In this modern age, haven’t all the locations on Earth been found, named, and mapped? Almost.
So why geography?
Citizens of many of the world’s countries still do not realize that ignorance of geography can affect their political stability, economic success, and environmental health. Sure, it is important to know where things are located. But even more important is learning how these places are affected by their environment and population. That is also geography.
Our survival depends on our awareness of things like where the most carbon dioxide is produced and where the rainforests are destroyed. It would help us to know why the terrorists want to attack. To help tsunami survivors, we need to know something about the affected places. Geography is central to all of these things.
It’s easy to see why people believe the myth that geography is just making maps, reading maps, and knowing where everything is. For example, television game show contestants will be asked questions like “what is the river that flows through Zambezi, Zambia?” In cases like this, the answer can be known by studying a map. Knowing where places and events are located is important and useful. Knowing where something happened makes the event more important.
You may have heard this story: A high school student in the United States applied to a local college. The admissions clerk who reviewed and denied the application noted that the applicant had to go through the foreign admissions office. The student was from New Mexico.
Geography is much more than knowing where something is or happened. Do you know the capital of Bolivia? The answer is La Paz and Sucre, two different places. Here’s why: In 1899, the Conservative Party of Bolivia was overthrown by the Liberal Party during the Federal Revolution. Tin mining, which was located in the La Paz area, had become an important industry for the country and tin entrepreneurs supported the liberals. So the Liberals wanted to move the capital from Sucre to La Paz. They only partially succeeded. The constitutional capital is now Sucre and the administrative capital is La Paz.
Now that you know the “why”, you are much more likely to remember the “where”.
A set of eighteen learning standards has been created for the science of geography. These eighteen standards are divided into six essential elements:
Physical systems
1. The physical actions that create the patterns of the earth’s surface.
2. The characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on the earth’s surface.
Places and Regions
3. The material and human attributes of places
4. Let people form regions to decode the complexity of the earth.
5. How culture and experience influence people’s understanding of places and regions
The world in spatial terms
6. How to use maps and other geographic tools and techniques to obtain, process and describe information from a spatial point of view.
7. How to use mind maps to organize data about people, places, and environments in a spatial context
8. How to study the spatial arrangement of people, places and environments on the earth’s surface.
Human systems
9. The characteristics, dispersal and migration of human populations on the earth’s surface.
10. The characteristics, dispersion and complexity of the earth’s cultural mosaics.
11. Patterns and networks of economic interdependence on the earth’s surface.
12. The processes, patterns and functions of human settlements
13. How the forces of cooperation and conflict between people influence the division and control of the earth’s surface
The uses of geography
14. How to apply geography to interpret the past
15. How to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future
Environment and Society
16. How human actions change the physical environment
17. How physical systems affect human systems
18. Changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources.
