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Chapter 1 Geography, History, and the Social Sciences. The American Nation Textbook Pages 2-34. Thinking Geography To understand the issues around the world and how the change your life we first need to understand geography. What do you think geography is? Why study geography?.
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Chapter 1 Geography, History, and the Social Sciences The American Nation Textbook Pages 2-34
Thinking Geography • To understand the issues around the world and how the change your life we first need to understand geography. • What do you think geography is? • Why study geography?
Geographyis the study of people, their environments, and their resources. A geographer looks at how the natural environment affects the way we live. TA geographer also looks at the way we live and how we change the environment in which we live in. A geographer looks at the natural resources people use. What do you think is a natural resource? A natural resourceis a material that humans can take from the environment to survive and satisfy their needs. For example a mountain range may contain reserves of coal or iron, while a nearby river or ocean may supply fish. The iron, coal, and fish are examples of natural resources.
Maps and Globes To locate places, geographers used maps and globes. A map is a drawing of the Earth’s surface. A globe is a round object shaped like a ball (sphere) that has a map of the world on it.
A drawing of a map on a flat surface is called a map projection. A person that makes a map is called a cartographer. Today they use sophisticated technology to make maps.
Five Kinds of Maps Here are four types of maps that we use in our everyday lives. They are political, physical, population, and natural resource maps. Each type of map serves a specific purpose.
The political mapshows the boundaries (or lines) that people use to divide their world into countries and states.
A physical mapshows natural features, such as, mountains, deserts, rivers and oceans.
Apopulation map lets you know how many people live in different areas of the Earth.
A natural resource map shows the natural resources in an area. A natural resource is the raw materials, such as minerals, found on the land areas.
Latitude and Longitude Most maps have lines on it that look like lines on a sheet of graph paper. These graph lines make it easier for us to locate the exact location of a place. These lines on the graph are measured in degrees °. Latitude Longitude
We use a compass rose to determine directions on a map. A compass rose shows the directions of North, South, East and West on a map. The lines that that run north to south (or up and down) are call longitude.
The lines that that run east to west (or left to right) are call latitude.
We divide the Earth in half with an imaginary line at 0° latitude is called the Equator. If The Equator divides the Earth into two halves called hemispheres.
An imaginary line divides the earth into two equal east and west (left and right) halves. This imaginary line is called the Prime Meridian.
Time Zones Lines of longitude and latitude also help us tell what time it is all over the world. Why does time differ on the earth from place to place? The answer is that the Earth rotates on its axis. As the Earth moves, the sun appears to rise in some places and set in other places. Throughout the world people use the rising and setting of the sun to set their clocks.
To make this easier the world was divided into 24 time zones. Each time zone represents 1 hour in time on a clock. As you move from time zone to time zone you increase or decrease you clock by 1 hour for each time zone you cross when traveling. If you head West, you lose an hour for each time zone you cross. If you head East, you add an hour for each time zone you cross. Each zone you cross is called aStandard Time Zone.
The Five Themes of Geography Here are the five themes of geography: Location Historians and geographers try to discover where something important happened. They also try to figure out why that event happened? A geographers task is to try to pinpoint the exact location of an event. Compass Rose
Place Ageographer looks at the physical features of a place. They looked at the climate (weather), plant life, animal life and bodies of water. People often help to shape the way a place looks by their ideas and actions. Wyandanch revitalization project
Interaction Between People and Their Environment Throughout history, people have adapted and changed their natural environment. For example, ancient hunters learned to grow food crops in the Americas. Later, Native Americans in the Southwest found ways to, or bring water to the desert so they could farm the land. Ancient American hunters learned to plant seeds and grow crops. Later Americans in the Southwest developed methods of irrigation, or bringing water to dry lands. Today, advances in technology allow people to alter their environment dramatically. People have invented ways to take oil from the ocean floor. They have cut down thick forests to build highways.
Movement People move around to different places throughout the world because their resources (raw materials) are spread unevenly around the world. Resources are things that we get from the Earth to help us survive, such as trees, water and fish. People need these resources to build their houses and survive. To get resources they had to move place to place. As they met other people, they exchanged their ideas and technology. Technologyis any new idea or invention used to improve the life style of people. Examples of technology are automobiles, televisions and radios. These advances in technology led to the world we live in today
Region Geographers study regions. A regionis an area of the world with similar characteristics. For example, The Great Plains is a region because it has fairly level land, very hot summers, very cold winters and little rainfall.
2. Lands and Climates of the United States Geographers divide the United States into several different physical regions with contrasting landforms. The Hawaiian Islands located in the North Pacific Ocean, consist of a chain of islands. The Pacific Coastis the mainland’s westernmost region, with high mountain ranges stretching from Alaska to Mexico.
Types of Landforms (Look and examine the map on page 18-19 of your textbook.) Mountains- are high steep rugged land. They rise to an elevation (or height) of at least 1,000 feet above the surrounding land.
Hill-Hills are areas of raised land, but they are lower, less steep and more rounded than mountains.
A narrow strip of land that joins two large areas is called an isthmus.
Rivers and Lakes There are many great river systems in North America. They collect water from melting snows and rain and carry it to the oceans. The Mississippi Riverand the MissouriRiver and their tributaries make up the largest and most important river system in the United States. A tributary is a stream or smaller river that flows into a larger one. These rivers provide transportation by boats. They also provide moisture (or water) for most part of the plains of the United States. The rivers of the United States crisscross the country linking different physicals regions. MissouriRiver The Mississippi River
The Great Lakes-Five Great Lakesborder the United States and Canada. The Great Lakes are Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario.
Factors that Affect Climate Weather is the condition of the Earth’s atmosphere (or air.) It could be hot or cold, rainy or dry or something in between. The United States has 10 different types of climates.Climateis the average weather of a place over a period of 20-30 years. Two features define the climate. They are temperature and precipitation. What do you think is temperature? Precipitationis the water that falls from the sky in the form of rain or snow. The location and altitude, or height of the land above sea level, of a region also influences climate.
Section 3 The Tools of History What is History? History isan account of what happened in the life of people. Historians use the past to ask the question, what happened in this place? Historians look at the location, place movement and religion to try to explain the life of a population. Many different cultures have their own individual history.
Primary and Secondary Resources What document is this? What can you tell me about this document? Historians collect evidence and use it to interpret events in history. Historians first use primary sources. A primary sourceis firsthand information about people or events. Primary sources include official documents such as laws or court decisions, public speeches, and eyewitness accounts such as diaries or letters, and autobiographies. Primary sources could include visual evidence such as an original news photograph or videotape. The Declaration of Independence. A primary source.
What do these items have in common? Historians also make use of secondary sources. A secondary resource is an account provided after the fact by people who did not directly witness or participate in the event. An example of a secondary source is a textbook, encyclopedia, books and articles written by historians.
What is this cartoon saying? Archaeology When dealing with a primary source, the historian must determine whether it is authentic. Authenticityrefers to whether or not the source is actually what it seems to be. For example, in 1928, a magazine published a series of newly discovered letters that was said to be written by Abraham Lincoln. Soon afterwards they were discovered to be forgeries or fakes. A historian must decide if the source is authentic.
Scientists have dug up things from the ground. They have found tools, weapons, baskets, and carvings buried in the ground. The evidence that is dug up is called artifacts. The study of artifacts left by early people is called archaeology. A scientist that studies archaeology is called an archaeologist. artifacts. archaeologist. archaeology
By studying artifacts, archaeologists can learn much about early people. If they found in arrowhead that would suggest that people knew how to make weapons and hunt. Each object they found can provide valuable information about early cultures. Culture is the entire way of life that people has developed. It includes the behavior, customs, ideas, beliefs, and skills that people teach every new generation. From artifacts and other evidence, archaeologists form theories about the culture of an ancientpeople.
Section 4 Economics and Other Social Sciences The study of how people manage their limited resources to satisfy their wants and needs is called economics. How would you manage your resources in your house? Would you buy food? Would you buy water? Would you buy fuel? • Three Basic Questions About Economics • What needs should be fulfilled? 2. How should things be produced? 3. For whom should things be produced?
Every society must fulfill people’s basic needs of food, shelter, and clothing. A society must make decisions how they will fill these needs. They must make decisions how to use their limited resources to fill these needs. Even though people agree what to produce, they must choose how to produce it and how much of it to produce. Technology plays a large role in these decisions. For example, Technology uses machines and manufacturing to produce things. Lastly, a society must decide for whom we should produce goods and services for. We are all consumers, or users of goods and services. However, just as resources are limited, supplies and services can also be limited. Today we live in a cash economy, that is, an economy where we exchange money for goods and services.
The Free Enterprise System The economy of the United States is based on a principle known as free enterprise. In a free enterprise system, the government plays a limited role in the economy. Businesses are owned by private citizens. Owners decide what products to make and sell.
