The system of geographical sciences and the history of geography
Answers are for parents and teachers.
1
Draw a diagram of the system of geographical sciences in your notebook: include at least 5 physical and 5 socio-economic sciences.
Example: physical – geomorphology, climatology, hydrology, soil geography, biogeography; socio-economic – population geography, political geography, geography of industry, agriculture and transport.
2
Choose one geographic problem (for example, water shortage in your neighbourhood) and write which methods and sciences are needed to study it.
Possible: statistical method (water use), cartographic method (network map), hydrology and climatology (water sources), population geography.
3
List the six stages of the history of geography in order and add one scholar or event to each.
Antiquity (Eratosthenes), Middle Ages (Beruni), Great Discoveries (Columbus), scientific geographical work (J. Cook), 19th to early 20th century (Humboldt), modern (GIS, space methods).
4
Da Gama sailed in 1498 and Columbus in 1492. How many years apart are they? (Number only.)
6
5
Why are the works of scholars like Beruni and al-Khwarizmi still valuable to geography today? Write 3–4 sentences.
They relied on precise measurement, mapping and observation of nature; their methods underlie geodesy and cartography, and their records are useful as historical data.