Geography is a compulsory course for middle school students to understand geographical environment, form geographical skills and the concept of sustainable development. The overall goal of junior high school geography curriculum in China is: through the study of junior high school geography curriculum, to understand the basic knowledge about the earth and map, world geography, China geography and local geography, and to understand the environment and development issues; Get basic geography skills and geography learning ability; Enable students to have a preliminary geographical science literacy and humanistic literacy, cultivate patriotic feelings, and form a preliminary global awareness and sustainable development concept. Therefore, geography class is of great significance to improve the comprehensive quality of middle school students, and it is necessary to learn geography well.
Geography is a science that studies the geographical environment and the relationship between human activities and geographical environment. The research object of geography determines that it has two outstanding characteristics: First, it is comprehensive. Up to space, down to the interior of the earth, and the human society in which we live are all important components of the geographical environment and belong to the research category of geography. Therefore, we say that geography is a comprehensive science with the dual nature of natural science and social science. Second, regionality. The geographical environment in different regions is different. Geography studies the differences, distribution and causes of geographical environment.
In addition, geography is also very practical. Geography is closely related to people's lives. We can observe many interesting geographical phenomena in life and learn a lot of useful geographical knowledge in life. Conversely, we can also use the geographical theory we have learned to guide our practical activities.
Moreover, geography plays an important role in modern science and plays an important role in solving the problems of population, resources, environment and development faced by the world today. Since geography is so important, how can we learn it well? Some students think that geography is not difficult, the key is good memory, as long as you memorize it; Some students think geography class is boring, except rote learning. In fact, the development and changes of geographical environment are regular, and the relationship between human activities and geographical environment is also regular. Geography also has its own unique learning methods and skills. As long as we master these learning methods and skills, we will learn both simple and interesting.
First, cultivate the concept of space and learn to read and use pictures correctly.
A wide variety and a large number of maps are the outstanding characteristics that distinguish geography courses from other disciplines, so some people say, "Without maps, there would be no geography". As long as you master the correct method of reading maps, cultivate good habits of using maps and form basic geographical skills, you will master the most important tool for learning geography.
First, form a good habit of reading and using pictures. You should know that geographical knowledge exists not only in the text of textbooks, but also in maps. In geography study, we should draw from left to right, pay attention to using and consulting maps at any time, and be good at discovering geographical knowledge and looking for geographical laws from maps. If you persist for a long time, you can have words in your eyes and pictures in your heart, and organically combine words and images to form a correct spatial imagination.
Secondly, we should master the correct method of reading pictures. Pay attention to the order of pictures, first look at the picture name, legend, scale and direction, know the main content and scope of the picture, and then observe the specific content of the picture. Observe carefully and comprehensively, and don't miss every piece of information.
Example 1: The knowledge we observed on the "latitude and longitude network map" is as follows:
We can see that there are many lines in this picture, among which the line connecting the north and south poles is longitude and the line perpendicular to longitude is latitude.
② Features of latitude and longitude: All the latitudes are round and parallel to each other; The latitude circle is long and short, and the equator is the longest, which gradually shortens to the poles and finally becomes a point. All meridians are semicircles; Equal in length and intersecting at poles.
③ indicates the direction: longitude indicates the north-south direction and latitude indicates the east-west direction.
(4) The law of latitude and longitude changes as follows: East longitude 0, west longitude 0; From west to east, the east longitude gradually increases and the west longitude gradually decreases. Latitude is bounded by the equator, with north latitude in the north and south latitude in the south; From north to south, the degree of north latitude is from big to small, and the degree of south latitude is from small to big.
⑤ Latitude and longitude net: Determine the position of a point on the earth.
Example 2: The schematic diagram we learned in the course of forest resources is called "Schematic diagram of soil and water conservation of slope protection forest belt". Let's take this diagram as an example to discuss several main steps of reading the schematic diagram.
The first step is to obtain information and obtain all kinds of information displayed in the schematic diagram. In the Schematic Diagram of Soil and Water Conservation of Slope Protection Forest Belt, we can observe the hillside, two forest belts, precipitation and rivers, some arrows with different thickness, different colors and different directions, and the words "trace clear water enters the river" and "sediment runoff".
The second step is to analyze the map and the relationship between all kinds of information and content we get in the map. From top to bottom, we can see that the arrows representing surface runoff change from thick to thin, and the color changes from deep to light, and finally it becomes "a small amount of clear water enters the river". These indicate that during the process of falling from the air to the ground, atmospheric precipitation is blocked by branches and leaves of trees and litter layers, which promotes a large amount of rainwater infiltration and leads to the continuous reduction of surface runoff and sediment concentration. Slope protection forest reduces the degree of sediment loss and plays a role in maintaining soil and water on sloping land.
The third step is to explain the principle and clarify the principle explained in the schematic diagram. This Schematic Diagram of Soil and Water Conservation of Slope Protection Forest Belt shows that forests have hidden water sources and soil and water conservation functions.
Second, learn to read and master scientific reading methods.
Geography textbooks are an important way for us to acquire geography knowledge and improve geography literacy. How can we learn geography knowledge well in textbooks? We should pay attention to the following points:
1. Read the book.
To read a textbook, you must first understand what the book says. For example, when teaching materials introduce a certain geographical area, they are generally discussed from the geographical elements that constitute this area. Where is this area? What's the general situation of nature here? How is the economic development? What's the problem? etc
2. Reading out the knowledge network
The geographical environment is an organic whole, and the elements that constitute the geographical environment restrict and influence each other. Changes in any geographical element may affect changes in other elements. We should clarify the relationship between these geographical elements and form a knowledge network in this region in our minds.
Through the study of world geography, we know that the Antarctic continent is a special continent, and its geographical environment characteristics are unique. Strong winds, snowstorms and severe cold are the most remarkable climatic characteristics of the Antarctic continent. There is the largest continental glacier in the world, with few species of animals and plants, extreme day and night phenomena, beautiful aurora and so on. The key factor that forms these regional characteristics is that most of the Antarctic continent is located in the high latitude area south of the Antarctic circle, and many other geographical features are closely related to this factor.
3. Learn to organize knowledge
① The discussion of similar knowledge in textbooks is similar and regular.
The content of geography textbooks is characterized by a large amount of information, but the angles and methods of describing the same type of knowledge have great similarity and regularity.
For example, describing the climate characteristics of a country or region often needs to be explained from two aspects: temperature and precipitation. Temperature includes annual average temperature, annual temperature difference and temperature distribution. Precipitation is mainly composed of annual precipitation and its temporal and spatial distribution.
In addition, we can also compare and sort out countries or regions with obvious differences or similarities.
② Compare and sort out countries or regions with obvious differences or similarities.
There are obvious differences or similarities in geographical environment or geographical elements in different countries and regions. Based on this, we can learn from comparison, compare differences and find similarities. For example, we can adopt this method when studying India and Brazil, Japan and Britain, South and North China, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, Africa and South America.
For example, there are obvious differences in natural conditions, economic development and living habits between the north and the south of China. If we use comparative methods to summarize, then many differences between the north and the south will be clear at a glance.
food
Crop oil
Crop sugar
Mainly crops
Fruit-based
Energy, major metals and minerals, people
Staple food tradition
traffic
Tool movement
project
Wheat, peanuts, beets and apples in northern China.
Pear, coal, oil and iron pasta, carriage skating
ski
Rice, Rape, Sugarcane and Citrus in South China
Banana hydraulic non-ferrous metal rice boat swimming
Dragon Boat Racing
We should not only understand the differences between two regions or two countries, but also think about how these differences are formed. These differences between southern China and northern China are mainly due to different geographical locations, resulting in differences in natural environment.
We can find not only differences but also similarities through comparison. For example, although India and Brazil are located on different continents, they are similar in many ways. By means of comparison and induction, we can clearly sort out the main geographical characteristics of the two countries.
India and Brazil are both tropical coastal countries; The terrain is mainly plain and plateau; Rich in high-quality iron ore resources; They are all famous producers and exporters of tropical cash crops in the world; In recent years, the electronic industry and information industry have developed rapidly, which is a relatively developed country among the developing China countries.
Third, cultivate geographical thinking ability.
Cultivating geographical thinking ability is an important goal of junior high school geography curriculum, which is very important for middle school students to learn geography well.
The factors that constitute the geographical environment are interrelated and mutually causal. The occurrence and development of any geographical thing is not caused by a single factor, but by the interaction of many factors. However, among these geographical factors, one or two factors play a key role. We should learn to find out this key factor and use it as a clue to contact other factors, so as to correctly understand the internal relationship between geographical factors.
Junior high school geography is mainly the study of regional geography. Generally speaking, the most important factor affecting the geographical characteristics of a certain area is the geographical location of the area (that is, the location factor we often say), which has been clearly shown in the sequence of teaching materials. At the same time, in the discussion of each region, the first is the geographical location of the place, which hemisphere is it located in? What latitude? What is the land and sea position? What are the neighboring countries? Wait a minute. Therefore, when thinking about the problem, we should grasp the geographical position of the place and use it as a breakthrough to analyze the characteristics of other geographical elements.
Regarding the influence of geographical location on the natural environment, the most representative area is the northwest of China. Compared with other areas in China, Northwest China has many unique geographical features. For example, deserts are widely distributed and sparsely populated, the surface vegetation is dominated by grasslands and deserts, and rivers and lakes are mostly inland rivers and lakes, with obvious drought resistance characteristics of animals and plants. Agricultural production is dominated by animal husbandry and irrigated agriculture is developed ... The direct cause of these phenomena is that the continental climate here is remarkable and precipitation is scarce, and the fundamental reason for the scarcity of precipitation and climate drought is the geographical position of "living inland" here. Of course, "terrain occlusion" also plays an important role in the arid climate in northwest China.