Download AP Human Geography

AP Human Geography
Course Syllabus
AP Human Geography introduces students to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped
human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth’s surface. Students employ spatial concepts and landscape
analysis to examine human social organization and its environmental consequences. They also learn about the
methods and tools geographers use in their science and practice. The course is structured according to the
course outline found in the most recent AP® Human Geography Course Description published by the College
Board (https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/ap-human-geography/course-details).
This is a fascinating class that will introduce you to the spatial world around you and its influences on human
interaction and the environment. It is, however, a rigorous course, as is the case with all college-level AP
courses. As a result, you will be required to complete reading and writing assignments outside of class and take
notes in class on lectures and discussions. Failure to complete reading assignments and poor note-taking will
have a negative impact on your ability to be successful in this course. AP Human Geography is demanding and
you can expect exams in traditional AP format, quizzes, essays, research papers, projects, and presentations.
You are required to maintain a course binder for notes, handouts, and assignments. This binder will serve as a
valuable review resource in the weeks leading up to the national AP Human Geography Exam. You may also be
required to make notecards each unit for vocabulary foundations. I suggest buying at least 5 packs of notecards
to get started.
The national AP Human Geography Exam is Friday May 12, 2017. Every student enrolled in AP Human
Geography at LTHS is expected to take the exam. The exam is two hours and 15 minutes long and consists of
75 multiple choice questions and three free-response essay questions. There is a fee to take the exam (financial
assistance is available for students who qualify for free/reduced lunch). Students who pass the exam can earn
college credit. Exam registration and due dates for the fees will be announced in the spring.
Expectations
● Students are expected to allocate adequate time for homework.
● Students must be willing to read the textbook in order to be successful.
● Students should take notes and strive to write clear, effective essays to get their ideas across in a
coherent manner.
● Students should show up each day ready to participate, be active, engaged, and ready to learn new ways
of thinking about YOUR world!
Course Objectives
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You will use and think about maps and spatial data
You will understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in places
You will recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and processes
You will define regions and evaluate the regionalization process
You will characterize and analyze the changing interconnections among places
You will prepare to pass the national AP Human Geography Exam.
Unit calendars indicating homework, lecture topics, activities, reading assignments, quiz dates, and other
information about the unit will be posted to schoology and on the in class calendar. This information is subject
to change.
Main Texts
● de Blij, H. J., and Fouberg: Human Geography: People, Place, and Culture 10th Edition (provided by the
school)
● Princeton Review AP Human Geography 2017 - You must purchase your own copy of this study guide
to write in and for unit reviews.
Supplemental Texts
● Kuby, Michael, John Harner, and Patricia Gober. Human Geography in Action. 3rd ed. New York: John
Wiley, 2004.
● Variety of readings
Teaching Strategies
● My course features a mixture of inquiry-based discussions, instructional video, and project-based
learning.
● Since free-response questions (FRQs) comprise 50 percent of the AP Human Geography Exam, all
unit tests include free- response questions (essays). Students also practice writing free-responses from
time to time throughout the year. These responses are graded using a scoring rubric in the same manner
as the exam is scored.
Student Evaluation
● Tests/Projects = 50% grade
● Daily = 25% grade
● Quiz = 25% grade
● Each unit of study includes SQ3R Readings and quizzes for chapters in the text and mapping of regions,
several daily grades, participation points, discussions, projects and the unit tests.
○ SQ3R Reading requires careful and thoughtful reading of the assigned text. I have found these
to be more successful than reading quizzes.
○ Each vocabulary quiz consists of 10-20 challenging questions that require careful reading of the
chapter(s) in preparation for the quiz.
○ Each unit will have a Geopolitical region of emphasis and a map test/quiz on that region.
○ On a unit test, students complete two to three free-response questions (FRQs) in the 90-minute
class period. The questions are scored using a scoring guideline that is similar to those used at
the AP Reading. The free-response portion counts as a 50 point grade. On the second part of the
unit test, students answer 50 multiple-choice questions (five answer options per question), which
also count as a 50-point grade.
○ Projects are graded on a rubric. I try to provide an opportunity for students to work
independently and collaboratively each unit on projects to apply their learning. (Unit 1 does not
have a project; there is a map test instead over the summer preparation component.)
○ Discussions will change each unit and students will be evaluated on their preparation and
participation in the discussions.
General Grading Rubric
Unless otherwise stated when evaluating responses for essays and discussions, we use the basic LTHS Social
Studies Writing Scoring Standard of:
● 5- Exceeds Expectations equivalent to a 100
○ easy to read, clear, wow factor, mastery, sophisticated, complex
● 4-Meets Expectation equivalent to 90.
○ simplistic, topical, mechanical, a level of vagueness, generally acceptable
● 3-Somewhat Meets Expectations equivalent to 80
○ inconsistent, incomplete, meager, oversimplified, unedited
● 2--Barely Meets Expectations equivalent to 70
○ inept, mechanically unsound, just a passing reference to the task
● 1-Did Not Meet Expectations equivalent to below 70
○ incomplete
● 0-Did Not Try
* A 5 is an exception, not the norm. In order to receive a 5, a student must show a particularly innovative way
of thinking.
Course Planner at A Glance
Topic
Multiple-Choice
Coverage on the
AP Exam
Readings and Viewings/Labs
Geopolitical Region of
Focus
Time
I. Geography: Its
Nature and
Perspectives
5–10%
de Blij and Fouberg, Ch. 1, 14
and Appendix A
HGIA Lab 1: Maps Lie
World
Aug/Sept
II. Population
13–17%
Latin America:
Mexico and Central
America/South America
Sept/October
Immigrant Interview
III. Cultural
Patterns and
13–17%
Southwest Asia (Middle
East)/Northern Africa
November/Dec
Religious Places of
Worship/
de Blij and Fouberg, Ch. 2,3
HGIA Lab 3: India
The Good Lie: Refugee
Gapminder/ Hans Rosling
de Blij, Ch. 4–7
Projects
Summer Map Test
Processes
IV. Political
Organization of
Space
Wadjda - Gender
13–17%
Semester Exam
de Blij and Fouberg Ch. 8
Hotel Rwanda: Genocide
Berlin Conference Model UN
Cultural Landscapes
Scavenger Hunt
Sub Saharan Africa
(Western Africa,
Central Africa, East and
Southern Africa)
Includes Units I–III
V. Agricultural and
Rural Land Use
13–17%
de Blij and Murphy, Ch. 10
King Corn/Food Inc/
VI.
Industrialization
and Economic
Development
13–17%
VII. Cities and
Urban Land Use
13–17%
January
Independent Conflict
Research Project and
Presentation
December/January
Western Europe ,
Eastern Europe and
Northern Eurasia
(Russia)
Feb/March
de Blij and Murphy, Ch. 9
South Asia/East Asia
March
de Blij and Murphy, Ch. 11, 12
HGIA: Major League Baseball
Teams
Draw a City
Australia and
Oceania/N.
America
April
Units I-VII/ Princeton Review
Mapping Your Breakfast
Foods/ Agriculture
Design a New City
2 weeks
Exam Review
AP Exam
Post Exam Unit
Class Party
World Map Again
Final Project
Presentations
Unit I Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives
● Geography as a field of inquiry
● Major geographical concepts underlying the geographical perspective: location, space, place,
scale, pattern, nature and society, regionalization, globalization, and gender issues
● Key geographical skills
○ How to use and think about maps and geospatial data
○ How to understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in
places
○ How to recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and
processes
○ How to define regions and evaluate the regionalization process
○ How to characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places
● Use of geospatial technologies, such as GIS, remote sensing, global positioning systems (GPS),
and online maps
● Sources of geographical information and ideas: the field, census data, online data, aerial
photography, and satellite imagery
● Identification of major world regions
Unit II: Population & Migration “(Hans Rosling 101)”
● Geographical analysis of population
○ Density, distribution, and scale
○ Implications of various densities and distributions
○ Composition: age, sex, income, education, and ethnicity
○ Patterns of fertility, mortality, and health
● Population growth and decline over time and space
○ Historical trends and projections for the future
○ Theories of population growth and decline, including the Demographic Transition
Model
○ Regional variations of demographic transition
○ Effects of national population policies: promoting population growth in some countries
or reducing fertility rates in others
○ Environmental impacts of population change on water use, food supplies, biodiversity,
the atmosphere, and climate
○ Population and natural hazards: impacts on policy, economy, and society
● Migration
○ Types of migration: transnational, internal, chain, step, seasonal agriculture (e.g.,
transhumance), and rural to urban
○ Major historical migrations
○ Push and pull factors, and migration in relation to employment and quality of life
○ Refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons
● Consequences of migration: socioeconomic, cultural, environmental, and
political; immigration policies; remittances
Unit III: Cultural Patterns and Processes
● Concepts of culture
○ Culture traits
○ Diffusion patterns
○ Acculturation, assimilation, and multiculturalism
○ Cultural region, vernacular regions, and culture hearths
○ Globalization and the effects of technology on cultures
● Cultural differences and regional patterns
○ Language and communications
○ Religion and sacred space
○ Ethnicity and nationalism
○ Cultural differences in attitudes toward gender
○ Popular and folk culture
○ Cultural conflicts, and law and policy to protect culture
● Cultural landscapes and cultural identity
○ Symbolic landscapes and sense of place
○ The formation of identity and place making
○ Differences in cultural attitudes and practices toward the environment
○ Indigenous peoples
Unit IV: Political Organization of Space
● Territorial dimensions of politics
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The concepts of political power and territoriality
The nature, meaning, and function of boundaries
Influences of boundaries on identity, interaction, and exchange
Federal and unitary states, confederations, centralized government, and forms of
governance
○ Spatial relationships between political systems and patterns of ethnicity, economy, and
gender
○ Political ecology: impacts of law and policy on the environment and environmental
justice
● Evolution of the contemporary political pattern
○ The nation-state concept
○ Colonialism and imperialism
○ Democratization
○ Fall of communism and legacy of the Cold War
○ Patterns of local, regional, and metropolitan governance
● Changes and challenges to political-territorial arrangements
○ Changing nature of sovereignty
○ Fragmentation, unification, and cooperation
○ Supranationalism and international alliances
○ Devolution of countries: centripetal and centrifugal forces
○ Electoral geography: redistricting and gerrymandering
○ Armed conflicts, war, and terrorism
Project: Political Issues Project
Students select a current political issue (e.g., war, civil conflict, border dispute, independence movement) to
research. Each student writes an essay, using appropriate maps and providing classmates with copies of a onepage summary via the class blog. [SC11]
Unit V. Agriculture, Food Production, and Rural Land Use
● Development and diffusion of agriculture
○ Neolithic Agricultural Revolution
○ Second Agricultural Revolution
○ Green Revolution
○ Large-scale commercial agriculture and agribusiness
● Major agricultural production regions
○ Agricultural systems associated with major bioclimatic zones
○ Variations within major zones and effects of markets
○ Interdependence among regions of food production and consumption
● Rural land use and settlement patterns
○ Models of agricultural land use, including von Thünen's model
○ Settlement patterns associated with major agriculture types: subsistence, cash cropping,
plantation, mixed farming, monoculture, pastoralism, ranching, forestry, fishing and
aquaculture
○ Land use/land cover change: irrigation, desertification, deforestation, wetland destruction,
conservation efforts to protect or restore natural land cover, and global impacts
○ Roles of women in agricultural production and farming communities
● Issues in contemporary commercial agriculture
○ Biotechnology, including genetically modified organisms (GMO)
○ Spatial organization of industrial agriculture, including the transition in land use to largescale commercial farming and factors affecting the location of processing facilities
○ Environmental issues: soil degradation, overgrazing, river and aquifer depletion, animal
wastes, and extensive fertilizer and pesticide use
○ Organic farming, crop rotation, value-added specialty foods, regional appellations, fair
trade, and eat-local-food movements
○ Global food distribution, malnutrition, and famine
Unit VI: Industrialization and Economic Development
● Growth and diffusion of industrialization
○ The changing roles of energy and technology
○ Industrial Revolution
○ Models of economic development: Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth and
Wallerstein's World Systems Theory
○ Geographic critiques of models of industrial location: bid rent, Weber’s comparative
costs of transportation and industrial location in relation to resources, location of retailing
and service industries, and local economic development within competitive global
systems of corporations and finance
● Social and economic measures of development
○ Gross domestic product and GDP per capita
○ Human Development Index
○ Gender Inequality Index
○ Income disparity and the Gini coefficient
○ Changes in fertility and mortality
○ Access to health care, education, utilities, and sanitation
● Contemporary patterns and impacts of industrialization and development
○ Spatial organization of the world economy
○ Variations in levels of development (uneven development)
○ Deindustrialization, economic restructuring, and the rise of service and high technology
economies
○ Globalization, manufacturing in newly industrialized countries (NICs), and the
international division of labor
○ Natural resource depletion, pollution, and climate change
○ Sustainable development
○ Government development initiatives: local, regional, and national policies
○ Women in development and gender equity in the workforce
VII: Cities and Urban Land Use
● Development and character of cities
○ Origin of cities; site and situation characteristics
○ Forces driving urbanization
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○ Borchert's epochs of urban transportation development
○ World cities and megacities
○ Suburbanization processes
Models of urban hierarchies: reasons for the distribution and size of cities
○ Gravity model
○ Christaller's central place theory
○ Rank-size rule
○ Primate cities
Models of internal city structure and urban development: strengths and limitations of models
○ Burgess concentric zone model
○ Hoyt sector model
○ Harris and Ullman multiple nuclei model
○ Galactic city model
○ Models of cities in Latin America, North Africa and the Middle East, subSaharan Africa, East Asia, and South Asia
Built environment and social space
○ Types of residential buildings
○ Transportation and utility infrastructure
○ Political organization of urban areas
○ Urban planning and design (e.g., gated communities, New Urbanism, and
smart-growth policies)
○ Census data on urban ethnicity, gender, migration, and socioeconomic
status
○ Characteristics and types of edge cities: boomburgs, greenfields, uptowns
Contemporary urban issues
○ Housing and insurance discrimination, and access to food stores
○ Changing demographic, employment, and social structures
○ Uneven development, zones of abandonment, disamenity, and
gentrification
○ Suburban sprawl and urban sustainability problems: land and energy use,
cost of expanding public education services, home financing and debt
crises
○ Urban environmental issues: transportation, sanitation, air and water
quality, remediation of brownfields, and farmland protection