The Year at a Glance
**This is a rough schedule of our curriculum for the year. We need to stay on a tight schedule to cover all information prior to the AP Exam in May.
Unit 1: Geography: It’s Nature and Perspectives - 3 weeks
Unit 2: Population issues (and migration) – 3 weeks
Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes – 5 weeks
Unit 4: Political Organization of Space – 4 weeks
Semester Final Preparation and exam – 1 week
Unit 5: Development and Globalization– 2 weeks
Unit 6: Agricultural and Rural Land Use – 3 weeks
Unit 7: Industrialization and Economic development – 3 weeks
Unit 8: Cities and Urban Land Use – 4 weeks
Unit 10: AP Human Geography Exam Review – 2 weeks
- How did the process of geographic inquiry change over time?
- How do geographers view the world?
- What basic questions do geographers ask when interpreting the world around them? (Where? What’s there? Why there? How are places alike and different?)
- What tools do geographers use in the practice of their craft?
- Mapping, data sets, GIS, and geographic models
- What are the basic concepts of region and diffusion?
Unit 2: Population issues (and migration) – 3 weeks
- Where do most of the world’s people live?
- Why do people live where they do?
- What are the consequences of population pressure on various environments?
- How have population patterns changed over time?
- What factors affect the growth of a site’s population?
- How do geographers analyze and make predictions about future population growth? About decline?
- What other factors affect growth and distribution of a country’s population?
- Why do people move?
- Why do people voluntarily emigrate from a country?
- Why do people migrate within a country?
- Why are people forced to emigrate from a country?
- What are the push-pull factors and outcomes of migration?
- What are the changes in the local landscape due to migration?
Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes – 5 weeks
- What is culture?
- How is culture manifested on the landscape?
- How is culture transmitted from region to region?
- How are cultural regions alike and different?
Unit 4: Political Organization of Space – 4 weeks
- How do people organize themselves on the earth?
- What are the key characteristics of a state?
- Why so some states persist over time?
- How are borders imposed on the landscape?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of multiethnic states?
- What are factors that create and change transnational organizations?
Semester Final Preparation and exam – 1 week
Unit 5: Development and Globalization– 2 weeks
- How is development measured?
- How does the level of development vary among regions?
- How can countries promote development?
- Global Tourism
Unit 6: Agricultural and Rural Land Use – 3 weeks
- How did agriculture originate and diffuse?
- What is agriculture like in less-developed countries?
- What is agriculture like in more developed countries?
- What are the most important agricultural regions in more developed countries?
Unit 7: Industrialization and Economic development – 3 weeks
- How did industrialization originate and diffuse?
- How is industry distributed worldwide?
- What factors influence the choice of location for a factory?
- What industrial problems do countries face?
Unit 8: Cities and Urban Land Use – 4 weeks
- How do resources affect human settlement patterns?
- Why are settlements established?
- Why are services concentrated in settlements?
- What activities occur in the central business district?
- What problems do inner-city residential areas face?
- What are the causes and consequences of suburbanization?
- How are different social groups distributed within an urban area?
- What are census data tracks and how are they mapped using GIS?
Unit 10: AP Human Geography Exam Review – 2 weeks
- Review of Multiple Choice Questions & Free-Response Writing
- Review of topics
- Exam discussion
- Practice AP Exam