- The Meaning of Geography
- Environment
- Branches of Geography
- Importance of Studying Geography
- Relationship between Geography and Other Subjects
The Meaning of Geography
- Scientific study of the earth as a home of man.
- Study of interrelationship on natural and human phenomena on the earth’s surface.
Environment
- The surroundings
- All external conditions surrounding an organism which has influence over its behaviour.
Environment can be divided into two:- The Physical Environment
- Natural physical conditions of weather, climate, vegetation, animals, soil, landforms and drainage.
- The Human Environment
- Human activities such as farming, forestry, mining, tourism, settlement, transportation, trade and industry.
- The Physical Environment
Branches of Geography
There are two main branches of geography
- Physical Geography
- with the study of natural physical environment of human kind.
- The areas covered include:- The earth and the solar system..
- The internal land forming processes.
- The external land forming processes
- weather and climate
- Soils
- Human and Economic Geography
- Study of people and their activities on the earth’s surface.
- The areas covered include:- Mining
- Forestry
- Agriculture
- Fishing
- Wildlife and tourism
- Industry
- Energy etc.
Practical Geography
- A smaller branch which equips the learner with practical skills that enhance their understanding and interpretation of physical geography, human and economic geography.
- The areas under practical geography includes:
- Statistical methods
- Map work
- Field work
- Photograph work
Importance of Studying Geography
- Facilitates good relationship among nations by studying geography of other regions of the world.
- it’s a career subject in that it enables one to go for advanced studies in specialised fields e.g. geography teachers, meteorology, surveying etc.
- Enables us to appreciate other people’s way of life by learning economic activities of different communities within our country and other parts of the world.
- Enables us to conserve our environment when we learn negative and positive effects of human activities on the environment.
- Enables us to conserve our resources when we learn wise use of resources in conservation and management of resources e.g. wildlife, forests, energy, etc.
- Inculcates in us virtues of cooperation and patience as we work in groups.
- Helps learners to develop skills of observing and interpreting maps,photographs, charts etc.
- Through the study of fieldwork, geography teaches one on how to manage time properly by drawing a time schedule and follow in it.
- It helps us to learn and explain the origin of the earth and the solar system.
Relationship between Geography and Other Subjects
- Mathematics-mathematical techniques are used in drawing graphs and pie charts and mathematical formulae are used in geography to calculate distances, areas, population density, population densities, etc.
- History - history uses geographical tools like maps, charts and graphs to show where past events took place e.g. the movement of people in the past.
- Biology - Geography explains the distribution of organisms and factors influencing their distribution on the earth’s surface.
- Physics - geography uses physics principles and formulae to calculate and describe aspects such as magnetic field, gravity, vibrations of the earth etc.
- Chemistry - geography applies chemistry in studying chemical composition and chemical changes which take place in soils and rocks.
- Agriculture - geography studies farming systems, their distribution and factors affecting farming activities.
- Meteorology - geography uses meteorological information in the study of weather and in classifying climatic regions and mapping them.
- Geology - geography studies rocks but geology goes into much details where it deal with origin, structure and composition of the earth.
A model showing relationship between geography and other disciplines.
Centrality of Geography as a Science
- Geography relates well to the earth sciences which focuses on the different components of the earth.
- It also links to the geometrical sciences because of its practical aspects
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