Welcome to Cascadia
(Ecotopia? The Northern I-5 Corridor?)
APCG - Unit I: Laying the foundation
What’s distinctive about the study of
human geography?
• More about the perspective used to study
phenomena on Earth than about discrete facts and
figures.
• The goal of APHG is to understand how and why
interconnections are maintained on Earth.
• Not simply interested in where things are located
and why they’re there…but also interested in the
causes, effects, and relationships of patterns and
processes.
Greenlandic people and music
(Connections/relationships - Inuit and Danish cultures?)
APHG Unit I - Geography:
Its Nature and Perspectives
• Geography as a field
of inquiry
• Key geographic
concepts and models
• Notable geographers
• The geographical
perspective
• Space, place, scale
• Key geographical
skills
• Sources of
geographical data and
information: census
data, field observation,
archival information,
etc.
Student outcomes after learning the
content and skills in Unit I
1) Be able to write one paragraph that
describes the geographic perspective and
defines what geography is (the essence of
geography).
2) Be comfortable explaining and defending
the importance of geography (using key
concepts and specific examples of
geographic analysis and applications).
But first…how did geography
make a comeback in the US?
• Buried in Social
Studies after WW II
• Revolution began in
mid-1980s
• National Geographic
Society support
• Geographic Alliances
in every state, and DC,
Canada, Puerto Rico
• National Standards,
nat’l assessments, state
benchmarks, first-ever
AP course approved
(that’s us!)
Four good reasons to be
geographically informed…
1) The Existential Reason:
We humans intrinsically want to
understand the nature of our home on
planet earth. How did the cultures,
peoples, and built environment on Earth
come to look the way they do?
Why be geographically
informed?
2) The Ethical Reason:
Earth will no doubt continue to whirl
through space for many more millennia. But
can it remain in a condition where humans
can thrive or even live? Geography provides
knowledge about the critical
interdependency of all living things.
Four reasons to be geographically
informed…
3) The Intellectual Reason:
Geography captures our imagination! It
stimulates curiosity about people and
places in the world. Geography focuses
attention on critically important topics and
thus contributes to creating wiser
decision-makers…
Another pragmatic reason to be
geographically informed…
4) The Practical Reason:
Geography has ultimate value in the ‘real world.’
Imagine a doctor who treats diseases who doesn’t
understand the environment where it first began
and how it spread? Or marketers who don’t know
where rice will sell better than french fries - or
Portuguese sausages will sell better than bacon?
What is the
‘Geographic Perspective’
• Spatial Perspective
• Environmental
Perspective
• Cultural
Perspective
• Synthesizing these
three ways of
thinking into a
holistic approach
• And integrating
some exciting case
studies along the
way…
The White Mountains (NevadaCalifornia border)
Location?
Early settlers’
mental maps of
California?
Human impacts?
Economic/cultural
relevance?
Spatial analysis is key…
A few key concepts:
• Location (absolute, relative)
• Distance and direction
• Accessibility (utility of location,
relationships)
• Spatial interaction (time-space convergence,
interconnections, relationships)
• Scale
The concept of scale
Definition: Scale is the ratio of distance on
map to distance on the ground.
Types of map scales:
1) verbal scale (e.g. “one inch on the map =
one mile on Earth”)
2) graphic or bar scale
3) representative fraction scale (1:63,360
– numerous advantages!)
Student challenges??
Are you comfortable with this?
Map scale has a significant impact on how
much detail can be shown on a map.
- So the smaller the scale, the larger the
area shown on the map.
- Large scale maps can show rivers,
houses, and all kinds of other details
The regional approach…
• Defining regions: The meta-geography of
space and place (at local to global scales)
• Core concepts:
Formal region - political identity
Functional region - connected by common
themes or activities
Vernacular region - defined by local
identities
Regionalizing places close to home
• Political regions
(states, counties,
metropolitan areas)
• Environmental or
physical regions
(landforms, climate
zones, eco-regions)
• Economic regions
(Silicon Valley, Silicon
Hills, Silicon Forest)
• Cultural regions
(based on religions,
dialects, ethnicity or
race of residents)
How to regionalize the U.S.??
A few examples…
Emerging metro regions?
More on spatial thinking
(or ‘we all see the world differently’)
• Mental maps
• Perception
• Sense of place
Examples of mental maps?
Measuring your mental maps of the U.S.?
APHG ‘free response’ questions to
reflect on after studying Unit I…
1) What is the spatial perspective and how is
it used by human geographers?
2) Why and how do geographers use regions
to teach and learn about places on Earth?
3) List, define, and give an example of three
types of map scale.
How to ‘do’ geography (e.g. using
Kuby et al this afternoon)?
• Data sources
• Methods of analysis
• Applying the geographic perspective to real
world questions and problems
• Our Portland project?
On the Labrador coast