Regions

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

Geography is organized into five themes to make geographical concepts easier to understand and study.

• location
• place
• human-environment interactions
• movement
• regions

This lesson explores regions.

A region is any unit of space that is unified by some geographic or cultural characteristic. The world can be broken down into a few or thousands of regions.

For example, you could identify seven different regions on the earth by naming each continent or thousands of regions by naming every city.

The map below shows regions grouped by continent.

Regions can be identified by the names of continents, countries, counties, and cities. For example, you may live in Lexington, Kentucky.

Regions can also be identified with geographic titles, such as the Midwest or the Middle East. These are not formal names for a region, but most people know the area being discussed when they hear those terms.

Another geographic factor that can shape a region is climate. The map below illustrates how regions are formed based on average temperature and precipitation.

Regions can also be grouped by cultures. For example, you may identify a region based on the language spoken by the majority of the people or by the economic status of an area.

The following map breaks Europe into different regions based on the primary language spoken.

Think about where you live.

• In what region do you live?

Come up with at least three different ways to name your region. For example, you could say Spain, Mediterranean climate, and Spanish-speaking.

After you have come up with at least three different ways to name the region where you live, move to the Got It? section to practice what you have learned.