AP HUMAN GEOGRPAHY COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Overview:
AP Human Geography is a year-long course designed to meet or exceed the
academic requirements of a single-semester college human geography course.
The course units of study include: An Introduction to Human Geography,
Population, Cultural Patterns and Processes, Political Geography, Agricultural
and Rural Geography, Economic Geography, Urban Geography, and Human
Environment. The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the
systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human
understanding, use, and alteration of the Earth’s surface. Students will
practice utilizing spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human
social organization and its environmental consequences. In addition, a major
focus of the course will be for students to analyze why these human
phenomena, spatial patterns, and interactions are essential to understand the
world. Finally, students will learn about the methods, tools, and terminologies
that geographers use in their practice.
Course Objectives:
- Use and think about maps and spatial data.
- Understand and interpret the implications of associations among patterns
and processes at different scales.
- Define regions and analyze the regionalization process.
- Characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places.
- Learn to interpret visual information utilizing maps, graphs, videos and
photographs.
- Relate current events to the processes and phenomena among places.
Organization of the Course:
- The class meets for fifty-five minutes on M-T-F and 85 minutes W/Th.
- The textbook, other assigned pre-readings, and completed homework
assignments will be required at each class meeting.
- Students must keep a current and orderly notebook, which will be used for
Cornell note-taking, as well as some writing assignments and activities.
- The student notebooks will be collected at the end of each unit and assessed.
- When logistically possible students will engage in field work activities that
may include working with GIS systems, urbanization studies, and visits to
other sites in Flagstaff where they will apply regionalization and cultural
landscape principals. **(e.g. Flagstaff Mall, Downtown, public parks, etc.)
- Unit test (2 day exams) including a multiple-choice section on day one and an
essay section on day two.
- Each unit will include Socratic seminars, application of past content pieces,
and discussions.
- Students should expect in-class case studies and activities, short writing
assignments, class projects, quizzes (announced and unannounced) and exams
to be included as assessment for the course.
- Daily class participation is expected.
- Additional resources will be utilized throughout the course, including
readings from current sources, films, movies, etc.
- Students are expected to take the AP Human Geography Exam.
Course Materials:
The main text for the course (each student will be issued a copy)
Rubenstein, The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography,
AP* Edition, 10e ©2011. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Supplemental texts from which some course material may be derived (e.g.
applied activities; lecture information)
Kuby, Harner, and Gober. Human Geography in Action (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ:
John Wiley & Sons, 2010
Fouberg, Murphy, and de Blij. Human Geography: People, Place and Culture
(10th ed.). Jefferson City: John Wiley & Sons, 2012.
Additional reading, photographic, and video materials from many sources will
be used to supplement the texts.
Course Outline (by unit):
UNIT ONE-INTRODUCTION TO HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
Time: Approximately 2-3 weeks
Reading: Rubenstein Chapter 1
Key Questions:
1. What is Human Geography?
2. How do people think geographically?
3. Why do Geographers use maps and what do maps tell us?
4. What are geographic concepts, and how are they used in answering
geographic questions?
Subtopics:
Spatial Perspective
Mental Maps
Generalization in Maps
Remote Sensing and GIS
Regions
Culture
Connectedness Through Diffusion
Environmental Determinism
Possibilism
UNIT TWO-POPULATION GEOGRAPHY
Time: Approximately 5 weeks
Reading: Rubenstein Chapters 2-3
Key Questions:
1. Where in the world do people live and why?
2. Why does population composition matter?
3. How does the geography of health influence population dynamics?
4. How do governments affect population change?
5. What is migration?
6. Where do people migrate?
7. Why do people migrate?
8. How do governments affect migration?
Subtopics:
Population Distribution
Population Density
Reliability of Population Data
Fertility Rates
Population Growth and Decline at World, Regional, National, and Local Scales
The Demographic Transition
Future Population Growth
Infant Mortality
Child Mortality
Role of Women
Life Expectancy
AIDS and Infectious Diseases
Chronic Genetic Disease
Cyclic Movement
Periodic Movement
Migration
Forced Migration
Push and Pull Factors
Global, Regional, and National Migration Flows
Legal Restrictions
Guest Workers
Refugees
UNIT THREE-CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
Time: Approximately 8 weeks
Reading: Rubenstein Chapters 4-7
Key Questions:
1. What are local and popular cultures?
2. How are local cultures sustained?
3. How is popular culture diffused?
4. What is identity, and how are identities constructed?
5. How do places affect identity, and how can we see identities in places?
6. How does geography reflect and shape power relationships among groups of
people?
7. What are languages and what role do languages play in cultures?
8. Why are languages distributed the way they are?
9. How do languages diffuse?
10. What role does language play in making places?
11. What is religion, and what role does it play in culture?
12. Where did the major religions of the world originate, and how do religions
diffuse?
13. How is religion seen in the cultural landscape?
14. What role does religion play in political conflicts?
Subtopics:
Urban Local Cultures
Local Cultures and Cultural Appropriation
Authenticity of Places
Hearths of Popular Culture
Stemming the Tide of Popular Culture
Cultural Landscapes of Local Culture
Racism in the United States
Residential Segregation
Identities Across Scales
Ethnicity and Place
Identity and Space
Vulnerable Populations
Shifting Power Among Ethnic Groups
Language and Culture
Standardized Language and Dialects
Language Formation
Languages of Europe and Subsaharan Africa
Multilingualism
Official Languages and Global Language
From the Hearth of South Asia, Huang He River Valley, and the Eastern
Mediterranean
Sacred Sites of Jerusalem
Landscapes of Hinduism and Buddhism
Landscapes of Christianity and Islam
Conflicts Along Religious Borders
Israel and Palestine
The Horn Of Africa
The Former Yugoslavia
Northern Ireland
Religious Fundamentalism and Extremism
UNIT FOUR-POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
Time: Approximately 5 weeks
Reading: Rubenstein Chapter 8
Key Questions:
1. How is space politically organized into states and nations?
2. How do states spatially organize their governments?
3. How are boundaries established, and why do boundary disputes occur?
4. What are supranational organizations, and what is the future of the state?
Subtopics:
The Modern State Idea
Nations and the Nation-State
Form of Government
Devolution
Establishing Boundaries
Types of Boundaries
Classical Geopolitics
The German School of Geopolitics
The British/American School of Geopolitics
Influence of Geopolitics on Politics
Critical Geopolitics
Geopolitical World Order
From League of Nations to United Nations
Regional and Supranational Organizations
The European Union
The Affect of Supranationalism on the state
MIDTERM EXAM!!!
UNIT FIVE-AGRICULTURE AND RURAL GEOGRAPHY
Time: Approximately 4 weeks
Reading: Rubenstein Chapter 10
Key Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
What is agriculture, and where did it begin?
How did agriculture change with industrialization?
What imprint does agriculture make on the cultural landscape?
What is the global pattern of agriculture and agribusiness?
Subtopics:
Hunting, Gathering, and Fishing
Terrain and Tools
The First Agricultural Revolution
Domestication of Animals
Hunter-Gatherers in the Modern World
The Spatial Layout of Agriculture
Genetically Modified Foods
Regional and Local Change
Villages
Functional Differentiation Within Villages
The World Map of Climates and Agriculture
Environmental Impacts of Commercial Agriculture
Agribusiness and the Changing Geography of Agriculture
Loss of Productive Farmland
Von Thunen Model
UNIT SIX-ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY
Time: Approximately 4 weeks
Reading: Rubenstein Chapters 9, 11, and 12
Key Questions:
1. Where did the Industrial Revolution Begin, and how did it diffuse?
2. How do location theories explain industrial location?
3. How has industrial production changed?
4. Where are the major industrial belts in the world today and why?
5. What is the service economy, and where are services concentrated?
6. How is development defined and measured?
7. How does geographic situation affect development?
8. What are the barriers to and the costs of economic development?
How do political and economic institutions influence uneven development
within states?
Subtopics:
The Industrial Revolution
Diffusion to Mainland Europe
Weber’s Model
Hotelling’s Model
Losch’s Model
Core, Semiperiphery, and the Periphery
New Influences on the Geography of Manufacturing
Geographical Dimensions of the Service Economy
High-Technology Corridors
Gross National Income
Dependency Theory
Barriers to Economic Development
Costs of Economic Development
The Role of Governments
UNIT SEVEN-URBAN GEOGRPAHY
Time: Approximately 4 weeks
Reading: Rubenstein 13
Key Questions:
1. When and why did people start living in cities?
2. Where are cities located and why?
3. How are cities organized, and how do they function?
4. How do people make cities?
5. What role do cities play in globalization?
Subtopics:
The Hearths of Urbanization
The Role of the Ancient City in Society
Diffusion of Urbanization
Urban Growth After Greece and Rome
Site and Situation During European Exploration
Central Place Theory
Hexagonal Hinterlands
Central Places Today
Models of the City
Modeling of the North American City
Modeling the cities of the Global Periphery and Semiperiphery
The Latin American City
The African City
The Southeast Asian City
Urban Sprawl and New Urbanism
Ethnic Neighborhoods in the Global Periphery and Semiperiphery
Ethnic Neighborhoods in the European City
Cities as Spaces of Consumption
UNIT EIGHT-HUMAN ENVIRONMENT
Time: Approximately 2 weeks
Reading: Rubenstein Chapter 14
Key Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
How has the Earth’s environment changed over time?
How have humans impacted Earth’s environment?
What are the major factors contributing to environmental change today?
How are humans responding to environmental change?
Subtopics:
Ocean and Atmosphere
Fire and Ice
The Little Ice Age and the Modern Era
Alteration of Ecosystems
Environmental Stress
Water
Political Ecology
Population
Patterns of Consumption
Global Climate Change
Protection of the Ozone Layer
Biological Diversity
PREPARE FOR AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY EXAM
(Approximately 2 weeks)
FINAL EXAM REVIEW AND TEST (Approximately 1 week)