APHUG Unit 1: Thinking Geographically

Vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts of APHUG Unit 1: Thinking Geographically, including the five themes of geography, reference map types, thematic map types, and map distortion.

Spatial Perspective (Geographer's Focus)

The geographical approach to studying the world by asking "where" and "why there?", organizing material spatially, and explaining why human activities are located beside one another.

Historian's Perspective

The historical approach to studying the world by asking "when and why", organizing material chronologically, and explaining why human activities follow one another over time.

Region (Theme of Geography)

A theme of geography focused on identifying what physical features and human features are similar within a given area.

Location (Theme of Geography)

A theme of geography focused on answering the questions "Where is it?" and "Where did it happen?".

Place (Theme of Geography)

A theme of geography focused on answering "What is it like?" by examining the distinct physical and human features of a location.

Movement (Theme of Geography)

A theme of geography focused on why and how people travel from place to place, and how people exchange goods and ideas.

Interaction (Human-Environment Interaction)

A theme of geography focused on how people adapt to their environment and how people change their environment.

Reference Maps

Maps that display boundaries, names, and unique identifiers of standard geographic areas, as well as major cultural and physical features, used for general information, navigation, and location.

Political Map

A type of reference map that shows political boundaries, such as states, countries, and capitals.

Physical Map

A type of reference map that displays natural physical features of the Earth, such as landforms and elevation.

Road Map

A type of reference map that displays highways, streets, and transportation routes.

Thematic Maps

Maps designed to communicate spatial information about a place by focusing on a specific theme, data set, or geographic characteristic.

Cartogram

A thematic map that distorts land area to compare data, where a larger geographic area represents a higher value of the measured statistic.

Choropleth Map

A thematic map that uses various colors, shades of one color, or patterns to show location and distribution of spatial data, where darker colors represent higher values.

Dot Map (Dot-Density Map)

A thematic map that uses uniform dots (or small symbols like triangles or trees) to show the location and distribution of data, where more dots represent higher values.

Graduated Symbol Map

A thematic map that uses symbols of different sizes to indicate varying amounts of a variable, where larger symbols represent greater quantities and smaller symbols represent lesser quantities.

Isoline Map

A thematic map that uses lines to show variations in data across space (such as elevation on topographic maps, temperature, or precipitation), where lines closer together indicate rapid data change.

Map Projection Distortion

The inevitable phenomenon where maps selectively present information and distort spatial relationships in shape, area, distance, and direction.

Spatial Patterns on Maps

Types of spatial distribution represented on maps, including absolute and relative distance and direction, clustering, dispersal, and elevation.