Five Themes
This theme answers the question, "Where is it?"
What is Location
This imaginary line is located at 0° latitude.
What is Equator
This map element explains what symbols and colors on a map mean.
What is a legend/key
Jaden says, "My school is across the street from the library."
What is Location?
Is a river a physical or human characteristic of a place?
physical characteristic
This theme describes the physical and human characteristics that make an area unique.
What is Place
This imaginary line is located at 0° longitude.
This map element tells you what the map is about.
What is the title
A community has mountains, forests, churches, schools, restaurants, and homes.
What is Place
Is a highway a physical or human characteristic?
What is a human characteristic?
This theme explains how people, goods, ideas, and information travel from one location to another.
What is Movement
Latitude measures distance in these two directions from the Equator.
What are north and south
This map element shows the relationship between distance on a map and actual distance on Earth.
What is the scale
Bananas grown in Costa Rica are transported by ships and trucks to grocery stores in the United States.
What is Movement
People use fertile soil to grow crops. Are they adapting, modifying, or depending on the environment?
what is depending on the environment?
Building levees to protect a city from flooding is an example of this theme.
What is Human-Environment Interaction?
A city located at 35° N, 139° E is located in these two hemispheres.
What are the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres
This map element shows north, south, east, and west.
What is a compass rose?
People living in an area that frequently floods build their homes on raised foundations.
What is Human-Environment Interaction
A map shows a school next to a park instead of giving its latitude and longitude. This is an example of this type of location.
What is relative location
Formal, functional, and perceptual are three types of this geographic theme.
What is Region?
A ship is located at 25° S, 40° W. Identify the two hemispheres in which the ship is located.
A student wants to determine that two cities shown 3 inches apart on a map are actually 150 miles apart. This map element should be used.
What is the scale
People commonly refer to South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi as part of "the South."
What is Region?
A coastal city has warm weather and sandy beaches. Hotels and restaurants have been built to serve thousands of tourists. Explain how the city's physical geography affects its human geography.
The warm climate and beaches attract tourists, which creates a need for hotels, restaurants, jobs, and other businesses.