AP Human Geography

Welcome to our class website.  This page serves as a digital syllabus for parents and students and does not contain any coursework.  All student coursework will be found on our Google Classroom page.

Below you will find

• Our Course Description and Course Objectives

• Grading, coursework, and test correction policies

Please contact me anytime you have questions or concerns.

Dan Lamping / LampingD@msdr9.org

The AP Exam and College credit

AP Human Geography is meant to be a college level course using standardized curriculum, written by the College Board.  It is a year-long elective open to all four grade levels at MHS.  In order to receive college credit for the class, students must take the AP Exam at the end of the year.  Taking the exam usually costs around $100.  Students sign up to take the exam through the MHS Counseling Department.  Sign up occurs in November.  Student performance on the AP Exam is the main determining factor for whether college credit can be received for the course.  Other factors that influence whether students can receive college credit include what scores on the exam colleges or universities accept or whether AP Human Geography is a class that the school accepts.  

AP human geography units

Unit 1: Thinking Geographically

Unit 2: Population and Migration Patterns and Processes

Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes

Unit 4: Political Patterns and Processes

Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes

Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use Patterns and Processes

Unit 7: Industrial and Economic Development Patterns and Processes

Course Skills

The AP Human Geography framework included in the CED outlines distinct skills that students should practice throughout the year—skills that will help them learn to think and act like geographers.

1. Concepts and Processes:  Analyze geographic theories, approaches, concepts, processes, or models in theoretical and applied contexts

2. Spatial Relationships:  Analyze geographic patterns, relationships, and outcomes in applied contexts

3. Data Analysis:  Analyze and interpret quantitative geographic data represented in maps, tables, charts, graphs, satellite images, and infographics

4. Source Analysis:  Analyze and interpret qualitative geographic information represented in maps, images (e.g., satellite, photographs, cartoons), and landscapes

 5. Scale Analysis:  Analyze geographic theories, approaches, concepts, processes, and models across geographic scales to explain spatial relationships

To learn more about class curriculum, please follow this link to the College Board website.

Coursework 

We have daily coursework, checks for understanding and other formative assessments that are designed to help students learn and to provide feedback.  Students will usually have enough time in class to begin coursework, but they likely will not have enough time to complete it.  So coursework will need to be completed during Academic Time (AT1 or AT2), Panther Prep, or as homework.  

Grades for coursework 

Daily course work and formative assessments don't usually factor directly into the class grade, though it is expected that all students complete coursework.  Coursework is how students learn and is considered practice.  Coursework may be put into the gradebook to help tell the story and to give parents and TAP teachers an idea of what we're doing in class, but it won't directly affect the student's grade.

Anything that is weighted towards a student's grade should be seen as an assessment of learning. 

Due dates for coursework

Due dates will be provided for coursework and serve as a guideline for course pacing.  Students will be provided answer keys for coursework after the due date so that they can assess whether they understand the material or the skill and to help them determine if they need to seek help during Academic Time (AT1 or AT2).  

Student responses for coursework

Student responses for coursework need to come from the students themselves, in their own words.  Student coursework WILL NOT be considered completed if they simply copy and paste the answer key, revise the answer key, use AI, or copy another student's response.

Student coursework and square root curve

The square root curve WILL NOT be applied if students do not keep up with and submit  their coursework prior to the test.  If students do not keep up with coursework, they will simply recieve the grade earned on the test.

Student coursework and test corrections

Students WILL NOT be able to do test corrections unless all of the coursework for a unit is complete. (See below for more details on test corrections.)

You can check Infinite Campus, Google Classroom or contact me anytime to find out how your student is doing with coursework completion.

Test Corrections

Because learning is a process and because we can often learn from assessments, students will be allowed to do test corrections for full-credit after taking an assessment provided they have submitted ALL of the unit coursework.  

Test corrections have to be done in the classroom, during Academic Time (AT1 or AT2), or before / after school.  Students cannot take tests home.  

Students will need to be able to explain why the incorrect answer they submitted was wrong, they will need to be able to identify the correct answer, and they will need to explain WHY it's the correct answer by describing their understanding of the underlying concept the question is assessing.  If the student can do this in a way that clearly demonstrates comprehension of the concepts, they may recover the lost points for the question. 

The square root curve is not applied to test corrections, however, students have the ability to bring their grade up to 100% for any unit test provided they have completed and submitted all unit coursework and they can adequately show understanding through meeting expectations in the test correction process.