DIVERSITY AMID GLOBALIZATIONLesson: Geography Matters

By the end of this lesson students should be able to:

1. Define geography and differentiate between the major types of geography studies.

2. Explain how humans interact with their environment.

3. Describe major regions of the world.

4. Identify what a cultural landscape is.

Geography

Impacts exploration, how we use our resources, what and with whom we trade and where we travel.

Branches of Geography

PHYSICAL HUMAN

climate political systems

landforms economic systems

soil/vegetation cultural systems

hydrology social systems

Look at the picture of Boulder, CO. What would a physical geographer and social geographer study?

Human-Environment Interaction

Explain how humans interact with the environment in the following pictures.

Dharavi, Mumbai (India)

Amazon Rainforest

Black Canyon, Colorado River

Check out these pictures from Dubai from the last 20 years.

Dubai in 1990

Same street today http://iasos.com/news/dubai/

The world’s tallest buildings

Satellite Image of man-made islands

Region: An area with some kind of unifying thread, like physical boundaries or economic and cultural similarities.

QUESTION: What characteristics differentiate these regions?

Cultural Landscape

The visible, material expression of human settlement, past and present.

QUESTION: Can you give an example of an expression of a cultural landscape?

You can probably ID these cities regardless of whether you have ever been there—why?

Global to Local