AP Human
Geography
McCluskey/Sorrentino
Class Introduction, Expectations, Mini-Syllabus
Tuesday, Sept. 4th 2012
• Welcome, explanation of your instructor situation
• Hand out letter of explanation
• Syllabus: class expectations, objectives, grading policy, course
of events in September
• Summer Assignment
• Homework Organizers
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Textbooks: issue 2 textbooks and *WileyPlus Codes
Student Activity Cards
Class Activity: Geography basics and group activity
HW: Organizer #1
Things missing from Syllabus
• Honor Policy- expected that
everything is pledged, no
homework sharing
• Bring a notebook on Thursday!
• Office Hours: Tues, Thurs, Friday
lunchtime, either room 236 or
here
What is HUMAN
Geography?
Geography Basics Activity
• Divide into 5 groups: each take large sheet
of paper and basics packet
• You have 15 minutes to do the following:
• Create a fictitious place and people using
the provided guidelines
• DEFINE HUMAN GEOGRAPHY in your
own words
• Present your findings to the class,
remembering to introduce yourselves
Thursday, Sept. 6th: AP Geog
• “Practice” Organizer check
• Notes: Definition of Geography? Yours,
your group’s, the books, Mrs. McCluskey’s
• Group Presentations: fictional countries
and their results
• Notes/Discussion: Geography: Nature,
Perspectives, Evolution, Careers
• HW: Organizer #2 and SUMMER PROJECT!
•What is Human
Geography?
“Official Definitions of
Geography”:
• Eratosthenes: “Earth” + “to write”
• Basic:
• “description of the earth”
• “spatial science”
• Major subdivisions:
• Regional Geography: study focusing on one “region”
• (def. of region??)
• Systematic Geography: the focus of one or a few
related aspect of physical environment or human
populations and societies
2 major divisions of systematic
geography:
• Physical Geography: study of the
structures, processes, distributions, and
change throughout time of the natural
phenomena of the earth’s surface that are
significant to human life.
• Human Geography: the spatial analysis of
human populations, their cultures, their
activities and behaviors, and their
relationship with hand impact on the
physical landscapes they occupy.
•Why is defining
geography so
difficult?
McCluskey Answer:
• 1. Geography is about what questions
you ask, not what answers you have
• What questions do geographers ask?
McCluskey answer #2:
• Geography is an action, not a noun
• What do geographers do?
McCluskey answer #3:
• Geography overlaps with absolutely
everything:
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Political Science
Anthropology
Economics
Psychology
Religion
History
Demography
Urban Studies
Sociology
???? What else????
McCluskey Answer #4:
• Everything is so gray and contradictory!
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“Region”?
Definitions
Focus areas
Careers
Def’n of Geography:
Answer: It’s what
human geographers
do
What do these pictures have in
common?
Tues, Sept. 11th: AP Geog
The 7 Fundamental Geographic Observations
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Organizer #2 check
Questions about Project
Notes: “Geographer’s Core Observations and Concerns”
Class Application: Pictures and Class “Imaginary
Countries”
• HW: PROJECT DUE Thursday by 12:30pm.
• Organizer #3 due FRIDAY
5 themes of Geography:
• Location : Absolute vs. Relative
• Place
• Interaction between People and
the Environment
• Movement
• Region
Last things to cover in notes
today:
• History/Evolution:
• Early:
• Eratosthenes : “Earth” + “To Write”
• Strabo: described the earth
• Herodotus (484-425 BCE) : linked geography with
history
• Greeks and Romans: Latitude and Longitude
• Chinese, Arab, etc.
• “Modern”
• 17th Century: geography linked to other Earth Sciences
• Early 19th c: national census, trade stats, ethnographic
studies
• Today (careers?)
• Geography linked with physical and social science,
technology, govt., environment, economics, etc.
• GIS: geographic information systems
• Geographers can work almost anywhere, they just
ask different questions
Thursday, Sept. 13th
• Finish notes on Core Geographic Concepts
• Class activity: apply geographic questions and
concepts to pictures and imaginary countries
• VIDEO/WRITING ASSIGNMENT
• HW: READ Fellman, pp. 18-28; Kuby pp. 3-10
so you can complete Org’r #3 quickly in CLASS
tomorrow for check at end of pd. (Bring
Books to class!)
• Writing assignment due Tuesday 9/ 18
Core Geographic Concepts:
•Place: location +
characteristics
•Space:
• absolute vs. relative
• Sense of place vs. placelessness
•Core Geographic
Questions?
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What is it?
Where is it?
How did it come to be what and where it is?
Where is it in relation to other things that affect it or are
affected by it?
• How is it part of a functioning whole?
• How does its location affect people’s lives and the content of
the area in which it is found?
7 Core Geographic Concepts:
1. Places have
1.
2.
3.
Location: (abs. vs. relative)/ site vs. situation
Direction (abs vs. relative)
Distance (abs. vs. relative)
2. Place has size and scale (degree of generation)
1.
Size is relative, too
3. All places have cultural and physical attributes
1.
Over time, which one takes over?
4. Attributes change over time
1.
2.
Natural: ice age, erosion, *humans accelerate this!
Cultural: *is change getting faster or slower?
5. The elements of places interrelate to other places (“spatial
interaction”
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“Tobler’s Law”
“Distance Decay”
Effects of distance affected by accessibility and connectivity
Spatial diffusion
6. The content of place is structured and explainable
*Spatial Distribution*
• Density (absolute vs. relative)
• Dispersion (clustered? Agglomerated? Dispersed? Scattered?)
• Pattern (linear, centralized, random)
7. Places may be generalized into regions of similarities and
differences
A) Formal Regions: uniformity of 1-2 features
• B) Functional/Nodal Region: interconnected spatial system
with a core and periphery
• EX: Radio Station region
• C) Perceptual Region: in the eye of the beholder…
Therefore, as Geographers…
• what QUESTIONS would you ask
about the following pictures?
• What core OBSERVATIONS could you
make?
Video: China Inside Out
Assignment:
Take notes on video and prepare a 5-paragraph essay in which
you answer the question, “What themes and phenomena would
a geographer observe about this information regarding China?”
• Intro: show you understand the basic concepts of geographic
observations, lead up to a thesis at end of paragraph
• Body: Three core observations = 3 paragraphs
• 3 topic sentences = each core observation you chose
• Each paragraph = examples from video with brief explanation
• Conclusion: wrap it up, say what you said
Essay Rubric: 15 pts
Intro paragraph shows basic understanding of what geographers
do (3 pts)
Identifiable thesis statement (2 pts)
Thesis statements (2 pts)
Good examples that support thesis statement (5 pts)
Examples are explained to support thesis statement (3 pts)
Conclusion (2 pts)