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Geography

Geo-What?

Geo-What?
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grade 4
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.85

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    human-environment, surrounding, modify, based, environment, interaction, capitals, region, latitude, general, absolute, landforms, phones, jobs, public, temples
     content words:    East Coast, United States, New York City, Appalachian Mountain Chain, Atlantic Coastal Plain

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Geo-What?
By Trista L. Pollard 		  
1     So many boundaries and so many states! There are scientists who study states, boundaries, and capitols. Geographers also study rest of our physical world. They study everyone and everything found on Earth. Geography is also the science of where things are located on Earth and why they are located in those places.
 
2     Most students think geography is memorizing names of places. It is much more than that! Geographers have created five important themes or topics in geography. The first theme is location. Think of the Earth as a bunch of space. This space is broken up into areas of land, water, countries, states, communities, and people. Location is the "where" part of the geography puzzle. The exact location of an area is called absolute location. Your home's street address is an absolute location. The latitude and longitude of your state are also absolute locations. They also locate places on Earth based on surrounding features. Relative location is a general location. For example, your state may be close to the East Coast of the United States. Your school may be near a landmark called McDonald'sŪ. Your house may also be thirty minutes away from New York City. Geographers use time, landmarks, direction, and distance to tell where places are located.
 
3     The second theme is place. All of the areas on Earth have special characteristics or qualities. These qualities make places both the same as and different from other places. The physical characteristics of a place are its landforms. These are mountains, lakes, rivers, plains, and oceans. There are also human characteristics of places. Buildings, roads, houses, temples, and churches are all human characteristics. They use these characteristics to learn more about places and the people who live there.

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