Geography is known as the 'world subject.' In high school geography class, you will learn to observe, explain, and search for why the world around us works the way it does.
It also will positively encourage you to imagine possible futures. Therefore, the high school world geography curriculum will help you as a student to think creatively about unresolved and complicated issues such as international population, global warming, food security, and other global problems.
Geography is mainly concerned with learning and making sense of the world around us. However, the most extraordinary aspect of this subject is that it studies both the human and physical world.
In high school geography, students will study real geography problems and are put headfirst into decision-making roles.
They must use data, analyze prejudices and preferences, argue value positions, and finally draw conclusions (which translates to undertaking geographical inquiries).
The Future Prospects Of Geography Graduates
According to the US Department of Labor, employment demands for geographers are expected to increase by 29% by 2022, a higher percentage than the average growth for other occupations.
This report is in light of the federal government information. This information cluster maintains and collects data using technology depending on geography to support:
- Law enforcement
- National security
- Environmental protection
- Natural resource conservation
- Health care
Among the multiple activities dependent on geospatial data analysis are road maintenance and other transportation infrastructures, quick natural disaster response (like hurricanes, fires, and floods), and keeping track of endangered species.
Five Themes Of Geography Lessons In High School
High school geography lessons are divided into five themes. These five themes will help you answer important questions to understand the complicated spatial patterns created by Earth's distribution of various human and natural features.
Location
The first theme is the location. This includes geopositioning regarding the position of the relative or specific place on Earth's surface.
Where exactly are you sitting or standing at this moment? In what way can you describe your location?
When you study geography, you will become aware of the location of the place, and by doing so, you will be using the most basic concept of geography.
Place
The second theme will ask questions such as, 'what is there and what is it like?'
Conditions and features of a place (both human and physical) provide character and meaning which set each place apart from others on the Earth's surface.
It also answers questions regarding:
- The critical natural features of the place you reside
- Describe the settlements and population patterns in your area
- Usage of the resources and land
- The importance of cultural aspects (like religion, language, political system, economic activity, and social pattern)
Interaction
Understanding interaction amongst natural environments and cultures often helps us explain the nature of places and ask questions such as 'Why is it like this?'
Every place has some advantages and disadvantages for settlement and human land use, and each culture creates its unique relationship with the physical Earth.
Similarly, depending on its needs, perceptions, tools, and skills, each human group adapts itself culturally, modifies, and uses the environment in a certain way.
In doing so, it forms its own distinctive land imprint and the cultural landscape. As a result, you will understand how society has culturally adapted to the natural environment.
Movement
This geography theme will explain how places are linked or connected.
The movement concept determines the importance of linkages and flows as ideas, people, commodities, resources, and elements travel all over the Earth.
It also explains the importance of movement to your community and the patterns evident within your living vicinity.
Region
Lastly, the regional theme addresses question like how you can group places. Therefore, regions are fundamental geographic study units.
In terms of analyzing and organizing data, they are to a geographer what an era or period is to the historian – a means to simplify information classification and place it in manageable units.
It also deals with studying the major regions your area is included in.
Whether you are studying history, geography, social studies, or global studies, these five geographic themes give a conceptual structure to study the Earth's diverse human and physical conditions.
What Is Taught In High School Geography?
In a lot of ways, geography resembles a vast puzzle. It is comprised of multiple divisions or branches. Every branch or area focuses on some portion of the world.
If you view them separately, none of these branches will show you the whole world. However, together they can improve our understanding and knowledge of the planet and its people.
The two key branches of geography are human geography and physical geography; these are also the two subject breakdowns you will study in high school geography.
Physical Geography
Physical geography deals with studying the physical geographic features of the world – its climates, plants, soils, landforms, and bodies of water.
But what does it mean when we say that this branch studies the physical geographic features? Of course, as a physical geographer, you will want to know everything there is to know about the various features of our planet.
You will want to know the way rivers flow across any landscape, where the world's mountain ranges are, and why there is a difference in rainfall depending on the region.
But more importantly, physical geographers study the reason behind different shapes on Earth's surface.
It deals with the logic behind the rise of mountain ranges and why rivers flow in specific directions. It also covers why there are different climate and weather patterns in various parts of the world.
Human Geography
The physical world is only a single piece of the geography puzzle. People are also part of this world, and human geography studies just that.
It deals with the geographic features of the world's humans – communities, people, and landscapes.
To put it simply, people who study human geography deal with the people of the present and past. Naturally, therefore, they look at human behavior (where people live and why they live there).
Students will ask themselves questions like why many people reside in some parts of the world while some parts have close to zero population.
You will also study what people do, their jobs, the crops they grow, and what leads them to move from one place to another. These questions are the ones geographers ask around the world.
But since people's lives differ globally, nobody can study the various aspects of human geography. Due to this, human geographers typically specialize in the smaller study area.
Some might opt to study only landscape and people in a specific region. At the same time, others do not limit their study to a single place.
Instead, they may select to inspect only a single aspect of people's lives.
Other Fields of Geography
Even though human geography and physical geography are the most prominent branches of this subject, they are not the only topic you will be taught in high school geography.
Multiple other topics in geography also exist, which you will go through while taking high school geography, and each one is devoted to studying a single aspect of the world.
These fields are typically more specialized in various areas of either human or physical geography.
Cartography
One of the main topics you will study under geography is cartography, the science behind making and studying maps.
You might have already observed the importance of maps while studying geography. Without them, many geographers will be lost in the most literal sense.
In the old days, maps were commonly drawn by hand and were not always accurate. However, these days maps are developed via satellite images and computers.
Today, we can create accurate maps on various scales, from the entire world to a single neighborhood, via mapmaking advances.
Meteorology
Have you ever watched a weather report on the news? If so, you might have observed the results of a geography branch and a topic you might also be studying when you take high school geography.
This branch or topic is known as meteorology, which studies weather and its causes.
First, meteorologists deal with studying a particular area's weather patterns. Then they employ the information received to predict the weather in the coming days.
Meteorology helps people plan their day and what to wear on a given day. Simultaneously, it also helps lives by predicting terrible storms' arrival.
Hydrology
Another major branch and topic of geography is hydrology which deals with studying water present on Earth.
In it, you will study the world's rainfall patterns and river systems. Furthermore, you will explore the causes of floods and droughts and how people can access safe drinking water.
You will also learn to measure and protect the global water supply using creative resources.
Why Should You Study Geography?
The question might have crossed your mind that why should you study geography. However, the answer is more straightforward than you might have been led to believe.
In many Western countries and several other less developed countries, the study of geography forms the 'core' of their social science curriculum.
However, US schools assign geography a minor role in the elementary, secondary, and high-school curriculums.
This presents a somewhat shocking and sad indictment of our priorities in education. Consequently, most of the world's educated people are better informed about the United States' geography than most of our citizens.
How can we as Americans expect to keep leadership, strength, and a respectable position in the world community about which we know and care so little of?
Geography is one of the oldest and time-honored study fields that can best provide the required training to ensure that US citizens are ever ready to assume enlightened and responsible leadership in the demanding and complex 21st-century global community.
If you are still unsure of where to start with your geography lessons, get in touch with Superprof and find the ideal geography tutors near you to start!
And if you're confused, learn about the benefits of geography classes here.
Superprof has hundreds of experienced and certified geography tutors near you who can help you with high school geography. So, why wait? Get started now!
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
Wonderful! I mean I’ve learnt a lot about geography.
Please I would be pleased to have more updates on geography and it’s diverse branches from your platform