Week 2 Assignment 1 2-3 pages

Introduction to Geography

© 2015 Laureate Education, Inc.

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Introduction to Geography Program Transcript

MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: Why study geography? Why is geography important? You might think that geography is all about facts and figures, countries, capitals, the names of rivers and oceans, and other trivia, but geography is really a much wider subject. Geography is the study of three different systems in the same space. The physical system, including rivers and oceans, mountains and valleys, all the forms of land and water. The human system, politics, culture, economics, how humans move over the land and water and how they affect it over time. And the biological system, other species and their habitats, how they disperse over the land and water and how they adapt to their environment.

Geographical realms are the largest logical divisions into which geographers can divide the world. The exact divisions may differ from geographer to geographer, depending on what criteria are used. Cultural, physical, historical, etc. Realms may be dominated by one country or by several. Commonly, there are 12 world geographic realms. Europe, Russia, North America, Middle America, South America, sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, and Southwest Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Austral realm, and the Pacific realm.

Geographic regions are smaller areas within the realms, which have common properties. Examples of regions are the American Southwest, the Amazon basin, and the Australian Outback. As a systematic study, geography is complex. There are many specialists in geographic studies, including political geographers, cultural geographers, and global information systems-- GIS-- analysts, who analyze the patterns and changes in the world and use their analysis to solve problems and make predictions about the future.

So why is geography important? The geographical conditions of a region affect how humans live in that region. It influences culture and society, including artistic expression, dietary habits and political structure. By studying geography, you gain a deeper understanding of how the world we live in shapes all of our lives.