AP Human Geography
Unit 1 Syllabus
Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives (5-10%)
Rubenstein Chapter 1: Thinking Geographically
¶
Date
August 24th
Class Activities
-Introduction Activity
-Syllabus/ Unit Syllabus
-Intro. To Taking Notes
-What Is Geography?
-Mental Maps
Homework
-Get Parent Letter Signed
-Supplies
-Read Key Issue 1.1* & take notes
August 25th
-Complete Mental Map Activity
-5 Themes of Geography
-Land and Seas Assignment
-Map of Europe
-Read Key Issue 1.2 & take notes
August 26th
-Quiz on Key Issue 1.1. & 1.2
-Reading Maps
-Longitude and Latitude Work
-Read Appendix 502-507
August 27thth
-Different Types of Maps
-Map Projections
-Reading: How to Lie with Maps
-Study Map of Europe
August 28th
-Map Quiz: Europe
-Map Projections Continued
-GPS
-Maps in the Media
August 31st
-Regions Webquests
-Google Earth Webquests
September 1st
-Discuss Webquests
-Taking Notes? How do we do it?
-Scale and Space
-Power of Place: One Earth, Many
Scales (30 minutes)
-Globalization & Diffusion
-Test Unit 1
Multiple Choice and 5 Short answer
September 2nd
September 3rd
September 4th
* 1.1 = Chapter 1, Key Issue 1
* LATE WORK IS NOT ACCEPTED. Please plan accordingly.
Essential Questions:
1) How do geographers describe where things are?
2) Why is each point on earth unique?
3) Why are different places similar?
-Read Key Issue 1.3 & take notes
-Practice Test Questions
-Vocabulary/Review questions
-Read Key Issue 2.1
-Maps in the Media due Tuesday
(24th)
What should you know, understand, and be able to do at the end of this unit?
1. Synthesize, evaluate and apply understandings of geography and its perspectives.
2. Apply geographic skills associated with maps and spatial data sets.
3. Understand and interpret visual representations off geographic ideas and data sets.
4. Synthesize and apply geographic skill in order to approach a question or solve a
problem.
5. Identify and utilize sources of geographic information.
At the end of this unit you should have:
- Read Chapter 1 in your textbook and taken notes on the chapter
- defined the vocabulary for Unit 1 on index cards
- learned the location of modern European countries
- completed the Maps in the Media project
I. Geography: Its Nature and Perspectives (5-10%)
Geography as a field of inquiry
Evolution of key geographical concepts and models associated with notable geographers
Key concepts underlying the geographical perspective: location, space, place, scale, pattern,
regionalization, and globalization
Key geographical skills
How to use and think about maps and spatial data
How to understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in
places
How to recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and
processes
How to define regions and evaluate the regionalization process
How to characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places
New geographic technologies, such as GIS and GPS
Sources of geographical ideas and data: the field, census data
Review Questions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. They will be
due Sept 18th.
1.
The region is a highly contested yet critical concept in the study of human
geography.
a) What is a region?
b) Why and how do geographers perform the regionalization process?
c) What is regional geography?
d) Discuss the different types of regions that human geographers study, and provide
an example of each type.
2. Why is physical geography an essential part of the study of human geography?
3. Geography is unique from other disciplines in that it applies a spatial perspective to
different phenomena and processes that occur on the earth’s surfaces.
(a) Define the spatial perspective. Include in your definition what it means to think
geographically and include descriptions of the types of data that geographers
analyze.
(b) Provide an example of a problem that can only be solved from a spatial
perspective.
4.
5.
6.
7.
(c) How does thinking geographically inform the study of associations and
phenomena? scale? interconnections?
What is a “mental map?” Why are mental maps essential to the understanding of
both the physical and human world?
What is toponymy? What can the study of toponymy reveal about the relationship
of human and physical systems?
Explain four types of maps and what they can be used to describe.
Explain the Mercator, Peters and Robinson projection? What are the pros and cons
to each type of projections?
Unit 1 Vocabulary: For each vocabulary term write the definition and either give the
significance or an example. This should be done in your composition notebook. Extra
credit will be given for writing these on index cards as well.
1. absolute location
2. cartographer
3. cartography
4. cultural landscapes
5. distortion
6. equator
7. GIS
8. Greenwich Mean Time
9. GPS
10. formal regions
11. functional (nodal) regions
12. globalization
13. hemispheres
14. human geography
15. international date line
16. latitude
17. legend
18. linear pattern
19. local time
20. location
21. longitude
22. Mercator projection
23. meridian
24. parallel
25. pattern
26. perceptual (vernacular) regions
27. Peters projection
28. place
29. physical geography
30. prime meridian
31. regional studies
32. remote sensing
33. scale
34. site
35. situation
36. solar time
37. space
38. space time compression
39. time zone
40. toponym
41. US Census Bureau
42. “why of where”
43. 5 themes of geography
Map in the Media
Directions: You will select a map from a newspaper,
magazine, the Internet, textbook, or another source.
Examine the map carefully and think about the
choices the cartographer made when creating the
map. You must consider the map’s projection, colors,
symbols, data, classification, scale, and overall design.
In a five paragraph essay, evaluate the map’s
usefulness, stressing both advantages and
disadvantages. The map should be turned in along
with the essay.