1.1: Geographical Thinking Concepts

Agenda and Learning Goals

  • Note taking refresh: how can we set ourselves up for success?

  • Introduce Geographic Thinking Concepts

  • Learning Goals:

    • To Know: The different geographic thinking concepts

    • To Understand: How all of the different geographical thinking concepts interact with each other to create a better understanding of geography

    • To Be Able To: Apply geographic thinking concepts to Toronto & our own communities

Getting Organized

Getting Organized: Setting Yourself Up For Success

  • Organize Your Files/Courses on your computer OR in a Binder

    • Create files on your drive/ desktop/ documents

    • Consider sub-categories to keep track of documents

    • Example: Folder for class > units > coursework > assessment

    • Create distinct dividers

  • Stay Consistent: Don’t let your organization wane. If you stay organized throughout the course you will create good study habits and set yourself up for success

Why We Take Notes

  • It is important to develop note taking skills early

  • By taking your own notes you will understand rather than just listen to important information

  • Benefits:

    • Better prepare for exams, tests, and final projects

    • Organize your thoughts

    • Internalize and remember information

    • Process information faster

    • Avoid plagiarism

    • Stay on top of your work

How to Take Point Form Notes

  • Use bullet points, numbers and arrows to break down your thoughts

  • Don’t write down every single word – focus on the most important information

  • Don’t copy slides verbatim – notes will be posted in advance; listen to the instructor’s additions beyond what’s written

  • Use tab or arrows to connect follow-up points to original thoughts

  • Be thoughtful about how you breakdown your notes and connect your thoughts

  • Limiting word count: create consistent abbreviations for common words to write faster

    • Ex: → Example becomes Ex; because becomes B/c; with becomes w/

  • Aim for a concise, connected, and meaningful note structure

How to Organize Your Notes

  • Use headings and subheadings

    • Develop different strategies to emphasize new topics

    • Use subheadings to keep notes organized

    • Example: new heading for each new slide with new subheadings

  • Create consistent strategies for organizing notes, headings or subheadings

    • Consider color coding, bolding, italicizing, underlining, etc.

    • Be consistent in how you use these strategies

    • Example: always use yellow for new topic and green for subtopic/subheading

    • Example: always use bold for important word/emphasis and underline for topics/words that confuse you

Your Turn! Practice Paragraph (5 minutes)

  • Task: Write brief notes on the following paragraph:

    • Natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanoes can dramatically change landscapes and affect millions of people.

    • Earthquakes happen when tectonic plates suddenly shift, releasing energy that shakes the ground.

    • One of the most powerful earthquakes in recent history struck Japan in 2011, triggering a massive tsunami.

    • Hurricanes form over warm ocean water and can bring strong winds, heavy rain, and flooding to coastal areas.

    • Volcanic eruptions, like the one in Iceland in 2010, can shoot ash into the sky and disrupt air travel for days.

    • These disasters show how powerful Earth’s natural forces can be—and why it's important for geographers to study them and help communities prepare.

Example of Answers (Model Response)

  • Natural disasters: e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, and volcanoes.

  • These events can change landscapes and affect millions of people.

  • Earthquakes → tectonic plates shift, releasing energy. Ex: 2011 Japan earthquake caused a massive tsunami.

  • Hurricanes form over warm ocean water and bring strong winds, heavy rain, and flooding to coasts.

  • Volcanoes erupt, shooting ash and lava. Example: 2010 Iceland volcano disrupted air travel.

  • Geographers study natural disasters to help prepare communities.

Practice as a Skill

  • This is a skill that must be developed over time.

  • We will be returning to the ideas and working together over the course of the term to help you develop and fine-tune your note taking skills!

What is Geography?

  • Geography is the study of places and the relationships between people and their environment.

  • It seeks to understand where things are found, why they are there, and how they develop and change over time.

  • Geographers examine how human culture interacts with the natural environment and the way that locations and places can have an impact on people.

  • Guiding questions: What is where, why is it there, and why should we care?

Geography Includes

  • Physical Features

  • Land

  • People

  • Animals

Thinking Concept → A Tool for Critical Thinking in Geography

  • There are 5 general thinking concepts in Geography:

    • Spatial Significance

    • Patterns & Trends

    • Sense of Place

    • Interrelationships

    • Geographical Perspective

SPATIAL SIGNIFICANCE

  • Spatial Significance:

    • Determining if and why something is geographically significant

    • The connections that exist between the geographical location and the physical characteristics of that place

  • Key questions to consider:

    • Why there?

    • The significance of a place can be different for people, animals, plants

SPATIAL SIGNIFICANCE – Types and Examples

  • Inherent significance:

    • What inherent, natural features exist there?

    • Example: a mountain range is significant because of its natural beauty

  • Assigned significance:

    • Does it have particular cultural, religious or historical meaning or value?

    • Example: Cole Harbour, N.S. is significant because it’s the birthplace of Sidney Crosby

  • Instrumental significance:

    • Is it crucial to achieve a purpose or objective?

    • Does it provide access to important resources?

    • Example: a road sign may be important as a landmark in getting to a difficult-to-find destination

  • Reference: CB pg: 11

City 1 and City 2: Spatial Significance (Template)

  • City 1: Toronto

    • Inherent significance: Lake Ontario Waterfront, Scarborough Bluffs, Oak Ridges Moraine

    • CB pg: 11

  • City 2: [Other City] – (no explicit second city named in the slides here; used as a comparison task)

    • CB pg: 11

City 1: Toronto – Inherent Significance Details

  • Inherent features:

    • Lake Ontario Waterfront

    • Scarborough Bluffs

    • Oak Ridges Moraine

  • CB pg: 11

City 1: Toronto – Assigned Significance Details

  • Assigned significance:

    • Museums and galleries (e.g., ROM, AGO)

    • Drake (artist/brand association)

    • Blue Jays, Leafs, Raptors (major sports teams)

    • CN Tower

  • CB pg: 11

City 1: Toronto – Instrumental Significance Details

  • Instrumental/Strategic value:

    • Economic and financial hub

    • Entertainment and talent – TIFF

    • Athlete examples: Wayne Gretzky, Jose Bautista

  • CB pg: 11

Your Turn! Activity (10 minutes)

  • In 10 minutes, fill in the other side of the column for a city you choose.

  • CB pg: 11

Let’s Discuss (Guiding Questions)

1) Why might it be important to think about why geographical features (like a mountain or river) or locations are significant?
2) How can we determine if a place is significant? What criteria might we need to think about?
3) How can we remove our own personal bias when determining a location’s significance? (e.g., if I dislike New York, how can I accurately assess its significance?)

  • CB pg: 12

PATTERNS & TRENDS

  • Patterns & Trends:

    • Geographers consider the importance of patterns and trends

    • This concept involves recognizing characteristics that are similar, and repeat themselves

    • A pattern concerns the arrangement of objects on Earth’s surface in relation to one another

    • A trend is a noticeable change in a pattern over time

    • Important for understanding why something is where it is, and why that matters

Related Questions: Population and Urban Patterns

  • What trends do you see in the number of people living in cities?

    • Visual data shows number of cities with 1+ million people over time (UN Population Division data, 1960–2030)

  • Source: UN Population Division

  • Data points include generations of years: 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020, 2030

Related Questions: First Nations Reserves Patterns

  • What pattern(s) do you see in the location of First Nation reserves across Canada?

  • Map 1 shows on-reserve and off-reserve populations by census subdivisions (2021)

  • Legend and population ranges shown (e.g., 1,230; 2,591–5,245; 5,246–36,690 etc.)

  • Source: Statistics Canada, Census of Population, 2021; Status First Nations population, census subdivisions, Canada, 2021

Related Questions: Immigration in Core Cities

  • What specific locations have attracted migrants? Why?

  • Proportion of core-aged immigrants (25–54 years) in the labour force, census metropolitan areas (CMAs), 2021

  • Examples and percentages:

    • Toronto: 51.8%

    • Vancouver: 46.2%

    • Edmonton: 32.1%

    • Abbotsford–Mission: 32.7%

    • Calgary: 38.0%

    • Greater Sudbury: 5.7%

    • Saguenay: 2.2%

    • Trois-Rivières: 6.1%

    • Drummondville: 5.0%

    • St. John’s: 5.3%

  • Source: Census of Population, 2021 (3901)

Related Questions: Regional Comparison Task

  • Task: Choose 2 regions in the world and fill in the chart, identifying 3 key similarities and differences between them (different places than used for the spatial significance chart)

  • Then answer the follow-up questions about patterns and trends. CB pg: 13

Related Questions: Similarity Significance Reflection

  • How did you determine which similarities and differences were significant?

  • Why is it important to think about how places evolve over time? CB pg: 13

SENSE OF PLACE

  • Sense of Place:

    • Our own personal feelings about a particular place

    • Moves beyond factual information to how it makes us feel

    • Highly subjective and personal

    • Helps us connect emotionally to places, even if we don’t live there

  • CB pg: 15

SENSE OF PLACE – Practice Prompts

1) What do you think of when you think of the city you live or grew up in? Go beyond facts; consider its significance to you; sense of place can be positive or negative
2) Choose one other city in the world and explain your sense of place about that city
3) How can a sense of place help you identify an environmental issue and understand its importance?

  • CB pg: 15

INTERRELATIONSHIPS

  • Interrelationships:

    • Identifying the relationships that exist between natural and human environments

    • Understanding relationships helps us see how different things affect each other, addressing the question: Why care?

    • Example: Harvesting a resource (e.g., mining diamonds) can impact the economy of an area; there is a relationship between the natural environment and human behaviour

  • CB pg: 15

Related Questions: Interactions Between Humans and Environment

1) How do human and environmental factors interact with and influence each other?
2) Why is it important to understand the relationship between humans and our environment?
3) How can understanding this relationship help us address climate change and other significant environmental issues?

  • CB pg: (referenced in slide 31)

GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

  • Geographical Perspective: A perspective is a way of looking at the world from the geographer’s standpoint

  • Importance of considering multiple perspectives when studying geography

  • This considers SEEP implications for a location: Social, Economic, Environmental, Political

  • SEEP: Social, Economic, Environmental, Political → SEEP

GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE – Perspectives

  • Social Perspective

    • Example: American Red Cross (human impact and response)

  • Political Perspective

    • Example: DEAD END (illustrative placeholder in slide)

  • Economic Perspective

  • Environmental Perspective

Geographical Perspective – Katrina Example

  • Katrina (Hurricane Katrina) – SEEP lenses:

    • Social perspective: How the disaster affected lives and community responses

    • Economic perspective: Impacts on economy of the affected region

    • Political perspective: Actions/decisions by government officials and organizations (e.g., Red Cross)

    • Environmental perspective: Effects on natural systems and environments

Find The SEEP

  • Question: What is the SEEP of using electric cars?

  • Practice applying a SEEP framework to a technology or policy

Find The SEEP (Optional Reflection)

  • Use SEEP to assess a geography-related issue or scenario beyond the examples above