Book Objectives

This book is used as the basis for an online course introducing students to the field of geography. The course covers the basics of both physical and human geography and is aimed at non-majors.

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Build geographic understanding of the world and explain the connections among peoples and places (spatial diversity and human-environment interaction)
• Use the tools of geography to help explain the world and solve problems (make and use maps and diagrams depicting spatial variation of phenomena)
• Map how the uneven distribution of energy leads to a diverse physical landscape including different climates, landforms, and resources.
• Map how the uneven distribution of resources leads to a diverse cultural landscape including languages, political and economic systems.
• Apply the tools of geography and spatial thinking to other disciplines such as conflict resolution, political sciences, economics, sociology, geology, chemistry and biology.