Grade 10 students must take Humanities II or Humanities II in Action concurrently with this course. Grade 9 students need an A- in Humanities I or Humanities I in Action; Grade 11 students need a B+ in Humanities II or Humanities II in Action; Grade 11 students need a B+ in AP Language and Composition or Junior English.
This course is particularly useful for students looking to work in the fields of public administration, town planning, architecture, anthropology, sociology, geographic information science (GIS), marketing, or any field that takes account of the spatial dimensions of human activity. The course introduces students to an analytical study of the social, cultural and economic landscapes that characterize our world. Students will study the evolving locational patterns of human activities and examine a range of theories and theoretical models, which may account for their spatial distribution. Topics for study include: population studies, the political organization of space, cultural patterns, urban and rural landscapes, economic development and industrialization.
This course is highly conceptual, and students will be expected to:
- Use and think about maps and spatial data sets to both pose and solve problems, to think critically about what is revealed and what is hidden in different maps and spatial arrays.
- Understand and interpret the implications of associations among spatial phenomena, to see how tastes, values, political regulations and economic constraints all work together to create particular kinds of cultural landscapes.
- Recognize and interpret the relationships among patterns and processes at differing scales.
- Define and explain regions, explaining and analyzing how particular patterns of human activity have evolved.
- Characterize and analyze the changing interconnections between places.
- Critical reading.
- Class and online discussions.
- Formative and summative assessments.
- Multimedia presentations.
- Take the AP Human Geography exam in May (Mandatory).