The 5 Themes of Geography

Location

• Absolute: A location can be absolute (specific) as in coordinates of a map using longitude and latitude
• Relative: A location can be relative - examples: next door, nearby, a short drive, down the road a ways. Or, it can be in the same general location as another location - example: next to the post office

Place

• A place is an area that is defined by everything in it. All places have features that give them personality and distinguish them from other places. 

  If you refer to your school as a place, then that place would include walls, windows, gym, cafeteria, classrooms, people, clothing, books, maps, mops, brooms, hallways, mice (if you have them) and everything else in the school, including the languages spoken.

Region

• A region is an area that is defined by certain similar characteristics. Those unifying or similar characteristics can be physical, natural, human, or cultural. 

Movement

• Movement refers to the way people, products, information and ideas move from one place to another. This can be local such as how did you get to school today, or it can be global such as how did humans get to North America? 

Human-Invironment Interaction

• Human-environment interaction looks at the relationships between people and their environment; how people adapt to the environment and how they change it.