How has the Geography of the West shaped who we are?

The first day of the trip! My intention:

Hi!
So before we went on this trip, each one of us set an intention that we’re going to work on throughout the trip. My intention is to learn one fact each day. So far I feel like that’s going pretty well.

I do have a fact for today so that’s good. These facts will be an addition to the initial work for each day. There may be more than one fact that I learn at each place! And that would be great!

You might be wondering: what’s the point of learning a fact!? Well that one fact will hopefully act kinda like a summary for what I learned that day. It will also help me remember where we went and what we did.

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The google translation of geography:
“The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries.”

My translation of geography is: The land that colonists have claimed over time, and how they settled out to distribute resources and humans.

What in the world are the 5 themes of geography??

Here is my comic life that shows examples of the five themes:

The five themes of geography are location, place, movement, human environmental interaction and region.

In 1984 some fancy teacher people decided that these were the appropriate themes.

Human environmental interaction: humans do a lot of stuff to the environment. We adapt to and modify it, in positive and negative ways. For example something as small as planting a garden.

Movement: humans move! We move and migrate across the planet. With us we move ideas, goods and resources. For example trading from country to country.

Place: can be Physical: mountains, rivers, beaches, topography, climate, and animal and plant life of a place. Hot, sandy, fertile, forested, etc.

Or Human place: architectural styles, forms of livelihood, religious practices, political systems, common foods, local folklore, means of transportation, and methods of communication.

Region: can be Formal regions: These are formed by official boundaries, such as cities, states, counties, and countries.

Functional regions: a serviced area, for example electricity can only be provided to the houses in the certain grid.

Vernacular regions: These are perceived regions, such as "The South," "The Midwest," or the "Middle East" they have no boundaries.

Location: can be Absolute location: Provides a specific details for locating a place. The reference can be latitude and longitude, or a street address. Very specificity, coordinates.

Relative location: Describes a place with its environment and its connection to other places.

“What made and makes the West?”

So, what made and makes the west?!

Well we do! To generalize it a little better, people shape the west!

For example, if all of the people who decide to make the Canadian pacific railway were like, “actually let’s not, to much work!” Then the west wouldn’t be as significant as it is today!

The history of the west also makes it, because if the last spike wasn’t driven in British Colombia or if BC didn’t join confederation then the west wouldn’t have that much history.