Academic Decathlon Social Science Study Guide

Spatial Perspective

To consider the reasons why particular phenomena occur in particular places.

Cartography

Creating visual representations of the Earth's surface through maps.

Absolute location

Place as determined by spatial coordinates within a grid system.

Latitude

Distance north and south of the equator.

Longitude (Meridians)

East and west of the prime meridian.

Prime Meridian

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, and represents the 0° longitude mark.

Thematic Maps

Population size or income, across a defined region.

Reference Maps

Including globes, provide details about a location that help users identify landmarks and navigate effectively.

Political Maps

Showing boundaries, capital cities, and important urban areas.

Road Maps

Routes, including streets and highways.

Topographic Maps

Isolines to assist navigation.

Isoline Maps

To show relationships and characteristics across locations.

Choropleth maps

Across locations by using different shades or colors to represent density and/or intensity.

Dot Distribution/Dot Density Maps

Demonstrates data frequency through dot density and locations.

Graduated Symbol Maps

Quantity across an area by contrasting symbols of varied sizes.

Flowline Maps

Sizes to show movement, direction, and intensity of data across space.

Cartogram Maps

Imposed on the landscape to demonstrate relative variables.

Mental Map

Subjective perception of their surroundings used to navigate environments without the need for a physical reference.

Absolute Distance

Standardized units of length, such as miles or kilometers.

Accessibility

From and/or influenced by another.

Distance Decay Effect

Between locations as spatial separation grows.

Time-Space Compression

Advances in technology have diminished disparities in relationship intensity across different geographic regions of different distances, resulting in a reduction of the impact that physical distances create.

Globalization

Individuals, ideas, and economies around the world.

Relative Location

Based on what is nearby.

Clustering

Quantitative factors within a location.

Dispersal

Across a location.

Elevation

Above sea level; typically shown on topographic and physical maps.

Scale

Determines the relationship between distances in its representation and distances in reality.

Ratio Scales

And actual ground distance in terms of a ratio.

Written Scales

Portrayed distance units.

Graphic Scales

Segments that correspond to specific distances, such as miles or kilometers.

Geoid Projection

Irregularity and slight flattening at the poles.

Shape

The actual boundaries and form of a location.

Size

The actual area of locations.

Distance

The physical separation between two locations.

Direction

The orientation between two locations.

Mercator Projections

Shape and direction but distorts size near the poles.

Peter Projection (Gall-Peters)

Shows relative sizes correctly but alters the shapes of landmasses.

Equal-Area Projections

Maintains size accuracy while sacrificing shape.

Robinson Projection

A balanced compromise among various distortions, offering visually appealing world maps.

Geographic Data

Allows geographers to identify patterns and study human-environment interactions.

Spatial Data

Attained from references, including maps, satellite images, and GPS coordinates.

Non-Spatial Data

Population, income, or land.

Field Data

Experts on site, including surveys, photographs, notes, and interview transcripts.

GIS (Geographic Information System)

That superimposes layers of data onto a location to reveal connections and patterns.

GPS (Global Positioning System)

Uses location data to pinpoint an object's precise position.

Quantitative Data

Mathematical and statistical models geographers use to present and analyze locations.

Qualitative Data

Information that is linked to a human-centered perspective in geography and is typically gathered by interviewing people, making firsthand observations, or analyzing texts, art, historical maps, and various archives.

Toponyms

The name identifiers of locations.

Natural Features

Characteristics of a location shaped by natural processes—such as lakes, rivers, mountain ranges, hillsides, and valleys.

Human Features

Characteristics of a location shaped by human processes—such as cities, roads, townships, and outdoor art exhibits.

Cultural Landscape

Natural and built environments, shaped by human development and use over time.

Gerrymandering

Voting boundaries to favor a particular political party.

Place

Shaped by its physical characteristics or by the abstract qualities that humans attribute to it.

Space

Are arranged and ordered within it.

Flows

Cultural attributes, ideas, technology, and other elements move from one place to another.

Relocation Diffusion

When something spreads through the movement and migration of people.

Expansion Diffusion

When something originates from a single point and grows outward.

Hierarchical Diffusion

When ideas or products spread from wealthier or more powerful groups to others.

Contagious Diffusion

When the transmission of factors is rapid and widespread.

Stimulus Diffusion

A type of diffusion that occurs when a factor is adapted to a new location.

Sense of Place

The subjective meaning people attach to specific locations that derives from personal and cultural perspectives.

Placelessness

A condition describing a place that lacks distinctive features attributed by humans or nature.

Renewable Resources

A natural resource that replenishes on its own over time.

Nonrenewable Resources

A finite natural resource formed over millions of years, making it nonreplenishable.

Environmental Sustainability

Ecosystems and the preservation of resources from exploitation and degradation.

Economic Sustainability

Growth while preventing resource or system collapse over time.

Social Sustainability

Similar health and well-being outcomes across places.

Environmental Determinism

The idea that nature determines which human lifestyles and levels of development are possible.

Environmental Possibilism

The idea that while environmental factors such as natural resources and landforms place limits on human development, humans play a significant role in shaping what is possible.

Scales of Analysis

The level at which a geographer investigates or presents a location.

Formal Regions

A region that is defined by consistent unifying characteristics.

Functional Regions

A region that is defined by a central node or hub that organizes movement and activity.

Vernacular Regions

A region that is defined by shared cultural perceptions rather than strict boundaries.

Site

A location's physical characteristics, such as climate, resources, and plant and animal life.

Situation

How a place is connected to other locations, including the importance, strength, and extent of those connections.

Cultural Geography

Across space, change over time, and spread to new locations.

Material Culture

As tools, weapons, utensils, machinery, decorations, artwork, structures, monuments, documents, religious imagery, apparel, and any other material.

Nonmaterial Culture

Culture, such as language, moral principles, social conventions and practices, beliefs and ideologies, and symbolic meaning.

Sociofacts

Structures and institutions that organize and affect social norms, including familial, governmental, educational, and religious institutions.

Mentifacts

A shared ideal, value, and/or belief system that shapes culture, including religious, political, moral, and social points of view.

Cultural Heath

The location where a certain culture first appeared, including seven major hearths: West Africa, Nile River Valley, Indus River Valley, Huang He Valley, Ganges River Delta, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica.

Cultural Traits

A singular aspect of culture; for example, language, cuisine, or fashion.

Cultural Complexes

A group of cultural traits that clusters and exchanges effects; for example, the customs, food choices, and fashion presentations typical of a wedding, funeral, or business event.

Cultural Systems

A group of cultural complexes that defines broad features of culture, including how religion, education, and politics work in a society.

Habit

A personal behavior that is frequently repeated, such as getting dressed, going to the same restaurant, or taking a walk.

Custom

Customs, art expressions, social norms, institutions, and other collective characteristics of a social group.

Folk Culture

Culture characteristic of smaller, more isolated, and more culturally unified groups, including rural populations, Indigenous tribes, and immigrant communities.

Popular Culture

Culture characteristic of larger, denser, and more diverse groups, including urban and industrial centers.

Food Taboos

A social, cultural, and/or religious prohibition on particular foods.

Homogenization

The effect of removing or lessening the distinction between cultures.

Ethnocentrism

The attitude of judging another culture's values against the values of one's own.

Cultural Relativism

The attitude of judging another culture based on the values of that different culture.

Traditional Architecture

Longstanding cultural features of a location.

Postmodern Architecture

Imaginative and symbolic and can be purposefully unconventional.

Sequent Occupancy

What societies leave on a place.

Symbolic Landscape

Significance for a culture.

Feminism

Advocacy for women's equality to men.

Cultural Ecology

How communities respond to nature through culture.

Survey Systems

Structured methods for dividing and describing land.