In this year long course, students systematically study the patterns and processes that have shaped our understanding, use, and alteration of Earth’s surface. Students will employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human social organization and its environmental consequences, and also learn about the methods and tools geographers use in their science and practice. As this course is the equivalent of a college-level course, it is rigorous, fast paced, and requires extensive reading, writing, and analytical thinking.

Five Goals of AP Human Geography

• Use and think about maps and spatial data.
• Understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in places.
• Recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and processes
• Define regions and evaluate the regionalization process.
• Characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places.

COURSE INFORMATION

LONG TERM GOALS

• An appreciation for the study and practice of geography.
• An understanding that geographic information helps us to understand spatial relationships and human– environment interaction.

BIG IDEAS

• Geographical skills provide a foundation for analyzing world patterns and processes.
• Maps are used to represent and identify spatial patterns and processes at different scales.
• All maps inevitably distort spatial relationships.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What is human geography?
• What do maps tell us, how are they used, and how do maps relate to scale?
• How do ideas, people or goods move across space?
• What tools and techniques do geographers use to analyze the world?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

• explain the importance of geography as a field of study.
• apply geographic skills including how to:
  • use and think about maps and spatial data
  • interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and processes
  • analyze and implement the use of geographic technology such as GIS, remote sensing and GPS

CONTENT TOPICS

The student will know . . .

• the spatial perspective and the corresponding five themes of geography.
• the various types of regions for the purpose of analysis.
• the various modes of diffusion, and how each mode of diffusion compares to others.
• various geographical concepts including location, place, scale, space, pattern, nature, networks, regionalization, and globalization.
• the various models that are used to help geographers (and people) think systematically about topics such as land, industrial location, and the distribution of settlements.
• the various map projects and how each has a different distortion.

COURSE INFORMATION

LONG TERM GOALS

• An understanding that populations of people change in a variety of ways (move, grow, decline) over time and space.

BIG IDEAS

• Knowledge of the geographic patterns and characteristics of human populations facilitates understanding of cultural, political, economic, and urban systems.
• Populations grow and decline over time and space.
• There are many reasons why people migrate, and there are many consequences that result because of this migration.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• Where do people live and why?
• How do various factors affect population change?
• Why do populations rise and fall in particular places?
• Why and where do people migrate?
• How do various factors affect migration?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

• explain theories of population growth, including the demographic transition model, Malthus, and Malthus' critics.
• analyze major voluntary and involuntary migrations at different scales.
• conduct geographical analysis of a population using density, distribution, scale, age, race, sex, ethnicity.

CONTENT TOPICS

The student will know . . .

• the various types of migration, including forced migration (refugees, asylum seekers,) and voluntary migration (transnational, internal, chain, step, rural to urban).
• the different ways to measure population density (arithmetic, physiological and agricultural).
• that infant mortality, child mortality, life expectancy, and disease, among other factors, influence population dynamics
• population pyramids are used to project population growth and decline and to predict markets for goods and services
• the various types of population policies that are used to either promote or restrict population growth.

COURSE INFORMATION

LONG TERM GOALS

• An understanding and appreciation for diversity within and among cultures.
• An understanding that communication technologies are changing interactions among people around the world and changing cultural practices.

BIG IDEAS

• Culture varies by place and region.
• Concepts of culture frame the shared behaviors of a society.
• Language, religion, ethnicity, and gender are essential to understanding landscapes which represent the cultural identity.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What are local and popular cultures?
• How is popular culture diffused?
• What are languages and what role do languages play in cultures?
• How do languages diffuse?
• What is religion and what role does it play in culture?
• How do religions diffuse?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

• analyze cultural differences at various scales according to language, religion, ethnicity and gender.
• analyze the geographic power of popular and folk cultures.

CONTENT TOPICS

The student will know . . .

• the concepts of culture, including traits, diffusion, acculturation, assimilation, globalization and cultural regions.
• where the major religions originated and how each diffused (contagious expansion, hierarchical expansion, stimulus expansion, and relocation).
• the various universalizing religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism), the various ethnic religions (Hinduism, Judaism) and the similarities and differences between each.

COURSE INFORMATION

LONG TERM GOALS

• Our current understanding of the political world has been shaped by events of the past and will continually change going forward.

BIG IDEAS

• The forces of globalization challenge contemporary political–territorial arrangements.
• Spatial political patterns reflect ideas of power at different scales.
• The current political map has been shaped by events of the past.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How is space politically organized?
• How are boundaries established and why do disputes occur?
• How does the study of geopolitics help us understand the world?
• What are the supranational organizations, and what is the future of the state?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

• explain the structure, evolution, and forces that influence the geopolitical map.
• analyze the spatial relationships between political systems and patterns of culture and economy.

CONTENT TOPICS

The student will know . . .

• the concepts of the state, a nation, a nation-state, a multinational state, a multi-state nation, and how the differences between each of these concepts.
• examples of supranational organizations and how these organizations influence various states.
• forms of government including unitary states and federal states.
• centripetal forces bring people together, while centrifugal forces push people apart, and these forces can be social, economic, or cultural.

COURSE INFORMATION

LONG TERM GOALS

• Gain an understanding of the complex and controversial social, economic, political, environmental factors that go into the process of feeding the population of the world.

BIG IDEAS

• The development of agriculture led to widespread changes in the natural environment.
• Major agricultural regions reflect physical geography and economic forces.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What is the global pattern of agriculture agribusiness?
• What is agriculture and where did agriculture begin?
• How did agriculture change with industrialization?
• What imprint does agriculture make on the cultural landscape?
• How is agriculture organized geographically?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

• identify major centers of domestication of plants and animals.
• explain the connection between physical geography and agricultural practices.
• explain the impacts and advances of the first, second and green revolutions.

CONTENT TOPICS

The student will know . . .

• the early hearths of domestication of plants and animals including the Fertile Crescent, the Americas and Southeast Asia.
• and be able to differentiate between the various types of activities involved with agriculture, including primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary and quinary activities.
• the First, Second and Third (Green) Agricultural Revolutions.
• Von Thunen's model helps to explain rural land use by emphasizing the importance of transportation costs associated with the distance from the market, as well as how the contemporary distribution of agricultural regions (dairy, wheat, etc.).

COURSE INFORMATION

LONG TERM GOALS

• Understand the importance, growth, and diffusion of industrialization and how it has helped to develop the modern, contemporary world.

BIG IDEAS

• The Industrial Revolution helped improve standards of living.
• There are a wide variety of measures of development that can be used to assess areas of the world.
• Development is a process that varies across time and space.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• How have the character and geography of industrial production changed?
• How does geography explain patterns of industrialization?
• How do political and economic institutions influence development?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

• apply models like Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth and Wallerstein's World System Theory to explain spatial variations in development.

CONTENT TOPICS

The student will know . . .

• Weber's model of industrial location.
• the world's economy can be divided into a three tiered structure - the core, the periphery and the semiperiphery.
• Rostow Stages of Economic Growth.
• the Central Place Theory.
• Hotelling's Law/Model of Spatial Competition.

COURSE INFORMATION

LONG TERM GOALS

• Students will understand the function of contemporary cities and understand the importance of human-built environments and the construction of social spaces.

BIG IDEAS

• Describing key concepts of such as urbanism, uneven development, ghettoization, and gentrification.
• Understanding the historical patterns of urbanization.
• Determining demographics and social structures; Patterns of race, ethnicity, gender, and class.
• Understanding the impacts of suburbanization and edge cities.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• When and why did people start living in cities?
• Where are cities located and why?
• How are cities organized and how do they function?

LEARNING OUTCOMES Students will . . .

• explain the factors that promote urbanization and suburbanization.
• analyze the planning and design issues and political organization of urban areas.

CONTENT TOPICS

The student will know . . .

• the six urban hearths (Mesopotamia, Nile River, Indus River, Mesoamerica, Huang He, Peru).
• the three classical models of urban structure (The concentric zone, the sector model, the multiple nuceli).
• the additional city models (Griffin-Ford/South American, African city, McGee Model/Southeast Asian city).
• Von Thunen Model - Land use in relation to market and urban centers.
• models such as : Concentric Zones Model, Multiple Nuclei Model, and Urban Realms Model.