Arkansa History Week 1

Absolute Location

The exact spot where something is located on Earth, using specific coordinates like latitude and longitude, a street address, or a precise highway intersection.

Adapt

To change human behavior or ways of living in order to fit in with or survive local environmental conditions, such as moving homes to higher ground to avoid floodwaters.

Chert

A hard, naturally occurring mineral rock that early Native Americans mined in regions like the Ouachita Mountains to craft strong arrowheads, spear points, and tools.

Climate

The typical pattern of weather an area experiences over a long period; Arkansas features a humid subtropical climate with warm summers and mild winters.

Equator

An imaginary line that wraps horizontally around the middle of the Earth, dividing it into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

Five Themes of Geography

The five main categories—Location, Place, Human-Environmental Interaction, Movement, and Region—that geographers use to organize and study information about the Earth.

Geographers

Scientists and researchers who study the Earth, its physical features, and how humans interact with their surroundings using tools like maps, globes, and GPS.

Geography

The study of the Earth, including its landforms, environments, the people who live on it, and how people and environments affect one another.

Globe

A 3D, sphere-shaped model of the Earth that provides the most accurate scale representation of continents, oceans, and grid lines.

Hemispheres

Half-sections of the Earth divided by imaginary lines—the Equator splits the planet into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, while the Prime Meridian splits it into Eastern and Western.

Human-Environmental Interaction

The theme of geography that explores how people rely on, adapt to, and change their physical surroundings.

Latitude

The imaginary horizontal lines that run east-to-west around a globe to measure distances north or south of the Equator.

Location

The geographic position of a spot on Earth, described either as an exact point (absolute) or in comparison to nearby landmarks (relative).

Loess

Fine, wind-blown soil that builds up over time, such as the unique dirt covering the elevated terrain of Crowley's Ridge.

Longitude

The imaginary vertical lines that run north-to-south around a globe to measure distances east or west of the Prime Meridian.

Map

A portable, flat representation of an area that displays features like roads, rivers, or landforms, making it easy to detail small areas and measure distances.

Modifying

Changing the physical environment to suit human needs or solve problems, such as building levees, dams, or drainage ditches to control rivers.

Movement

The geographic theme covering how people, goods, products, ideas, and cultural traditions travel from one location to another.

Novaculite

A distinctive, hard stone native to Arkansas that ancient peoples used for weapons and that is still mined today for sharpening knife blades.

Place

The unique mix of physical features (like mountains and rivers) and human characteristics (like culture, architecture, and food) that gives a specific location its individual personality.

Prime Meridian

The imaginary vertical line running from the North Pole to the South Pole that separates the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.

Region

An area defined by shared physical or human characteristics, used to organize geographic information (such as Arkansas's six unique geographic regions).

Relative Location

Explaining where a place is located by describing its position in relation to other known landmarks, places, or cardinal directions.

Temperate

A mild climate type characterized by moderate weather patterns without extreme heat or freezing cold year-round.