-climate-etc.
-vegetation-animals
HUMAN Characteristics: “things” made by man
-languages-government-etc.
-architecture-clothing
•Think of WESTFORD
•Physical Characteristics
-Humid Continental climate-Nashoba Valley
•Human Characteristics
-Middlesex County-English language
-Suburban area-School Committee
How people affect the environment and howthe environment affects people
Humans DEPEND on the environment for thefour life necessities (food, clothing, shelter, water)
-farming, hunting, gathering, etc.
Humans ADAPT to the environment withoutchanging it
-warm & cool clothing; land conservation, etc.
Humans MODIFY (or change) the environmentfor their own benefit
-cutting down trees for housing developments;damming rivers to make reservoirs; sandbags on theedges of beaches to prevent flooding; creatinglandfills for garbage
Some of these modifications can be positivewhile others can be negative
If you lived high in the Alps (mountain range inEurope), your home would look very different than ifyou lived in the Persian Gulf (near Iran). In the Alps,you’d need a home with lots of insulation to keep youwarm. That certainly isn’t necessary in the PersianGulf!
Think about howhumans interact withthe environment basedon where they live…
How “things” are transported on Earth; howhumans interact on Earth
Answers the question- “How are people, goods,ideas, & services moved to and from a country?”
FOUR main categories of movement
1) People (moved by planes, trains, automobiles, etc.)
2) Goods (moved by planes, trains, automobiles, etc.)
3) Ideas (moved by email, phones, mail, etc.)
4) Services (moved by autos, Internet, planes, etc.)
The physical features of a placecan make movement of people,goods, ideas, & services EASY orDIFFICULT
Rivers and oceans allow for easymovement of “things” whilemountains may make movement moredifficult
Movement impacts EVERY societyon Earth
Dividing the land into smaller areas that havesimilar physical and cultural characteristics
Answers the question “How is a countrysimilar to any of its neighbors (religion, language,vegetation, climate, government, landforms, industries,culture etc.)?”
PHYSICAL characteristics: landforms, climate,soil, vegetation
-Ukraine is an agricultural region because thevegetation there is tropical (Mediterranean &Humid Subtropical) while the Sahara is not.
CULTURAL characteristics: government,religions, languages, etc.
-Tokyo & Detroit are automobile manufacturingregions that produces much of the world’s car.
-Leominster is a plastic manufacturing region(Dupont F & D, Castle Plastics, etc.)
-is our central Social Studies focus thisyear.
-We have already covered…
LOCATION
PLACE
-Still to come…
Human-Environment Interaction
Movement
Region