The Five Themes Of Geography :: essays research papers fc

The Five Themes of geography     During the 1980s the United States showed unacceptably depleted test scoreson plain Geographic tests. The point commissioning on Geographic Education couldonly attribute these results to Geographic Illiteracy, not only on the part ofthe students, but more importantly on the educators themselves. By 1984 it hadbecome inexplicably clear that immediate action must outlet place to counteractthis ongoing problem in our educational institutions (Journal of geographics 89).In response, the Joint Committee on Geographic Education produced a landmarkpublication entitled "Guidelines for Geographic Education". This documentcontained a scope and sequence in Geography with suggested learning results forthe nations primary and inessential school systems, as well as suggestededucational strategies for analysis on the part of the students and teachers.Most importantly, this article provided the Five Fundamental Themes in Geography,w hich deem evolved to become an integral element of social studies education,because they take the world of geographic study beyond the realm of basicmemorization, and into a new matted of analysis and implementation. These fivethemes include location, place, human-environment interactions, movement, andregions.     Location answers the motion of "where?". If you plan to cooperate someoneat a specific time, and a specific place, the question of "Where will you meet?"must first be answered. To resolve this situation, Geography employs AbsoluteLocation, and Relative Location.     Absolute Location applies a grid-matrix system to the universes openin the form of coordinates. These coordinates, longitude and latitude, allowgeographers to pinpoint exact commonwealths of the earths surface, and other windingbodies as well. If Geographers wish to apply satellite technology to observean area of the earths surface, coordinates ar e used to pinpoint an exactlocation.     Relative Location answers the simple question of where you would meet aperson. For example "Lets meet at Martin Hall, the building next to theLibrary." But, relative location is much deeper than simple location. It alsoinvolves interdependency of a location based upon its resources, people, andenvironment.     If one wishes to build a move resort, the location of that resort must berelative 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 belogical to build a resort in the higher elevations of the flinty Mountains inColorado, Idaho, or Montana.     E actually area on the surface of the earth is defined by some type ofcharacteristic. Siberia is known to be very cold, but also a part of the SovietUnion, a one time communist country. Belize is known to be very warm, but it is