Themes of Geography
This theme answers the question "Where is it?" and can be expressed as "absolute" or "relative."
Location
This map feature explains what the different symbols and colors on the map represent.
Key (or legend)
This famous projection is great for navigation but makes Greenland look as large as Africa.
Mercator projection
These are physical objects you can buy, like a shirt or a phone.
Goods
Beyond just cash, this is the total value of everything a person or country owns, including property, natural resources, and savings.
Wealth
This theme describes the human and physical characteristics that make a site unique.
Place
This diagram shows the cardinal directions.
Compass rose
This is the most accurate representation of the Earth because it is a three-dimensional model.
Globe
These are actions, performances, ideas, and other intangible things that we pay for, like having someone defend you in court.
Services
This three-letter acronym represents the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a single year.
GDP
An area that shares common characteristics, like the "Midwest" or "The Sahara," falls under this theme.
Region
This tool helps you relate the distance on the map to the actual distance on the ground.
Scale
Because the Earth is a sphere, all flat maps have some form of this, which changes the shape, size, or distance of features.
Distortion
These things, called inputs, are the foundational materials needed to produce goods and services.
Resources
Created by the UN, this "Index" measures a country's success by looking at three things: life expectancy, education, and income.
HDI
When you study the ethnicities that exist in a specific country, you are focusing on this theme.
Place
These imaginary lines run east to west and measure distance north or south of the Equator.
Latitude
Shape
This is the money a business has left over after all its expenses have been paid.
Profit
In geography, this is the process of improving the material conditions of people through the spread of knowledge, technology, and wealth.
Development
Indigenous communities in Siberia use specially-formed ice to create temporary refrigerators for food that can go bad. You could classify this practice as being associated with place or with this other theme of geography.
Human-Environment Interaction
This line, located at 0° longitude, divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
Prime Meridian
This "oval-looking" projection is often used in classrooms because it balances distortions in size and shape.
Robinson projection
This term describes the fact that there are limited resources to meet unlimited wants.
Scarcity
These events, such as droughts, act as obstacles to development by destroying infrastructure and forcing countries to spend their limited budgets on repairs rather than on education or industry.
Natural hazards