Course: Advanced Placement Human Geography
Advanced Placement Human Geography
Instructor: Mr. Evan KeneavyWiki:ekeneavy.cmswiki.wikispaces.net
Tutoring: Monday’s 2:30-3:30 or by appointment
Text: Rubenstein, James. The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography.
Course Description and Objectives:
APHG will seek to give students an understanding and analysis of the earth as a home for humans. Human Geography focuses on the human organization of space as well as the impact of human culture on the environment. By the end of the course students will be able to
✔Understand the discipline of geography, including its tools, themes and concepts
✔Think critically about geographic problems on the global, national and local scale
✔Characterize and analyze the changing interconnections among places
Our course will be built around lectures/discussions (it is up to you whether it is more one than the other), independent reading, individual and group assignments. Please come to class prepared and use your time wisely.
Grading Breakdown:
Tests/Papers: 70% of quarter grade
Homework/Class work/Quizzes: 30% of quarter grade
Required materials:Students will need a 1 ½” 3-ring binder with 9 dividers that will be dedicated to this class.
Recommendation: In order to prepare for the AP exam, you will have to do extensive work on your own. To help ease this process, I strongly recommend you buy a AP Human Geography prep books like Barron’s or Princeton Review. It isn’t a required item for my class, but it will help you prepare to pass the final exam.
Procedures:
- This is a college level class. Expectations are that you will be in your seat and prepared to work when the bell rings.
- It is the student’s responsibility to keep up with assignments, even when absent.
- Homework generally consists of notes on the topic/pages to be covered the following class period.
- All assignments (including homework) will be kept in a 3-ring binder.
I am a roaming teacher who is responsible for teaching more than 220 students. If you have questions or concerns it is up to YOU to bring them to my attention. If you are absent it is up to YOU to initiate makeup work. Please be active, not passive, during this class.
Tests: There will be 9 Unit tests, some units include multiple chapters. Each test will consist of multiple choice and a free response question (FRW). This is to model how your AP exam is set up. There will also be 4 blank map tests during each quarter.
Vocabulary: I vital part of your success is learning the extensive list of vocabulary terms in this course.
- You will turn in a set of handwritten notecards with all the terms and definitions you have learned before you take each Unit test.
Notes: Almost every day I will have a lecture on either new material or clarification of readings. If you do not take notes you will struggle.
- There will be discussions almost every day, which you are responsible for participating in. You do not have to always agree with your classmates but you WILL respect their opinion and their contributions. During this course we will discuss controversial topics, therefore it is extremely important that we have a mutual understanding of respect within our class.
Bottom Line: When you enter our classroom, you are considered to be a mature college student. That means our classroom climate is vastly different from other high school classes; more independence, freedom, and most importantly, responsibility. I demand two things, 1) you RESPECT yourself, peers, environment, and myself and 2) you WORK HARD. If you do those two things, we will have fun, you will learn and you will succeed.
Tentative Course Outline:
Unit 1: Basic geographic concepts and perceptions
Spatial perspective
Map fundamentals
Describing location
Space and spatial processes
Unit 2: Population and Migration
Human population: a global perspective
Human migration
Population structure and composition (demographics)
Population and sustainability
Unit 3: Culture (including Language and Religion)
Culture basics
Language
Religion
Folk and Popular culture
Unit 4: Ethnicity
Spatial pattern of Ethnicities within the United States
Race and Ethnicity
Global Ethnic conflicts
Unit 5: Political geography
Geography of global and regional politics
Territory, borders and the geography of Nations and States
International Political Geography
Terrorism
Unit 6: Agricultural land use
History of agriculture
Geography of modern agriculture
Agriculture and the environment
Agribusiness
Unit 7: Industrial land use
History of industrialism (including patterns of manufacturing)
Modern patterns of manufacturing
Geography of the service sector
Locational principles
Unit 8: Development
Models of Development and Measures of Productivity
Global economic patterns
Development, Equality and Sustainability
Globalization
Unit 9: Urban land use
Historical geography of urban environments
Culture and Urban form
The Spatial organization of urban environments
Urban planning, Renewal and Revitalization
New Urbanism-sustainable communities