AP Human Geography
Unit I: Geography: Nature and Perspectives
Chapter 1, De Blij
AP Human Geography
Unit I: Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives
I. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives
The AP Human Geography course emphasizes the importance of geography as a field of inquiry and
briefly discusses the emergence of academic geography in nineteenth century Europe. The course
introduces students to the importance of spatial organization — the location of places, people, and events,
and the connections among places and landscapes — in the understanding of human life on Earth.
Geographic concepts emphasized throughout the course are location, space, place, scale, pattern,
regionalization, and globalization. These concepts are basic to students’ understanding of spatial
interaction and spatial behavior, the dynamics of human population growth and movement, patterns of
culture, economic activities, political organization of space, and human settlement patterns, particularly
urbanization. Students learn how to use and interpret maps. They also learn to apply mathematical
formulas, models, and qualitative data to geographical concepts. The course also makes use of the
concept of the region, encourages students to consider the regional organization of various phenomena,
and enables students to create regions in order to illustrate process. A significant outcome of the course is
students’ awareness of the relevance of academic geography to everyday life and decision making. This
combination of the academic and the applied gives students a sophisticated view of the world and an
understanding of the manifold applications of what they have learned in the course.
Percentage Goals for Exam (multiple-choice Content Area section)
I.
Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives
5–10%
A. Geography as a field of inquiry
B. Evolution of key geographical concepts and models associated with notable geographers
C. Key concepts underlying the geographical perspective: location, space, place, scale, pattern,
regionalization, and globalization
D. Key geographical skills
1. How to use and think about maps and spatial data
2. How to understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in
places
3. How to recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and
processes
4. How to define regions and evaluate the regionalization process
5. How to characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places
E. Geographic technologies, such as GIS, remote sensing, and GPS
F. Sources of geographical ideas and data: the field, census data, and satellite imagery
Date (22 Days)
Thurs Aug 9th
.
Fri Aug 10th
Mon Aug 13
Tues Aug 14th
Wed Aug 15th
Thur Aug 16th
Fri Aug 17th
Mon Aug 20th
Tues Aug 21st
Wed Aug 22nd
Thurs Aug 23rd
Fri Aug 24th
Mon Aug 27th
Tues Aug 28
Wed Aug 29th
Thurs Aug 30th
Fri Aug 31st
Tues Sept 4th
Wed Sept 5th
Thurs Sept 6th
Fri Sept 7th
Topic
Activity
Assessment
 Summer Reading Review:
The World is Flat, Friedman
 Summer Reading Socratic Seminar
Be prepared with Summer Reading
 Journal entry
 A: Geography is a Field of Inquiry
C: Five Themes of Geography
 5 ThemesFIB Notes pp. 8-14 (De Blij)
 Five Themes Mosaic
Five Themes Worksheet
 Online quiz and Journal Entry
 Five Themes Worksheet Five
Dialect Journal
5 Themes Mosaic
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
 B: Notable Geographers and
Geographic Concepts
Continued
 Unit I: A, B, C Test
 D (1-5). Key Geographic Skills
Continued
 FIB Notes PPT
Continued
 Unit I: A, B, C Test
 FIB Notes pp. 14-31
Continued
 The Matching Game
 Who Am I?




Online Quiz
Quiz on the 20th: A, B, C
Unit I: A, B, C Test
A Geographers Guide Pamphlet
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Online Quiz and Journal Entry
 Unit I: A, B, C, D Test
 Unit I: A, B, C, D Test
 Unit I: A, B, C, D Test
 E: New Geographic Technologies,
GIS and GPS
Continued
 Field study and application
 ARCGIS computer Lab
Continued
Unit I: A, B, C, D, E Test
 F: Sources of geographical ideas
and data
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Unit I: A, B, C, D, E Test
 Field Study and Application
Unit I: A, B, C, D, E Test
 ARCGIS computer Lab
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
 Unit I Exam: Part I Multiple Choice
Unit I Exam: Part I Multiple Choice
Unit I: Cumulative Exam
 Unit I Exam: Part II Written Portion
Unit I Exam: Part II Written Portion
Unit I: Cumulative Exam
AP Human Geography Summer Reading
_______/24pts
Read and respond to each of the ten "Flatteners" in The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman
(p. 48-173)
Answer the following for each "Flattener" in detail:
One word answers, incomplete sentences and anything less than 5 sentences (provide a
total of 5 sentences for both a. and b.; I.E. 2 sentences for What is... and 3 sentences for
How did or does...) will not be accepted.
Please be aware there is one final question at the end of this assignment that needs to be
addressed.
1. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
I.E.: The "Flattener being discussed is…
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
I.E.: When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up discusses how…
2. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
3. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
4. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
5. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
6. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
7. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
8. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
9. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
10. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
11. "Flattener"_____________________
a. What is the "Flattener" being discussed?
b. How did or does this "Flattener" open the world in which we live?
12. In your opinion, briefly provide a free response that encompasses the most significant
"Flattener."
Socratic Seminar Journal Entry:
_______/5pts
A. Geography as a field of inquiry
What is Geography? (De Blij pp. 1-16)
http://www.mrswatsonsclass.com/aphug/
Unit
1
1.1 Intro to Human Geography
pgs.1-­­16 Information
contained in the worksheet,
not just the blanks, is important, but the worksheet alone does not
replace the need for a careful reading of the text.
_________/5pts
AP Human Geography
Field Note: Kenya
• Why do farmers in Kenya grow coffee and tea while many starve?
. In a _
world,
are many and simple
are few!
• Take the total annual
in the
world, divide it by the world’s _
and the result shows that we have _
of
food for everyone. But
of the world’s
population is _
_
. The vast
majority of the
billion malnourished people
are _
and
.
Although there is
of food, it is
-­­ _
with
receiving the least.
Inadequate
in the first six months of
life can damage
&
for life.
Food sources rich in
are in short supply.
It takes
to raise animals that cannot be spared because it is needed to sustain the _
.
• The major causes of malnourishment are
, the failure of the
, and
favor men over women and children.
• Do the best-­­fed countries have the most arable (farmable) land?
Explain & Give examples
• In Kenya only
of the land is arable, and the most productive lands are owned by
. Small farms are
to the point that they are
unviable (unproductive). _
work the land, but they cannot
the land by
• Geographers use
to learn what people are doing, observing how their actions &
reactions vary across
.
What is Human Geography?
• Human Geography focuses on how people make
, how we organize
&
,
how we interact in
and across
, & how we make
and
ourselves in our localities, regions, and the world.
•
-­­ processes that are increasing interactions, deepening relationships, and
heightening interdependence without regard to
.
• Geographers use
to understand interrelationships. What happens at the
_
affects the
but also the
,
,&
.
What are Geographic Questions?
• Human Geography is the study of
on Earth.
•
-­­ is the study of physical phenomena on Earth
• The cultural geographer,
, defined the spatial perspective as the “
?”(Why do things occur where they do? How do things in one place influence things
in other places?)
arrangements of places and phenomena, how they are laid out, organized, and
arranged on the earth, resulting in patterns of distribution . (AP Hug is
!)
• Medical Geographers map the distribution of
cause. Dr. Snow plotted the residences of the cases of
cholera in London (see map) in relation to the area’s
.
By shutting down the water pump nearest the most cases,
the new cases of cholera fell dramatically.
•
-­­ a worldwide outbreak of a disease
•
-­­ a regional outbreak of a disease.
•
The Nature and Importance of Geographic Inquiry
•
&
have much in common.
To understand history, one must consider how events, circumstances, and ideas came together at a
particular
to produce certain outcomes.
German philosopher
said we should study the perspectives of
(history) and
(geography) rather than just subject matter.
Human geographers use a
to study diverse topic from
to
&
to
music.
The National Geographic Society published the
of
in 1986.
These are widely used to teach geographic concepts. (See Five Themes Wkst)
shows how the position of people or things affects what happens. Why are villages,
towns, and cities spaced the way they are? (Christaller) Where should a super Target be built based on the
neighborhood? (Weber)
interaction – the relationship between humans and the physical world.
Geographers study the
relationship between humans and environment. (e.g How the draining
Everglades altered the Florida environment.)
-­­ features or phenomena concentrated in a particular area.
-­­ the unique human and physical features and the special
character and meaning of places. A
of
has
&
.
of
are a result of
informal association by books, movies, pictures, etc.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The maps to the right shows the living preferences for Californian and Pennsylvanian students. The
results reflect the geographic principle that near things effect things more than far things AND that
large population centers have a bigger draw than smaller population centers.
-­­ the mobility and interconnectedness of people, goods, and
ideas across space.
depends on
,
, and
(linkage)
among places.
Cultural Landscape
•
-­­ the material character of a place, natural features, human structures, and
tangible objects that give a place form.
•
-­­ the visible imprint of human activity on the landscape
• _________________________ -- American Geographer, professor at Berkeley 1929 (know this guy) argued
•
the cultural landscapes are made up of the “forms superimposed on the physical landscape” by
human activity.
•
-­­ used the term
to explain the sequential imprints
of occupants , layered one on top of the other. (e.g. Dar es Salaam – Arab, German, British,
& Indian – four stages of cultural sequences remains imprinted on the cultural landscape.
Most layers of change to the cultural landscape occur after a major event -­­
,
, __________________,___________________
Created by NWatson 2010
to find i
C. Key concepts underlying the geographical perspective: location, space, place, scale, pattern,
regionalization, and globalization
5 Themes of Geography
http://teacherweb.ftl.pinecrest.edu/snyderd/APHG/syllabus.htm
LOCATION + HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION+ REGION+ PLACE + MOVEMENT
A study of Geography begins with knowing where things are located on a map. But more important, it
requires an understanding of why things are located in particular places, and how those places influence
our lives. The "five themes of geography" were created in 1984 by the National Council for Geographic
Education (NCGE) and the Association of American Geographers (AAG) to facilitate geographic education
and provide an effective organizational structure for the teaching of geography. By using these themes as a
basis for understanding geographic information, we can gain a better appreciation of cultural and
environmental changes around the world.
 Location (position on Earth’s surface); the geographical situation of people and things; the
distribution of various locations of a collection of people or objects.
 Interaction (Cultural ecology - relations between cultures and environment).
 Region (area of unique characteristics, ways of organizing people geographically); an area on the
Earth's surface marked by some degree of homogeneity of some phenomenon.
 Place (associations among phenomena in an area); the uniqueness (or sameness) of a location.
 Movement (interconnections between areas); the mobility of people, goods, and ideas across the
surface of the planet.
Location (relates to the locational tradition)
Ways to indicate location (position):
1) Maps: best way to show location and demonstrate insights gained through spatial analysis.
2) Place-name: a name given to a portion of the Earth’s surface (“Miami”).
3) Site: physical characteristics of a place; climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and
elevation
4) Situation: the external locational attributes of a place; its relative location or regional position with
reference to other nonlocal places.
5) Absolute location: latitude and longitude (parallels and meridians), mathematical measurements mainly
useful in determining exact distances and direction (maps).
LATITUDE
LONGITUDE
Measures ______________ and ___________ of the equator.
Begins at 0° and goes to 90°.
Measures _____________ and ____________ of the Prime
________________ and passes through ______________, England.
Begins at 0° and goes to 180°
Shows us Climate
High/Cold
 _________________________degrees
 _________________________degrees
 Countries
Middle/Moderate
 _________________________degrees
 _________________________degrees
 Countries
Low Tropics/ Hot
 _________________________degrees
 _________________________degrees
 Countries
Time
15° X 24 hours = 360° Explain how these numbers depict time as
we know it in our world today.
Latitude and Longitude Worksheet
_____/10 pts
1. a. Name two countries that the equator passes through.
___________________________ ___________________________
b. Name two countries that the prime meridian passes through.
___________________________ ___________________________
2. The terms in the first table are mixed up. Enter them properly in the second table.
latitude
equator
is axis
longitude prime meridian
is axis
range is
0 to 90
range is
0 to 180
how far
north or south
how far
east or west
x-axis
y-axis
latitude
longitude
3. Which two locations are written correctly?
10°N 20°S
3°N 170°E
8°E 30°W
7°S 190°W
10°S 170°W
30°W 57°N
100°N 120°E
35°E 85°N
4. Add the continents Australia, Asia, South America, and North America and half of the countries Iraq,
Argentina, Canada, Bolivia, Germany, Mexico, Zambia, and New Zealand to the table.
Quadrant
NW
NE
SW
SE
Continent in quadrant
Country in quadrant
5. Fill in the column for name.
Description
A country straight east of Phoenix
A country straight west of Phoenix
A country straight north of Phoenix
A country straight south of Phoenix
Name
6. Make a line on the map connecting the three points below. What are the two missing points?
10°S 20°W
0°N 10°W
30°N 20°E
7. A secret message has been intercepted. It says, "Meet me in 35N45E 60N10E 57N10E 35N55E
30S60W." These coordinates fall in five different countries. The first letters of the countries spell a word.
What word is it? _____________________
Location
35°N 45°E
60°N 10°E
Country
57°N 10°E
35°N 55°E
30°S 60°W
8. Give the name of your artist, the artist's birthplace, and its location.
Artist's name
Country of birth
Location
9. The combination to my padlock is given by the numbers in the locations of these two countries after
each number is divided by 10. What is the combination? ____________
Country
Niger
Norway
Location
10. Give approximate locations to the nearest degree for your choice of 2 of the following cities in the
United States.
City
Los Angeles
Seattle
Chicago
Washington
Location
11. Write down a question about latitude and longitude that you would like to ask or that you think your
teacher can't answer.
6) Relative location: location of a place relative to other places (situation), valuable way to indicate location
for two reasons:
a) Finding an unfamiliar place - by comparing its location with a familiar one (“Miami – 1500 miles
northwest of Cincinnati”).
Provide three examples of Relative location:
_____________________________, ___________________________, ________________________
b) Centrality, understanding its importance (Chicago – hub of sea & air transportation, close to four
other states; Singapore – accessible to other countries in Southeast Asia).
7) Distribution: arrangement of something across Earth’s surface.
a) Density – frequency with which something occurs in an area. Arithmetic density – total number of
objects (people) in an area. Physiologic density – number of people per unit area of agriculturally
productive land.
b) Concentration – extent of a feature’s spread over an area. Clustered – relatively close. Dispersed –
relatively far apart.
c) Pattern – geometric arrangement of objects.
Human/Environmental Interaction (relates to the man-land tradition)
____/8pts
1) Cultural landscape – includes all human-induced changes that involve the surface and the biosphere.
Carl Sauer: “… the forms superimposed on the physical landscape by the activities of man.”
Surface
Biosphere
1.
1.
2.
2.
3.
3.
2) Cultural ecology - the multiple interactions and relationships between a culture and the natural
environment.
List the cultural and natural interaction and what it has formed.
Culture
Interaction
Nature
3) Environmental Determinism – human behavior, individually and collectively, is strongly affected by,
and even controlled or determined by the environment ( read and respond pg. 30)
How does the environment control or limit human behavior?
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
4) Possibilism – the natural environment merely serves to limit the range of choices available to a culture
(read and respond pg. 31)
How has the natural environment been overcome throughout the history of the world?
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
5) Environmental Modification – positive and negative environmental alterations.
Positive Alterations
Negative Alterations
1.
1.
2.
2.
3.
3.
4.
4.
5.
5.
Region (relates to the area-studies tradition)
________/6pts
1) Distinctive characteristics:
a) area: defined spatial extent
b) location: lie somewhere on Earth’s surface
c) boundaries: sometimes evident on the ground, often based on specifically chosen criteria
d) other: cultural (language, religion), economic (agriculture, industry), physical (climate, vegetation)
2) Three types of regions:
a) Formal – (a.k.a. uniform, homogeneous), visible and measurable homogeneity (link to scale and
detail)
Provide three examples of a formal region.
1.
2.
3.
b) Functional – product of interactions, and movement of various kinds, usually characterized by a core
and hinterland (e.g. a city and its surrounding suburbs)
The Functional Wheel:
c) Perceptual – (a.k.a. vernacular), primarily in the minds of people (e.g. Sunbelt)
Provide 3 examples of your perception of a region:
Place
1.
2.
3.
Perception
1.
2.
3.
3) Regions can be seen in a hierarchy (vertical order, scale), (e.g. Ft. Lauderdale – Broward County –
Florida – Southeastern US …)
Describe the hierarchy of your region
City
County
State
Region
Country
Each team will read and respond to the following dialect map provided
Dialect Map of American English
Not all people who speak a language speak it the same way. A language can be subdivided into any number of dialects which each vary in some way from the parent language.
The term, accent, is often incorrectly used in its place, but an accent refers only to the way words are pronounced, while a dialect has its own grammar, vocabulary, syntax, and
common expressions as well as pronunciation rules that make it unique from other dialects of the same language. Another term, idiolect, refers to the manner of speaking of an
individual person. No two people's idiolects are exactly the same, but people who are part of the same group will have enough verbal elements in common to be said to be using
the same dialect.
Three things are needed for a new dialect to develop: a group of people living in close proximity to each other; this group living in isolation (either geographically or socially)
from other groups; and the passage of time. Given enough time, a dialect may evolve to the point that it becomes a different language from the one it started as. English began
existence as a Germanic dialect called Anglo Saxon that was brought to England by invaders from Germany. The Anglo Saxon peoples in England were now geographically
isolated from their cousins in Germany which allowed the dialects to evolve in different directions. Other invaders would also influence the development of English with their
languages until the modern English we speak today has become so different from the modern German spoken in Germany that a speaker of one cannot understand a speaker of
the other. Thus English and German are considered to be two distinct, though related, languages. The other modern languages in this family are Dutch, Swedish, Danish,
Norwegian, and Icelandic.
This issue of mutual understandability is what in theory is used to determine what is a dialect and what is a language, but in reality there are social and political issues involved
too. The government of a country might declare that all the languages spoken in that country are actually dialects of one language in order to create the illusion of polital unity,
while the government of another country might declare that the dialect spoken by its people is actually a unique language from other countries that speak dialects of the same
language in order to create a sense of national pride. History is full of governments that have tried to impose a single language on all of its people with varying results:
sometimes the minority languages go entirely extinct, sometimes they are reduced to surviving only as dialects of the majority language, and sometimes new languages are
unintentionally created by a blending of the two languages.
This brings us to three other language terms that are worth mentioning here. When two or more groups of people who speak different languages need to communicate with each
other on a regular basis and do not want to actually learn each others' language (such as when the European merchants started trading with other peoples around the world), they
may develop what is called a pidgin language. This is a simplified language that usually has as few words as possible in its vocabulary (taking some from both languages) and
has been stripped of any fancier grammatical rules like the use of multiple verb conjugations and tenses - a kind of "Me Tarzan, you Jane" way of talking. A pidgin is nobody's
native language and is used only in business settings. In fact, the word "pidgin" may be derived from the way Chinese merchants mispronounced the English word "business."
However, in some cases, the children in one of these areas might grow up learning the pidgin as their first language. When this happens, the pidgin can grow in complexity into
a creole language with a larger set of grammatical rules and a much larger vocabulary that share elements of all the languages that went into creating it.
Finally, jargon is a specialized vocabulary used by people within a particular discipline such as medical jargon for doctors, legal jargon for lawyers, or academic jargon for
college professors. While jargon words occasionally filter up into a mainstream dialect, they are usually used only by experts and only when they are discussing their particular
field. Critics argue, with some justification, that jargon needlessly complicates a statement that could be expressed in a more clear manner. Users of it argue, also with
justification, that it is a more precise manner of speaking, although many examples can be found (especially in politics and business) where it has been used intentionally to
obscure the fact that the speaker is trying to avoid being precise.
The modern development of communications technology may possibly slow down the evolution of dialects and languages. For the first time in history, a single dialect
(sometimes called Network Standard) can be broadcast over an entire country, so very few people are actually living in geographic isolation anymore. However, the existence of
racism, poverty, and class distinctions cause some groups to remain socially isolated from the mainstream of a culture, giving rise to social dialects like Black English (Ebonics)
spoken by some African Americans in urban areas. There was recently a great deal of political controversy (ignoring the linguistic facts) over whether Ebonics should be
considered a unique language, a "legitimate" dialect of English, or "illegimate" gutterspeak. Also, teenagers enjoy creating their own dialects that they can use to quickly
determine who is or is not part of the "in crowd" and as a "secret language" in front of their parents. These dialects tend to go in and out of fashion very quickly; by the time an
expression has filtered up to the mainstream dialect adults understand, the teenagers have moved on to something else. Even the Internet has given birth to what might be called
a new social dialect (derived from hacker jargon) containing words like IMHO, IIRC, and ROTFLMAO.
Contrary to what your teachers probably tried to tell you, there is no such thing as "correct English." Any manner of speaking that is following the rules of a dialect is equally
"correct." Words like ain't are "real" words in some dialects and perfectly acceptable to use. However, people are judged by the way they speak, and dialects carry different
levels of social prestige with them based on the prejudices within a society. Generally, the southern dialects of American English carry a lower prestige, at least among
northerners who will assume that a person speaking a southern dialect is less intelligent and less educated than they are. Some educated southerners even feel this way and will
"correct" their speech to meet northern standards. The New York City dialect carries the lowest prestige of all (Received Standard, a dialect of British English used by the BBC
and the royal family, carries the highest prestige - even among Americans). For this reason, schools try to rid children of the local dialects they learned from their family and
friends in favor of a more prestigious one. (Of course, some sentences like, "Me are a educated person," would be incorrect in every dialect.)
American dialects come in many flavors. The map and list below show the major (and a few minor) geographic dialects and subdialects of English spoken in the United States.
Many of these may be further subdivided into local subdialects that are not shown here. Obviously, the borders between dialect regions are not well defined lines, as a map like
this would imply, but a gradual transition extending on both sides of the line. Also, as we enter the 21st century, many of the features described below have become much less
prevalent than they were during the first half of the 20th century.
General Northern (blue)
This is sometimes also refered to as General American and is used in almost two-thirds of the country. It breaks down into the dialect regions below.
Northern Dialects:
New England
Many of the Northern dialects can trace their roots to this dialect which was spread westward by the New England settlers as they migrated west. It
carries a high prestige due to Boston's early economic and cultural importance and the presence of Harvard University. A famous speaker is Katherine
Hepburn. They sometimes call doughnuts cymbals, simballs, and boil cakes.
New England, Eastern (1)
This is one of the most distinctive of all the American dialects. R's are often dropped, but an extra R is added to words that end with a
vowel. A is pronounced AH so that we get "Pahk the cah in Hahvuhd yahd" and "Pepperidge Fahm remembuhs."
Boston Urban (2)
Like many big cities, Boston has its own dialects that are governed more by social factors like class and ethnicity than by
geographic location. Greater Boston Area is the most widely spoken and is very similar to Eastern New England. Brahmin is
spoken by the upper aristocratic class like Mr. Howell on Gilligan's Island. Central City Area is what most of us think of as
being the "Boston Accent." In the last few years, Saturday Night Live has featured this dialect among a group of rowdy teenagers
who like to videotape themselves. Also think of Cliff on Cheers, the only character on this Boston-based show to actually speak
a Boston dialect.
New England, Western (3)
Less distinctive than Eastern, but more influential on the other Northern dialects.
Hudson Valley (4)
New York was originally a Dutch colony, and that language influenced this dialect's development. Some original Hudson Valley words are stoop (small
porch) and teeter-totter. They call doughnuts (which were invented by the Dutch) crullers and olycooks.
New York City (5)
Unlike Boston and other urban dialects, New York City stands by itself and bears little resemblence to the other dialects in this region. It is also the most
disliked and parodied of any American dialect (even among New Yorkers), possibly because many Americans tend dislike large cities. When an R
comes after a vowel, it is often dropped. IR becomes OI, but OI becomes IR, and TH becomes D as in "Dey sell tirlets on doity-doid street" and
fugedaboudit (forget about it). This pronounciation is particularly associated with Brooklyn but exists to some extent throughout the city. The thickness
of a speaker's dialect is directly related to their social class, but these features have been fading within all classes over recent decades. Famous speakers
are Rosie Perez, Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinnie, Archie Bunker, Bugs Bunny, and (if you're old enough to remember) the Bowery
Boys.
Bonac (6)
Named for Accabonac Creek in eastern Long Island, this dialect is rapidly dying out due to the influx of people from other areas. Back when
New York City belonged to the Dutch, this area was part of New England, and Bonac shows elements of both dialects.
Inland Northern (7)
Combines elements of Western New England and Upper Midwestern. Marry, merry, and Mary are pronounced the same. They call doughnuts
friedcakes.
San Francisco Urban (8)
Unlike the rest of California, which in the early twentieth century saw an influx of people from the South and other parts of the West, San
Francisco continued to be settled by people from the Northeast and Northern Midwest, and elements of their dialects (North Midland, Upper
Midwestern, Inland Northern) can be found. Mission dialect, spoken by Irish Catholics in a specific part of the city is very much like the
New York City dialect.
Upper Midwestern (9)
Originally settled by people from New England and New York State who brought those dialects, this area was also influenced by Southerners coming up
the Mississippi River as well as the speech patterns of the German and Scandinavian immigrants and the Canadian English dialects from over the border.
It's sometimes referred to as a "Midwestern twang." They call jelly doughnuts bismarks. Minnewegian (Minnesota / Norwegian), a subdialect spoken in
the northernmost part of this region was spoofed in the movies Fargo and Drop Dead Gorgeous.
Chicago Urban (10)
Influenced by the Midland and Southern dialects. Often spoken by the late John Belushi (Chicago's Second City comedy theater supplied
many Saturday Night Live actors). SNL used to spoof it in the "Da Bears, Da Bulls" sketches. They call any sweet roll doughnuts.
Western Dialects:
Compared with the Eastern United States, the Western regions were settled too recently for very distinctive dialects to have time to develop or to be studied in detail.
Many words originally came from Spanish, cowboy jargon, and even some from the languages of the Native Americans: adobe, beer bust, belly up, boneyard,
bronco, buckaroo, bunkhouse, cahoots, corral, greenhorn, hightail, hoosegow, lasso, mustang, maverick, roundup, wingding.
Rocky Mountain (13)
Originally developed from the North Midland and Northern dialects, but was then influenced by the Mormon settlers in Utah and English coal miners
who settled in Wyoming. Some words that came from this dialect are kick off (to die), cache (hiding place), and bushed (tired). They also call jelly
doughnuts bismarks.
Pacific Northwest (14)
Influenced by settlers from the Midwest and New England as well as immigrants from England, Germany, Scandinavia, and Canada. Much earlier, a
pidgin called Chinook Jargon was developed between the languages of the Native American tribes of this area. It would later also be used and
influenced by the European settlers who wished to communicate with them. A few words from Chinook Jargon like high muckamuck (important person)
are still used in this dialect today. (Note that, in this case, the word "jargon" has a different meaning from the one discussed above)
Alaska (not shown)
Developed out of the Northern, Midland, and Western dialects. Also influenced by the native languages of the Alutes, Innuit, and Chinook
Jargon. Some words that originated here are: bush (remote area), cabin fever, mush (to travel by dog sled), parka, stateside.
Pacific Southwest (15)
The first English speakers arrived here from New York, Ohio, Missouri, New England, and other parts of the Northeast and Midwest in the 1840s,
bringing the Northern and North Midland dialects with them. Words originally used by the gold miners of this period are still used today: pay dirt
(valuable discovery), pan out (to succeed), and goner (doomed person). The early twentieth century saw an influx of people from the South and other
parts of the West. The people here are particularly fond of creating new slang and expressions, and, since Hollywood is located here, these quickly get
spread to the rest of the country and the world (the influence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was examined in Verbatim : part one, part two). During the late
1970s and early 1980s, an extreme exaggeration of this dialect that came to be known as "Valley Girl" or "Surfer Dude" was popular among teenagers
and much parodied in the media with phrases like "gag me with a spoon" and "barf me back to the stone age." Sean Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont
High and Whoopie Goldberg in her one women show are two famous examples.
Southwestern (16)
By the time this area became part of the United States, there had already been as many as ten generations of Spanish speaking people living here, so the
Mexican dialect of Spanish had an important influence on this area that became a melting pot for dialects from all over the USA. Some local words are:
caballero, cantina, frijoles, madre, mesa, nana, padre, patio, plaza, ramada, tortilla.
Hawaii (not shown)
The original language of the Native Hawaiians is part of the Polynesian family. English speakers arrived in 1778, but many other settlers also came from
China, Portugal, Japan, Korea, Spain, and the Philippines to influence the modern dialect. Hawaiian Creole developed from a pidgin English spoken on
the sugar plantations with workers from Hawaii and many other countries. Some words are: look-see, no can, number one (the best), plenty (very). It
isn't widely spoken anymore. Nonstandard Hawaiian English developed from Hawaiian Creole and is spoken mostly by teenagers. Standard
Hawaiian English is part of the Western dialect family but shows less influence from the early New England dialect than any other American dialect. It
has many words borowed from the original Hawaiian as well as some from the other Asian languages mentioned above: aloha, hula, kahuna, lei, luau,
muumuu, poi, ukulele.
Midland (purple)
For a long time, the North Midland and South Midland dialects were considered to be part of the Northern and Southern dialect regions respectively and served as a transition
zone between them. In recent decades, mainstream thought has begun to consider them to be a distinct dialect region.
North Midland (11)
Created as the people in Pennsylvania migrated westward and influenced by Scotch-Irish, German, and English Quaker settlers. They call doughnuts belly sinkers,
doorknobs, dunkers, and fatcakes.
Pennsylvania German-English (12)
This was strongly influenced by Pennsylvania Dutch, a dialect of German spoken by people in this area (in this context, "Dutch" is actually a
mispronunciation of the German word, "Deutsch," which means "German"). Its grammar allows sentences like "Smear your sister with jam on a slice of
bread" and "Throw your father out the window his hat." They call doughnuts fasnacht, and they also invented dunking - from the German "dunken" (to
dip).
South Midland (17)
This area, dominated by the Appalachian Mountains and the Ozark Mountains, was originally settled by the Pennsylvania Dutch moving south from the North
Midland areas and the Scotch-Irish moving west from Virginia. A TH at the end of words or syllables is sometimes pronounced F, and the word ARE is often left
out of sentences as they are in Black English. An A is usually placed at the beginning of verb that ends with ING, and the G is dropped; an O at the end of a word
becomes ER. ("They a-celebratin' his birfday by a-goin' to see 'Old Yeller' in the theatah"). A T is frequently added to words that end with an S sound. Some words
are: bodacious, heap, right smart (large amount), set a spell, and smidgin. American English has retained more elements of the Elizabethan English spoken in the
time of Shakespeare than modern British English has, and this region has retained the most. Some Elizabethan words that are now less common in England are: bub,
cross-purposes, fall (autumn), flapjack, greenhorn, guess (suppose), homely, homespun, jeans, loophole, molasses, peek, ragamuffin, reckon, sorry (inferior), trash,
well (healthy).
Ozark (18)
Made famous by the Beverly Hillbillies, this isolated area was settled by people from the southern Appalachian region and developed a particularly
colorful manner of speaking.
Southern Appalachian (19)
Linguists are still studying the specific differences with South Midland, but most of the research has concentrated on the many archaic words that are
still alive in its vocabulary rather than on its grammar and usage. A popular myth is that there are still a few remote regions here that speak an unchanged
form of Elizabethan English, but it isn't true.
Smokey Mountain English (25)
One such region that is notable for the many archaic features in its pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar is the Smoky Mountains, a
small, thirty by sixty mile area located on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee (the size is exaggerated on the maps). However,
while it has preserved a great many elements that once were - but no longer are - used in Britain, it has also developed a large number of
unique features of its own. "They" is used in the place of "there"; subject-verb agreement can differ; and plural nouns may not end with an
"s" ("They's ten mile from here to the school"). An "-est" can be placed at the end of a word instead of "most" at the beginning (workingest,
completest). Irregular verbs may be treated as regular verbs and vice versa, or they may be treated as irregular in a different way from more
general dialects (arrove, blowed, costed). Like many of the other dialects discussed on this page, the decrease in isolation caused by the
increases in mobility and literacy has caused Smoky Mountain to be much less spoken today than it was at the beginning of the twentieth
century. Some local words are withouten (unless) and whenevern (as soon as).
General Southern (red)
This dialect region (along with South Midland) matches the borders of the Confederate states that seceded during the "Confederate War" and is still a culturally distinct region of
the United States. Since it was largely an agricultural area, people tended to move around less than they did in the north, and as a result, the subdialects are much less uniform
than those of the General Northern regions and have much more clearly defined boundaries. Other languages that had an important influence on it are French (since the western
region was originally French territory) and the African languages spoken by the people brought over as slaves. People tend to speak slower here than in the north creating the
famous southern "drawl." I is pronounced AH, and OO is pronounced YOO, as in "Ah'm dyoo home at fahv o'clock." An OW in words like loud is pronounced with a slided
double sound AOO (combining the vowel sounds in "hat" and "boot"). Some local words are: boogerman, funky (bad smelling), jump the broomstick (get married), kinfolks,
mammy, muleheaded, overseer, tote, y'all.
Southern
As the northern dialects were originally dominated by Boston, the southern dialects were heavily influenced by Charleston, Richmond, and Savannah. They tend to
drop Rs the way New Englanders do, but they don't add extra Rs. Some words are: big daddy (grandfather), big mamma (grandmother), Confederate War (Civil
War), cooter (turtle), fixing to (going to), goober (peanut), hey (hello), mouth harp (harmonica), on account of (because).
Virginia Piedmont (20)
When an R comes after a vowel, it becomes UH, and AW becomes the slided sound, AH-AW. Thus, four dogs becomes fo-uh dah-awgs. Some local
words are: hoppergrass (grasshopper), old-field colt (illegitimate child), school breaks up (school lets out), weskit (vest).
Coastal Southern (21)
Very closely resembles Virginia Piedmont but has preserved more elements from the colonial era dialect than any other region of the United States
outside Eastern New England. Some local words are: catty-corner (diagonal), dope (soda, Coca-Cola), fussbox (fussy person), kernal (pit), savannah
(grassland), Sunday child (illegitimate child). They call doughnuts cookies.
South Florida
There are those who consider that this region should be reclassified as part of the Northern dialect region. So many people from the North particularly New York - have moved here that the majority of people tend to sound more Northern than Southern.
Ocracoke (26)
Named for the island off the coast of North Carolina where it is spoken, this dialect is also called Hoi Toide (because of the way its speakers
pronounce the long I sound in words like "high" and "tide") and Outer Banks English to include the coastal regions of North Carolina and
Virginia where it is also sometimes heard. OW becomes a long A so that "town" becomes "tain". Unlike other Southerners who tend to drop
their Rs, Hoi Toiders actually emphasize their Rs. Overall it tends to resemble the Scottish and Irish dialects and is another area that is often
incorrectly believed to be speaking an unchanged form of Elizabethan English. Some local words are mommuck (to bother) and quamished
(nauseous).
Gullah (22)
Sometimes called Geechee, this creole language is spoken by some African Americans on the coastal areas and coastal islands of Georgia
and South Carolina and was featured in the novel on which the musical, Porgy and Bess, was based. It combines English with several West
African languages: Mende, Yoruba, Wolof, Kongo, Twi, Vai, Temne, Ibo, Ewe, Fula, Umbundu, Hausa, Bambara, Fante, and more. The
name comes either from the Gola tribe in Liberia or the Ngola tribe in Angola. The grammar and pronunciation are too complicated to go
into here, but some words are: bad mouth (curse), guba (peanut - from which we get the English word goober), gumbo (okra), juju (magic),
juke (disorderly, wicked), peruse (to walk leisurely), samba (to dance), yam (sweet potato).
Gulf Southern (23)
This area was settled by English speakers moving west from Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas, as well as French speaking settlers spreading out from
Louisiana, especially the Acadians (see "Cajuns" below). Some words are: armoire (wardrobe), bayou (small stream), bisque (rich soup), civit cat
(skunk), flitters (pancakes), gallery (porch), hydrant (faucet), neutral ground (median strip), pecan patty (praline).
Louisiana (24)
There's a lot going on down here. There are even some people in southern Louisiana who might be able to speak more than one of the
dialects and languages below. Cajun French (the Cajuns were originally French settlers in Acadia, Canada - now called Nova Scotia - who
were kicked out when the British took over; in 1765, they arrived in New Orleans which was still French territory) carries the highest
prestige of the French dialects here and has preserved a number of elements from the older French of the 1600s. It has also borrowed some
words from the Spanish who once controlled this area. There are many local variations of it, but they would all be mutually understandable
with each other as well as - with some effort - the standard French in France. Cajun English borrows vocabulary and grammar from French
and gives us the famous pronunciations "un-YON" (onion) and "I ga-RON-tee" as well as the phrase "Let de good times role!", but movies
about cajuns usually get the rest wrong. A famous authentic speaker is humorist Justin Wilson, who had a cooking show on PBS, with his
catch phrase, "How y'all are? I'm glad for you to see me." There is another dialect of English spoken in New Orleans that is informally, and
some would say pejoratively, called Yat (from the greeting, "Where y'at"), that resembles the New York City (particularly Brooklyn) dialect
(more info). Provincial French was the upper class dialect of the pre-Cajun French settlers and closely resembles Standard French but isn't
widely spoken anymore since this group no longer exists as a separate social class. Louisiana French Creole blends French with the
languages of the West Africans who were brought here as slaves. It is quite different from both the Louisiana and standard dialects of French
but is very similar to the other creoles that developed between African and French on various Caribbean Islands. A few married couples may
speak Creole to each other, Cajun French with other people, and English to their children.
Dialect Journal Entry:
Choose one region and provide a free response that discusses two points of emphasis
regarding dialect in America.
________/5pts
Place
1) Culture – people’s lifestyles, values, beliefs, and traits
a) What people care about: language, religion, ethnicity
b) What people take care of: 1) daily necessities of survival (food, clothing, shelter) and 2) leisure
activities (artistic expressions, recreation)
c) Cultural institutions: political institutions (a country, its laws and rights)
2) Components of culture:
a) Culture region – the area within which a particular culture system prevails (dress, building styles,
farms and fields, material manifestations,…)
b) Culture trait – a single attribute of culture
c) Culture complex – a discrete combination of traits
d) Culture system – grouping of certain complexes, may be based on ethnicity, language, religion,…
e) Culture realm – an assemblage of culture (or geographic) regions, the most highly generalized
regionalization of culture and geography (e.g. sub-Saharan Africa)
3) Physical Processes – environmental processes, which explain the distribution of human activities
a) Climate – long-term average weather condition at a particular location. Vladimir Koppen’s five main
climate regions (expresses humans’ limited tolerance for extreme temperature and precipitation
levels)
b) Vegetation – plant life.
c) Soil – the material that forms Earth’s surface, in the thin interface between the air and the rocks.
Erosion and the depletion of nutrients are two basic problems concerning the destruction of the soil.
d) Landforms – Earth’s surface features (geomorphology), limited population near poles and at high
altitudes
Place Journal Entry:
_______/5pts
Think of a place you have visited or a friend you may have that has offered up a different perspective
on culture as you know it. Try to include as many examples of the components of culture and physical processes listed
above.
Movement
1) Culture Hearths – sources of civilization from which an idea, innovation, or ideology originates (e.g.
Mesopotamia, Nile Valley), viewed in the context of time as well as space
2) Cultural diffusion – spread of an innovation, or ideology from its source area to another culture
a) Expansion diffusion – an innovation, or ideology develops in a source area and remains strong there
while also spreading outward
1) Contagious diffusion – nearly all adjacent individuals are affected (e.g. spread of Islam, disease)
2) Hierarchical diffusion – the main channel of diffusion some segment of those who are susceptible
to (or adopting) what is being diffused (e.g. spread of AIDS, use of fax machines)
3) Stimulus diffusion – spread of an underlying principle (e.g. idea of industrialization)
b) Relocation diffusion – spread of an innovation, or ideology through physical movement of
individuals
1) Migrant diffusion – when an innovation originates somewhere and enjoys strong-but briefadoption, loses strength at origin by the time it reaches another area (e.g. mild pandemics)
2) Acculturation – when a culture is substantially changed through interaction with another culture
3) Transculturation – a near equal exchange between culture complexes
c) Forces that work against diffusion:
1) Time-distance decay – the longer and farther it has to go, the less likely it will get there
2) Cultural barriers – prevailing attitudes or taboos
__________/10pts
Five Themes Mosaic: Provide a visual in each area that represents each of the Five Themes of Geography
Human/Environment Interaction:
Location
Place
Movement
Region
B. Evolution of key geographical concepts and models associated with notable geographers
Notable Geographers
___________/10pts
Use your textbook to complete the following chart
Notable Geographers & Unit
deBlij
Identify Theory or Model &
Why is it important?
pg#
Briefly explain
335
Borchert’s Epochs in Urban
*John Borchert
Development
Urban
Ester Boserup
Rural Land Use
Lester Brown
537-8
*Ernest Burgess
336-7
Urban land use
Judith Carney
309
Manuel Castells/Peter Hall
422
*Walter Christaller
344-6
Urban Land Use
Harm deBlij
Christallers’ Central Place Theory
African City Model
Urban Land Use
Aharon Dogopolsky
130
Clifford Geetz
21
Culture/Religion
Griffin/Ford
Jacob Grimm
Burgess’ Concentric Zone Model
Latin American City Model
125
Culture
Peter Hall/Manuel Castells
422
Chauncey Harris/EL Ullman
337, 342
Urban Land Use
Richard Hartshorne
214
David Harvey
424
*Homer Hoyt
337
Harris/Ullman Multiple Nuclei
Model
Hoyt Urban Sector Model
Urban Land Use
E. Adamson Hoebel
21
Harold Hotelling
375
Industrial/Development
Ellsworth Huntington
32
William Jones
125
August Losch
371,376
Locational Interdendence of
Business Location
Mackinder’s Heartland Theory
*Halford Mackinder
Political
Malthus Model
*Thomas Malthus
Population/Rural Land Use
T,G, McGee
360
Urban Land Use
Richard O’Brien
425
*Friedrich Ratzel
224
Southeast Asian City Model
Ratzel’s Organic Theory
Political
*E. G. Ravenstein
Ravensteins’s Laws of Migration
Population
*WW Rostow
Rostow’s Stages of Development
Economic/Industrial
Carl Sauer
Cultural Landscape/ Crop Hearths
Culture/Agriculture
Ruth Leger Sivard
495,503,
507
Gideon Sjoberg
324
John Snow
423
Mapping Cholera Outbreak in
London
*Nicholas Spykman
225
Political
*Warren Thompson
Spykman’s Rimland Theory
Demographic Transition Model
Population
*EL Ullman/Chauncey Harris
Harris/Ullman Multiple Nuclei
Model
Urban Land Use
*James Vance
Urban Realm Model
Urban Land Use
*Johann Heinrich vonThunen
283
Von Thunen Model of Agricultural
Land use
Agriculture/Rural Land Use
*Immanuel Wallerstein
399
Wallerstein’s Industrial Location
Economic/Development
Alfred Weber
371
Alfred Wegener
5, 515
Wegener’s Plate Tectonics Theory
The Matching Game: (Team assignment)
Create one index card with the name of the Notable Geographer and a one matching card with the theory or
model of the notable geographer.
I.E.
Alfred Wegner
Plate Tectonics
Who am I? Game: (Team Assignment)
Create a stack of post-it notes with all the notable geographer’s listed. Players place a post-it note on their forehead
and take turns asking clues to discover who they are. Once you guess the notable geographer a point will be
awarded to your team. Each player will receive thirty seconds to ask for clues and then it will be passed on to the
next participant. I.E.
W. D. Pattison's Four Traditions
In 1964, W.D. Pattison, a professor at the University of Chicago, wanted to counter the idea that geography was an
undisciplined science by saying that geographers had exhibited broad enough consistency such that there were four
distinctive, but affiliated traditions:
1) An earth-science tradition - physical (natural) geography.
Intellectual legacy:
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.); Greek philosopher who looked at natural processes, Earth is spherical, matter falls together toward
a common center.
Modern geographer:
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804); German
1) All knowledge can be classified logically or physically
2) Descriptions according to time comprise history, descriptions according to place compromise geography
3) History studies phenomena that follow one another chronologically, whereas geography studies phenomena that are
located beside one another.
2) A man-land tradition - relationships between human societies and natural environments.
Intellectual legacy:
Hippocratic; a Greek Physician of 5th century B.C. who wrote that places affect the health and
character of man.
Modern geographer(s):
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and Carl Ritter (1779-1859); German
1) Move beyond describing earth’s surface to explaining why certain phenomena are present or absent.
2) Origin of “where” and “why” approach
3) Environmental determinism – how the physical environment causes social development
3) A spatial tradition - spatial unifying theme, similar patterns between physical & human geography.
Intellectual legacy:
Claudius Ptolemy (A.D. 100?-170?); a Greek, who wrote 8-volume Geographia in the second century A.D. containing
numerous maps (also father of geometry).
Modern geographer:
Alfred Wegener; climatologist
1) Studied spatial arrangement of landmasses, used geographical and geological evidence
2) Continental drift – landmasses were once part of supercontinent (plate tectonics)
4) An area-studies tradition - regional geography
Intellectual legacy:
Strabo (63? B.C.-A.D. 24?); Roman investigator, who wrote a report called Geography, a massive production for the
statesmen intended to sum up and regularize knowledge of location and place, their character, and their differentiation.
Modern geographer:
Carl Sauer (1889-1975); American
1) The work of human geography is to discern the relationships among social and physical phenomena
2) Everything in the landscape is interrelated.
ACTIVITY: Creat a poster that depicts Pattioson’s Four Traditions of Geogrpahy
___________/10pts
D. Geographical Skills
_________/10pts
Use and Think About Maps and Spatial Data
Geography is fundamentally concerned with the ways in which patterns on Earth's surface reflect and influence physical and
human processes. As such, maps and spatial data are fundamental to the discipline, and learning to use and think about them
is critical to geographical literacy. The goal is achieved when students learn to use maps and spatial data to pose and solve
problems, and when they learn to think critically about what is revealed and what is hidden in different maps and spatial
arrays.
Activity: Analyze the following maps. Do you recognize any consistencies and or similarities between the maps.
World Life Expectancy Map:
Percentage of Population Without Reasonable Access to Safe Drinking Water
"More than five million people, most of them children, die every year from illnesses caused by drinking poor quality water."
Reasonable access to safe drinking water is defined as the availability of at least 20 litres per person per day from an improved
source within 1 kilometer of the user's dwelling.
Food Distribution Maps
Percentage of population that is undernourished
Daily grams of protein per person
Daily calories per person
Daily grams of fat per person
Harvard School of Health - adults need a minimum of 1 gram of protein / kilogram of body weight; an adult weighing 68 kilos
(150 lbs) needs a minimum of 68 grams of protein / day. 6 oz. of fish = 41.2 grams of protein, 1 cup of milk = 8 grams protein.
"Over 852 million people throughout the world do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs."
"as many as a third of the world's people do not meet their physical and intellectual potential because of vitamin and mineral
deficiencies."
"Armed conflicts are now the leading cause of world hunger with HIV/AIDS and climate change not far behind."
Percentage of Children Under the Age of Five Suffering From Stunting
Stunting does not come easy - it takes time. It means a child has endured painful illness, hunger, inadequate care. Many do not
survive. Many who do have deficits in mental capacity along with losses in stature. Typically, its effects become permanent.
Stunting also occurs because the mother was poorly nourished or because she herself was stunted. This vicious cycle is a result
of poverty, a lack of clean water supply...or a long distance between home and health clinic.
In the developing world, 39% of children under five are stunted — around 209 million children
In your teams, discuss the similarities of the maps.
Where is population the most densely populated on earth?
Where are people the most undernourished on earth?
Where is the poorest quality of drinking water on earth?
Where is stunting the most prominent on earth?
Conclude your findings in a short paragraph (3-5 sentences).
_________/5 pts
Understand and Interpret Implications of Associations Among Phenomena in Places
Geography looks at the world from a spatial perspective -- seeking to understand the changing spatial organization and
material character of Earth's surface. One of the critical advantages of a spatial perspective is the attention it focuses on how
phenomena are related to one another in particular places. Students should thus learn not just to recognize and interpret
patterns, but to assess the nature and significance of the relationships among phenomena that occur in the same place and to
understand how tastes and values, political regulations, and economic constraints work together to create particular types of
cultural landscapes.
Activity: Watch and respond to the video questions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT0kzF4AWQ&feature=related. Briefly discuss the eating habits of the boys on the plane in comparison to what they are used to in
the Sudan. How is the American cultural landscape different than that of the Sudanese cultural landscape?
Recognize and Interpret at Different Scales Relationships Among Patterns and Processes
Geographical analysis requires a sensitivity to scale -- not just as a spatial category but as a framework for understanding how
events and processes at different scales influence one another. Thus, students should understand that the phenomena they
are studying at one scale (e.g., local) may well be influenced by developments at other scales (e.g., regional, national, or
global). They should then look at processes operating at multiple scales when seeking explanations of geographic patterns and
arrangements.
Activity: Refer to at least two flatteners from The World is Flat that has had an influence and top what scale the
flattener has had an impact. By scale, I am referring to local, state, national and global.
Define Regions and Evaluate the Regionalization Process
Geography is concerned not simply with describing patterns, but with analyzing how they came about and what they mean.
Students should see regions as objects of analysis and exploration and move beyond simply locating and describing regions to
considering how and why they come into being -- and what they reveal about the changing character of the world in which we
live.
Activity: Read and respond to the article provided. http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-andlifestyle/2012/04/invisible-borders-define-american-culture/1839/. Do you think this is a fair and accurate description of
America? Have you ever heard anyone speak about differences from one region of the United States to another? Provide
an account as to how you may have personally experienced regional differences?
Characterize and Analyze Changing Interconnections Among Places
At the heart of a geographical perspective is a concern with the ways in which events and processes operating in one place can
influence those operating at other places. Thus, students should view places and patterns not in isolation, but in terms of their
spatial and functional relationship with other places and patterns. Moreover, they should strive to be aware that those
relationships are constantly changing, and they should understand how and why change occurs.
Activity: Refer to a minimum of two flatteners (different from above) from The World is Flat that have connected the
world.
E. Geographic technologies, such as GIS, remote sensing, and GPS
F. Sources of geographical ideas and data: the field, census data, and satellite imagery
(In Computer Lab)
Unit I Vocabulary
Know the following terms for Unit I Test
Unit 1 : Nature & Perspectives
Pattison’s Four Traditions (1964): W.D. Pattison
-earth-science: physical geography (not one of the Five Themes)
-locational: spatial tradition (location)
-man-land: human/environmental interaction
-area-studies: regional geography
Five Themes of Geography (1986): GENIP
-location: position; situation of people and things
-human/environmental interaction: reciprocal relationship b/w humans & env.
-region: area on Earth’s surface marked by a degree of homogeneity (uniformity) of some phenomenon
-place: uniqueness of a location (or similarity of two or more locales); phenomena within an area
-movement: mobility of people, goods and ideas; phenomena between areas
Anthropogenic: Caused or produced by humans
Absolute location: Position on Earth’s surface using the coordinate system of longitude (that runs from North to South Pole) and
latitude (that runs parallel to the equator).
Relative location: Position on Earth’s surface relative to other features. (Ex: My house is east of I-75).
Absolute distance: Exact measurement of the physical space between two places.
Relative distance: Approximate measurement of the physical space between two places.
Site: The physical character of place; what is found at the location and why it is significant.
Situation: The location of a place relative to other places.
Region:
-Formal Region- (uniform, homogeneous) or homogenous region is an area within which everyone shares in common one or
mare distinctive characteristics. The shared feature could be a cultural value such as a common language, or an
environmental climate.
-Functional Region- (nodal) Area organized around a node or focal point. The characteristic chosen to define a functional
region dominates at a central focus or node and diminishes in importance outward. This region is tied to the central point by
transportation or communication systems or by economic or functional associations.
-Perceptual Region- (vernacular) is a place that people believe exists as a part of their cultural identity. Such regions emerge
from peoples informal sense of place rather than from scientific models developed through geographic thought. (Often
identified using a mental map- which is an internal representation of a portion of Earths surface). Many "belts" fit this
description ... cotton belt (what used to be dominated by agriculture, and is often referred to as the New South), Bible belt, sun
belt, rust belt, ...
Environmental perception: a person’s idea or image of a place; may often be inaccurate.
Cultural trait: a single element of normal practice in a culture (e.g., wearing a turban)
Culture complex: a combination of related cultural traits (e.g., prevailing modes of dress; nationalism)
Culture hearth: The region from which innovative ideas originate. This relates to the important concept of the spreading of ideas from
one area to another (diffusion). Must be viewed in the context of time …
-Ancient culture hearth: Fertile Crescent, Indus Valley, Chang & Yellow River Valley (China), Nile River Valley and Delta,
Meso-America (origin of farming developed during the First Agricultural Revolution beginning around 12,000 years ago).
-Modern culture hearth: Europe, North America, Japan (origin and focus of the Industrial Revolution beginning in the early
1800s after the onset of the Second Agricultural Revolution).
Cultural landscape (built environment): Fashioning of a natural landscape by a cultural group. This is the essence of how humans
interact with nature.
Sequent occupance: The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative
cultural landscape. This is an important concept in geography because it symbolizes how humans interact with their surroundings.
Cultural diffusion: The process of spread of a feature or trend from one place to another over time.
Relocation diffusion: The spread of an idea through physical movement of people from one place to another. Ex: spread of AIDS
from New York, California, & Florida.
Migrant diffusion: spread of an idea through people, in which the phenomena weakens or dies out at its previous source … moves
like a “Slinky” (e.g., spread of the Spanish Flu toward the end of World War I).
Expansion diffusion: The spread of a feature from one place to another in a snowballing process…
-Hierarchical diffusion: The spread of an idea from persons or nodes of authority or power to other persons or places (Ex:
hip-hop/rap music)
-Contagious diffusion: The rapid, widespread diffusion of a characteristic throughout the population. (Ex: ideas placed on the
internet)
-Stimulus diffusion: the spread of an underlying principle, even though a characteristic itself apparently fails to diffuse. (Ex:
PC & Apple competition, p40)
Acculturation: Process of adopting only certain customs that will be to their advantage
Transculturation: A near equal exchange of culture traits or customs
Assimilation: Process of less dominant cultures losing their culture to a more dominant culture
Environmental determinism: A 19th- and early 20th-century approach to the study of geography that argued that the general laws
sought by human geographers could be found in the physical sciences. Geography was therefore the study o f how the physical
environment caused human activities (e.g., Jared Diamond – Guns, Germs, and Steel)
Possibilism- The physical environment may limit some human actions, but people have the ability to adjust to their environment.
Cultural Ecology: The geographic study of the multiple interactions of human-environmental relationships
Holocene epoch: current interglaciation period (sustained warming phase between glaciations during an ice age), extending from
around 12,000 years ago to the present (some scientists speculate that since humans influence the Earth as no species was able to
before, we have recently entered the Anthropocene epoch).
First Agricultural Revolution: beginning around 12,000 years ago; achieved plant domestication (human influence on genetic
modification of a plant) and animal domestication (genetic modification of an animal to make it more amenable to human control and
use); began permanent settlements along fertile river valleys which moved humans from egalitarian societies (equal) to more
stratified societies (unequal).
Geographic Information Systems (GIS): collection of computer hardware and software permitting spatial data to be collected,
recorded, stored, retrieved, used, and displayed.
Global Positioning System (GPS): satellite-based system for determining the absolute location of places.
Remote sensing: method of collecting data or information through the use of instruments (e.g., satellites) that are physically distant
from the area or object of study.
Qualitative data: described in terms of its quality (that is, informal or relative characteristics such as culture, language, religion, …).
Quantitative data: precisely describes data using numbers and measures (population, political, economic, …).
Map projections: any 3-dimensional object (Earth) will project some distortion onto any 2-dimensional object (map)
Azimuthal: directions from a central point are preserved; usually these
projections also have radial symmetry
Mercator: straight meridians and parallels that intersect at right angles,
used for marine navigation
Peters: equal-area cylindrical, areas of equal size on the globe are also
equally sized on the map
Robinson: distorts shape, area, scale, and distance in an attempt to
balance the errors of projection properties
Fuller: using the surface of a polyhedron, it is unfolded to a net in many
different ways and flattened to form a two-dimensional map which retains
most of the globe’s relative proportional integrity
Types of maps:
-dot: one dot represents a certain number of phenomena (e.g., population)
-thematic: made to reflect a particular theme about a geographic area (e.g., geographic, topographic, political, …)
-choropleth: thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable
being displayed (e.g., population density)
-reference: generalized map type designed to show general spatial properties of features (e.g., world maps, road maps, atlas
maps)
-proportional symbol: type of thematic map in which the areas of symbols are varied in proportion to the value of an attribute
(e.g., city population)
-preference: map demonstrating progressively more desirable options
-cartogram: map in which some thematic mapping variable is substituted for land area (e.g., GDP)
Map terms:
-parallel: line of latitude (Equator, Tropic of Cancer & Capricorn, Arctic & Antarctic Circles)
-meridian: line of longitude (Prime Meridian, International Date Line)
TODALSIG: (Title, Orientation, Date, Author, Legend, Scale, Index, Grid) acronym for assessing the validity and reliability of any map
Scale: representation of a real-world phenomenon at a certain level of reduction or generalization; represented as a fraction (large
scale = large detail, small area; small scale = small detain, large area)