 | | | | | | Advanced Placement Geogrpahy | | Course Description: AP Human Geography will use the thematic approach of examining the patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth’s surface. Regions will be studied through the lenses of: nature of and perspectives on geography, population, cultural patterns and processes, political organization of space, agricultural and rural land use, industrialization and economic development, and cities and urban land use. Students will evaluate the interconnections between geography and human social organization. Students will use the tools and methods geographers use in their science and practice, including employing spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human organization of space. Content will incorporate spatial relationships at different scales – from local to global.
Students practice high-level test-taking skills in preparation for the Advanced Placement Examination conducted each May under the auspices of The College Board. Students enrolling in this course should be aware that AP classes are taught and graded at the college level and that requirements significantly exceed the demands and expectations for other college prep classes.
Standards:
• Understand the geographic concepts of location, space, place, scale, pattern, regionalization and globalization
• Apply mathematical formulas, models, and qualitative data to geographical concepts
• Develop a strong awareness of the relevance of academic geography to everyday life and decision making
• Analyze the distribution of the human population at different scales; global, continental, national, state or province, and local community
• Analyze refugee flows, immigration, internal migration, and residential mobility to understand the interconnections among population, phenomena, and other topics
• Evaluate the role, strengths and weaknesses of major population policies
• Learn how geographers assess the spatial and place dimensions of cultural groups as defined by language, religion, race, ethnicity and gender, in the present as well as the past
• Examine the way culture shapes human-environment relationships
• Understand the different forces that shaped the evolution of the contemporary world political map, including the rise of the modern state in Europe and the influence of colonialism
• Examine the four agricultural and rural land use themes: the origin and spread of agriculture, the characteristics of the world’s agricultural regions, reasons why these regions function the way they do, and the impact of agricultural change on the quality of life and the environment
• Understand why natural resources have different values for different societies and how places and regions acquire comparative advantages for development
• Study the impact of deindustrialization, the disaggregation of production, and the rise of consumption and leisure activities
• Examine such topics as the current and historical distribution of cities; the political, economic, and cultural functions of cities; reasons for differential growth among cities; and types of transportation and communication linkages between cities
• Study comparative models of internal city structure and current trends in urban development that are affecting urban places, and will shape cities in the future
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