One of the greatest aspects of geography is the effort to understand how places are interconnected and how these interconnections change with technology and over time. Great emphasis is placed on migration, economic activity, and urbanization. Sources of Geographical Ideas and Data Geographers use ideas and data from a wide variety of sources. In the past, field observations and the collection of data by individual research geographers was the primary process for gathering information for geographic analysis. Today, however, very few geographers do independent fieldwork.
Geographers rely on major governmental efforts to gather relevant data.
For example data gathered by the United States Census Bureau is the most obvious source of demographic data in the U.S. Geographers in most parts of the world rely on such compilations for the base of their analysis. Whenever possible, students in an AP course should be encouraged to make their own field observations and conduct fieldwork. It is useful to have students think about the process of fieldwork as incorporating the process of description and hypothesis building. Description can be divided into four parts. First is observation or sensing the environment directly by one s own body or instruments such as barometers or thermometers.