Thinking Like a Geographer
Analyze the photo below by using a Photo Analysis Worksheet to record details about people, objects, and activities you see.
Based on your observations, where is this place located?
Location
Absolute: latitude and longitude give the absolute location; in this case, the floating village of the Baujau Laut
Relative: where a place is located based on the things around it; in this case, in the Celebes Sea, squeezed between the nations of Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia in Southeast Asia.
Ask Yourself
- What is their way of life?
- What challenges would this community face?
- What opportunities would they have?
- What impact would their way of life have on the environment?
Flip through these photos and ask yourself the same questions about these communities.
How to Study Geography
Geography is all about making sense of the spatial world in which humans exist.
What is where?
- the actual location
Why there?
- reasons for the pattern
Why care?
- why is this pattern important to the school?
These questions will help us identify patterns and characteristics of our world and understand the opportunities and challenges we face in our future.
For example:
Think about our schoolyard and identify the geographical pattern of why students gather where they do.
What is where?
Why there?
Why care?
Canada's Population Patterns
Here are some easily identified geographic patterns in Canada:
- Most people live withing 200 km of Canada's southern border with the U.S.
- All of Canada's provincial capital cities are located on a body of water.
- Canada's territories are very sparsely populated
Complete Canada's Population: Why There? and Why Care? worksheet.
- How do you explain these patterns?
- What implications do these patterns have?
