Page 4 - Chapter 1: How Geographers Look at the World

Guide to Reading Exploring

Geography
Consider What You Know
Think about where your school is
located and the ways in which a
place’s location can be described.
How many different ways can you
think of to describe your school’s
location to another person?
A Geographic View
Reading Strategy
Organizing As you read about Earth’s Variety
places on Earth, create a web dia-
Asmall planet in a modest solar
gram similar to the one below by
system, a tumbling pebble in the
listing three types of regions.
cosmic stream, and yet . . . [t]his
home is built of many mansions,
Types of
Regions carved by wind and the fall of
water, lush with living things
beyond number, perfumed by salt
spray and blossoms. Here cool
Read to Find Out
in a cloak of mist or there
• What are the physical and human
steaming under a brazen sun,
features geographers study?
Earth’s variety excites the
• How do geographers describe the
senses and exalts the soul.
earth’s features and their patterns? Labrador coast, Canada
—Stuart Franklin, “Celebrations of
• How is geography used?
Earth,” National Geographic, January 2000
Terms to Know
• location
• absolute location
How would you describe the world around you?
• hemisphere
Would it be in terms of people, places, things, or all of these? Geog-
• grid system
raphy is the study of the earth’s physical features and the living
• relative location
things—humans, animals, and plants—that inhabit the planet. Geog-
• place
raphy looks at where all of these elements are located and how they
• region
relate to one another. In this section you will gain an understanding
• formal region of what geography is and why it is important to study it.
• functional region
• perceptual region The Elements of Geography
• ecosystem
The root of the word geography is an ancient Greek word meaning
• movement
“earth description.” Geographers are specialists who describe the
• human-environment interaction earth’s physical and human features and the interactions of people,
places, and environments. They not only describe but also search for
Places to Locate
patterns in these features and interactions, seeking to explain how
• Equator • South Pole
and why they exist or occur. For example, geographers may study
• North Pole • Prime Meridian volcanoes and why they erupt, or they may analyze a city’s location

Mt. McKinley, Alaska,
United States Chapter 1 19