intro_to_human geography: A guide for lecture
- 1. Topic: The “Why of Where” - An Introduction to Human Geography • Aim: How can we best develop a spatial perspective? Do Now: Where exactly is the Middle East? Why do we call it that?
- 2. The terms “Middle East” and “Far East” were in relation to Western Europe (mainly the British Empire) during the 18th and 19th centuries. The correct geographic terms for these places are Southwest Asia and East Asia. Southwest Asia East Asia
- 4. The spatial perspective: Recognizing how human activities are organized in space and how they relate to the natural environment.
- 5. “Association Among Phenomena in Places….” • Or…why things are where they are, and how they relate to other things… Discussion (Spatial Perspective): 1. Why do you think most pizza places have Chinese take-out places in the same area? 2. Why are certain shopping malls located on bus routes, while others are not? 3. Living in New York, why won’t we see many Presidential campaign ads? 4. Why do we so frequently see Chinese baby girls adopted by American (and typically white) families?
- 6. Two Types of Geography: 1. Physical Geography: The study of where any why natural forces occur as they do (climates, landforms, types of vegetation, etc) 2. Human Geography: Study of where and why human activities are located where they are (religions, cities, businesses, governments, etc) • Human Geography has a theme of 2 interrelated but converse themes - Globalization and Local Diversity
- 7. THE FIVE THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY: • Location • Place • Human-Environment Interaction • Movement • Regions
- 8. What does this store indicate about the surrounding area? (Hicksville)
- 9. Space: Distribution of Features –Space refers to the physical gap or interval between two objects. –Geographers think about the arrangement of people and activities in an attempt to try to understand why they are in such a distribution (the arrangement of a feature in space)
- 10. Spatial Distribution:-geographers are concerned about the arrangement of features on the earth’s surface. 3 main properties of distribution are: 1. Density: the frequency (number of) something occurs in a given space (examples?) 2. Concentration or ‘dispersion’: Not how much, but how spread out something is. If close, it’s described as clustered (or agglomerated). If spread out it’s described as dispersed (or scattered). 3. Pattern: Refers, like concentration, to pattern, but focuses on design, rather than just spacing.
- 11. Density-In A we see 6 houses on 1 acre of land. And in B we see 12 houses per acre Concentration-in A we see the houses dispersed and in B we see them clustered. Pattern-in A the houses are in a single linear arrangement, in B the arrangement is irregular.
- 12. The top plan for a residential area has a lower density than the middle plan (24 houses compared to 32 houses on the same 82-acre piece of land), but both have dispersed concentrations. The middle and lower plans have the same density (32 houses on 82 acres), but the distribution of houses is more clustered in the lower plan. The lower plan has shared open space, whereas the middle plan provides a larger, private yard surrounding each house.
- 13. Types of Pattern: Linear Patterns typically depict houses along a street or towns along a railroad Centralized Patterns typically involve items concentrated around a single node. Ex: Center City with surrounding suburbs Random pattern: An unstructured, irregular distribution
- 14. Standard 2: Human Geography Understand and Interpret Implications of Associations Among Phenomena in Places: •Geography looks at the world from a spatial perspective -- seeking to understand the changing spatial organization and material character of Earth's surface. One of the critical advantages of a spatial perspective is the attention it focuses on how phenomena are related to one another in particular places.
- 15. PLACE What is it like there, what kind of place is it? • Human Characteristics • What are the main languages, customs, and beliefs. • How many people live, work, and visit a place. • Physical Characteristics • Landforms (mountains, rivers, etc.), climate, vegetation, wildlife, soil, etc.
- 16. Mental Map Homework (due Friday) • You will draw your own mental map of the world on a blank sheet of paper. This map should NOT be perfect, it is just a pretest of your knowledge at the start of the semester. YOU CAN’T LOOSE POINTS FOR INACCURACY, SO PLEASE DO NOT REFERENCE ANY ACTUAL MAPS TO HELP YOU! 1.List 5 physical features like mountains, rivers, lakes, 2.List 5 political features such as cities and countries. 3.List 5 economic features like natural resources, trade goods. 4.List 5 scientific/ technological features like inventions and ideas, or innovations 5. List 5 cultural features; works of art, literature, music, religions. 6. List 5 migration streams across space (any time, use arrows to indicate place of origin).
- 17. Place: a unique location on Earth-examples include your hometown, a vacation destination, or a part of a country. Can be described in 4 ways: 1. Place name (Toponym) 2. Site 3. Situation 4. Mathematical location
- 18. • Toponym: name given to a place on Earth. Can be named after a person, a religion, resources, or features of physical environment • Toponymy is the scientific study of place-names, along with their origins and meanings, based on etymological, historical, and geographical information H. Frank Carey High School
- 19. • Bolivia – Simon Bolivar • Colombia – Christopher Columbus • America – Amerigo Vespucci • Philippines – King Philip II of Spain • Washington, D.C. – George Washington • Georgia (US) – King George of England • Baltimore – Lord Baltimore • Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City- (Self Explanatory)
- 20. St. Petersburg Petrograd Leningrad St. Petersburg Reflects political changes… Changed to Petrograd in 1914 because Russians thought St. Petersburg sounded too German. Renamed Leningrad in 1924, 3 days after Lenin’s death. Renamed St. Petersburg in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- 21. Imperialism/Changing influences… • Serendib -> Ceylon -> Sri Lanka The Arab name for Sri Lanka was Serendib, from which we get the word serendipity. Ceylon comes from the word which the Portuguese used for the island -- Ceilao. After 1972, the island came to be officially known as Sri Lanka. “Lanka” means island is Sanskrit.
- 23. Describe what you see in this picture:
- 24. Site: is the physical character of a place. Includes climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation. • Site of lower Manhattan Island, New York City. There have been many changes to the area over the last 200 years.
- 25. Black sand beaches in Hawaii - part of the site
- 26. Example of a Change in Site: New York City skyline with and without the Twin Towers
- 28. A Cut Flower Field in California: http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/17/explorin g-farms-from-above/
- 30. Excuse me, how do you get to… I need a volunteer to give me directions from this school to your favorite place to eat around here…can be anywhere….
- 31. Situation (relative location): • Situation, or relative location, is the location of a place relative to other places. Situation helps us find an unfamiliar place by comparing its location with a familiar one. Situation, also, helps us understand the importance of a location. Fig. 1-7: Singapore is situated at a key location for international trade.
- 32. Mathematical Location: •Description of location described mathematically by meridians and parallels, two sets of imaginary arcs •Meridians are arcs drawn between North and South poles. Numbering system of meridians called longitude. The prime meridian is 0 degrees longitude. All other meridians measured East to West of Prime Meridian • A parallel is a circle drawn around the globe parallel to the equator at right angles to meridians. Numbering system called latitude