The National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) : Geography Education

Geography Education

Page 4 - Geography helps us understand our own country

Geography and citizenship

Knowledge of geography helps us be better citizens. Through geography we learn to locate important events. We can understand the relationship between geography and national or international policies and we can use geographical knowledge to make informed decisions regarding the best use of the nation's resources. Finally, geographic knowledge helps us to ask important questions about policies that lead to changes in landscape and land use. Geographically informed students will be effective leaders for our country.

Geography and economics

There is a close relationship between geography and economics. The location of natural resources, the shape of transportation networks and the technology they use, the level of industrialization or energy production, and many other geographical factors influence the kind of economy a country or region will have. Trade patterns are fundamental elements of both geography and economics.

Geography and history

Geography provides important clues to the past. Landforms and climate are related to migration patterns, land use, and the rise and fall of civilizations. How people use the land also has a strong bearing on the economic progress of countries and regions. Thus, knowing what the landscape was like in the past is important for understanding historical processes; as is knowing who lived in a place, how they lived, and how they used the land.

Geography and the environment

Many human geographers examine the relationship between humans and the environments in which they live and physical geographers are concerned with how natural systems work. Geographers conduct research to understand the impact of environmental factors on human individual and group behavior, to identify the ways in which humans change the environments in which they live, and to determine the long-term environmental impacts of social processes such as population growth and technological development. These are key issues for determining government and private sector environmental policies with which an education citizenry should be acquainted.

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