AP Human Geography Syllabus

The purpose of the AP course in Human Geography is to introduce students to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have
shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth's surface. Students employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to
examine human social organization and its environmental consequences. They also learn about the methods and tools geographers use
in their science and practice.

The particular topics studied in an AP Human Geography course should be judged in light of the following five college-level goals
that build on the National Geography Standards developed in 1994. On successful completion of the course, the student should be able
to:

1. Use and think about maps and spatial data

2. Understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomena in places

3. Recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and processes
4. Define regions and evaluate the regionalization process
5. Characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places

AP Exam

One of the goals of this course is to give students the opportunity to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills needed to excel on the
AP Human Geography examination. Successful completion of the AP examination allows students to gain college credit while in high
school.

Textbook
Rubenstein, James M. 10th Edition, The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography, Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson Education, Inc., 2011.

If you lose the textbook, or return in worst condition, you will buy it.

Course Units: This course will consist of seven units of study

Unit 1: Geography: Its Nature and Perspective
Unit 2: Population
Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes
Unit 4: Political Organization of Space
Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land Use
Unit 6: Industrialization and Economic Development
Unit 7: Cities and Urban Land Use

Grading
 Tests and quizzes are not curved
 Unit tests may not be retaken
 Quizzes may be retaken after school on designated days
 You will be expected to read the textbook and retain the information you have read
 The majority of your grade will be based on quizzes over classroom notes and assigned readings, as well as unit tests
 At the time of each unit test, there will be a notebook check. All notes and handouts for that particular unit must be in the
notebook and organized correctly
 For each unit, you will complete free response questions and 5 paragraph essays. Essays must include thesis statement, evidence,
and conclusion
 When writing, organization, spelling, and grammar does count
 You will be expected to know the countries of the world and the major physical features of the world

Unit 1: Geography: Its Nature and Perspective (5%-10%)

Reading: Rubenstein: Chapter 1

Essential Key Terms and Concepts for this Unit:

Absolute distance Compass Field study
Accessibility Culture Five Themes
Relative distance Cultural ecology Formal region
Cardinal directions Density
Cartogram Diffusion Friction of distance
Cartography Distribution Functional region
Climograph Dispersion GIS
Concentration Environmental- determinism GPS
Connectivity Equator Globe

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Greenwich Mean Time Node Site
Globalization Nodal region Situation
Intermediate directions Parallels Size
International Date Line Pattern Space
Land Ordinance of 1875 Perception Spatial
Landscape Perspective System
Latitude and longitude Place Time Zones
Location Polder Toponym
Map Prime Meridian Traditions in geography
Map Projection Projection Uniform region
Mental map Remote Sensing Vernacular region
Meridians Resources
Model Scale
Networks Sequent occupance
Unit 1 Outline:
Geography as a field of inquiry

Evolution of geographical models and concepts

Key concepts in geography

 Location
 Place
 Space
 Scale
 Pattern
 Regionalization
 Globalization
Geographical Skills
 Using maps and spatial data
 How to understand and interpret the implications of associations among phenomenon in places
 Defining regions and evaluating the regionalization process
 Analyzing interconnections among places

New geographic technologies

 GIS
 GPS
 Remote Sensing

Unit 2: Population and Migration (13%-17% of the AP Exam)

Reading: Rubenstein: Chapters 2 and 3

Essential Key Terms for this Unit:

Demography Crude birth rate Report of Sanitary Conditions of the
Scale Crude death rate Laboring Population of Great Britain
Pattern Natural increase rate S curve
Place Doubling time Push and Pull Factors
Interdependence Carrying Capacity Voluntary Migration
Distribution Total fertility rate Forced Migration
Age-sex structures Infant mortality rate Refugee
Refugee flows Life expectancy Migration Patterns
Immigration Carrying Capacity -intercontinental
Internal Migration Agricultural Revolution -interregional
Residential Mobility Industrial Revolution -rural-urban
Environmental Degradation Medical Revolution Gravity Model
Out migration Zero population growth Distance Decay
Urbanization Population pyramids Step Migration
Demographic transition Dependency ratio Chain Migration
Epidemiological transition Sex ratio Transhumance
Ecumene Thomas Malthus Internal Migration
Arithmetic density Neo Malthusians Brain Drain
Physiological density Epidemiology Remittances
Agricultural density Pandemic

Outline

Geographical analysis of population

 Density (Rubenstein 52-53)

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  Distribution (Rubenstein 32, 46-49 Analyze figures 2-1 2-2, 2-3, 2-4)
 Scale (Rubenstein 28-29)
 Implications of various densities and distribution (Rubenstein: Japan’s Population Decline pg.65)
 Patterns of composition: age, sex, race, and ethnicity (Rubenstein pgs. 59-61)
 Population and natural hazards: past, present, and future

Population growth and decline over time

 Historical trends and projections for the future (Rubenstein pgs. 53-54 analyze figure 2-8)
 Demographic transition model (Rubenstein pgs. 56-59 analyze figures 2-15 and 2-17)
 Patterns of fertility, mortality, and health (Rubenstein pgs. 54-55)
 Regional variations of demographic transition (Rubenstein pgs. 61-64)
 Effects of population policies

Population Movement
 Migration selectivity (Rubenstein: Characteristics of Migrants: pgs. 84-85)
 Major voluntary and involuntary migrations and different scales (Rubenstein: pages 85-88)
 Theories of migration, including push and pull factors, human capital, and life course (Rubenstein: pgs. 81-83)
 International migration and refugees (Rubenstein pg. 84)
 Socioeconomic consequences of migration (Rubenstein pgs.94-100)

Unit 3 Cultural Patterns and Processes: (13%-17% of AP Exam)

Reading: Rubenstein: Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7

Essential Key Terms:

Concepts of Culture
Acculturation Creole Religious architectural styles
Assimilation Dialect Religious conflict
Cultural adaptation Indo-European languages Religious culture hearth
Cultural core/periphery pattern Isogloss Religious toponym
Cultural ecology Language Sacred space
Cultural identity Language family Secularism
Cultural landscape Language group Shamanism
Cultural realm Language subfamily Sharia law
Culture Lingua franca Shintoism
Culture region Linguistic diversity Sikhism
• Formal—core, periphery Monolingual/multilingual Sunni/Shia
• Functional—node Official language Taoism
• Vernacular (perceptual)— Pidgin Theocracy
regional self-awareness Toponymy Universalizing
Trade language Zoroastrianism
Diffusion types Ethnicity
• Expansion—hierarchical, Religion Acculturation
contagious, stimulus Animism Adaptive strategy
• Relocation Buddhism Assimilation
Cargo cult pilgrimage Barrio
Innovation adoption Christianity Chain migration
Maladaptive diffusion Confucianism Cultural adaptation
Sequent occupance Ethnic religion Cultural shatterbelt
Folk and Popular Culture Exclave/enclave Ethnic cleansing
Adaptive strategies Fundamentalism Ethnic conflict
Anglo-American landscape Geomancy (feng shui) Ethnic enclave
characteristics Hadj Ethnic group
Architectural form Hinduism Ethnic homeland
Built environment Interfaith boundaries Ethnic landscape
Folk culture Islam Ethnic neighborhood
Folk food Jainism Ethnicity
Folk house Judaism Ethnocentrism
Folk songs Landscapes of the dead Ghetto
Folklore Monotheism/polytheism Plural society
Material culture Mormonism Race
Nonmaterial culture Muslim pilgrimage Segregation
Popular culture Muslim population Social distance
Survey systems Proselytic religion Gender
Traditional architecture Reincarnation Dowry death
Language Religion (groups, places) Enfranchisement

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Gender Infanticide Maternal mortality rate
Gender gap Longevity gap

Outline

Part I: Concepts of Culture

 Traits
 Diffusion
 Acculturation, assimilation, and globalization
 Cultural regions

Part II: Cultural Differences

 Language
 Religion
 Ethnicity
 Gender
 Popular and folk culture

Part III: Cultural landscapes and cultural identity

 Values and preferences
 Symbolic landscapes and sense of place
 Environmental impact of cultural attitudes and practices

Unit 4: Political Organization of Space (13%-17% of AP Exam)

Reading: Rubenstein: Chapters 8 and 9

Essential Key Terms:

Annexation Enclave/exclave Raison d’être

Antarctica Ethnic conflict Reapportionment
Apartheid European Union Regionalism
Balkanization Federal Religious conflict
Border landscape Forward capital Reunification
Boundary, disputes (definitional, Frontier Satellite state
locational, operational, allocational) Geopolitics Self-determination
Boundary, origin (antecedent, Gerrymander Shatterbelt
subsequent, superimposed, relic) Global commons Sovereignty
Boundary, process (definition, Heartland/rimland State
delimitation, demarcation) Immigrant states Stateless ethnic groups
Boundary, type (natural/physical, International organization Stateless nation
ethnographic/cultural, geometric) Iron Curtain Suffrage
Buffer state Irredentism Supranationalism
Capital Israel/Palestine Territorial disputes
Centrifugal Landlocked Territorial morphology (compact,
Centripetal Law of the Sea fragmented, elongated, prorupt,
City-state Lebanon perforated)
Colonialism Mackinder, Halford J. Territoriality
Confederation Manifest destiny Theocracy
Conference of Berlin (1884) Median-line principle Treaty ports
Core/periphery Microstate UNCLOS (United Nations
Decolonization Ministate Convention on the Law of the Sea)
Devolution Nation Unitary
Domino theory National iconography USSR collapse
EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) Nation-state Women’s enfranchisement
Electoral regions Nunavut
Unit Outline

Territorial dimensions of politics

 The concept of territoriality
 The nature and meaning of boundaries
 Influences of boundaries on identity, interaction, and exchange
 Federal and unitary states
 Spatial relationships between political patterns and patterns of ethnicity, economy, and environment

Evolution of the contemporary political pattern

 The nation-state concept

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  Colonialism and imperialism
 Democratization

Changes and challenges to political and territorial arrangements

 Changing nature of sovereignty
 Fragmentation, unification and alliances
 Supernationalism and devolution
 Electoral geography and gerrymandering
 Terrorism

Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land Use (13%-17% of AP Exam)

Reading: Rubenstein: Chapter 10

Essential Key Terms:

Adaptive strategies Environmental modification Mineral fuels
Agrarian (pesticides, soil erosion, Mining
Agribusiness desertification) Planned economy
Agricultural industrialization Extensive subsistence agriculture Plant domestication
Agricultural landscape (shifting cultivation [slash-and- burn, Plantation agriculture
Agricultural location model milpa, swidden], nomadic Renewable/nonrenewable
Agricultural origins herding/pastoralism) Rural settlement (dispersed,
Agriculture Extractive industry nucleated, building material, village
Animal domestication Farm crisis form)
Aquaculture Farming Sauer, Carl O.
Biorevolution Feedlot Second agricultural revolution
Biotechnology First agricultural revolution Specialization
Collective farm Staple grains
Commercial agriculture (intensive, Fishing Suitcase farm
extensive) Food chain Survey patterns (long lots, metes and
Core/periphery Forestry bounds, township-and-range)
Crop rotation Globalized agriculture Sustainable yield
Cultivation regions Green revolution Third agricultural revolution
Dairying Growing season (mechanization, chemical farming,
Debt-for-nature swap Hunting and gathering food manufacturing)
Diffusion Intensive subsistence agriculture “Tragedy of the commons”
Double cropping Intertillage Transhumance
Economic activity (primary, Livestock ranching Truck farm
secondary, tertiary, quaternary, Market gardening Von Thünen, Johann Heinrich
quinary) Mediterranean agriculture
Development and diffusion of agriculture
 Neolithic Agricultural Revolution
 Second Agricultural Revolution
 Green Revolution
 Modern Commercial Agriculture

Major agricultural production regions

 Agricultural systems associated with major bioclimatic zones
 Variations within major zones and effects on markets
 Linkages and flows among regions of food production and consumption

Rural land use and settlement patterns

 Models of agricultural land use – von Thunen’s model
 Settlement patterns associated with major agricultural types
 Land use/land cover change, irrigation, conservation (desertification and deforestation)

Modern commercial agriculture

 Biotechnology, including genetically modified plants and animals
 Spatial organization and diffusion of industrial agriculture
 Organic farming and local food production
 Environmental impacts of agriculture

Unit 6: Industrialization and Economic Development (13%-17% of AP Exam)

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Reading: Rubenstein: Chapters 11 and 12

Essential Key Terms:

Development Bid rent theory Manufacturing/warehouse location

Agricultural labor force Break-of-bulk point (industrial parks, agglomeration,
Calorie consumption Canadian industrial heartland shared services, zoning,
Core-periphery model Carrier efficiency transportation, taxes, environmental
Cultural convergence Comparative advantage considerations)
Dependency theory Cumulative causation Maquiladora
Development Deglomeration Market orientation
Energy consumption Deindustrialization Multiplier effect
Foreign direct investment Economic sectors NAFTA
Gender Economies of scale Outsourcing
Gross domestic product (GDP) Ecotourism Ozone depletion
Gross national product (GNP) Energy resources Plant location (supplies, “just in
Human Development Index Entrepôt time” delivery)
Levels of development Export processing zone Postindustrial
Measures of development Fixed costs Refrigeration
Neocolonialism Footloose industry Resource crisis
Physical Quality of Life Index Four Tigers Resource orientation
Purchasing power parity Greenhouse effect Special economic zones (China)
Rostow, W. W. Growth poles Specialized economic zones
“Stages of Growth” model Heartland/rimland Substitution principle
Technology gap Industrial location theory Threshold/range
Technology transfer Industrial regions (place, fuel source, Time-space compression
Third World characteristics) Topocide
World Systems Theory Industrial Revolution Trade (complementarity)
Industrialization Industry (receding, growing) Transnational corporation
Acid rain Infrastructure Ubiquitous
Agglomeration International division of labor Variable costs
Agglomeration economies Labor-intensive Weber, Alfred
Air pollution Least-cost location Weight-gaining
Aluminum industry (factors of Major manufacturing regions Weight-losing
production, location) Manufacturing exports World cities
Assembly line production/Fordism
Growth and diffusion of industrialization
 The changing roles of energy and technology
 Industrial Revolution
 Evolution of economic cores and peripheries
 Geographic critiques of models of economic localization (bid rent, comparative costs of transportation) industrial location,
economic development, and world systems

Contemporary patterns and impacts of industrialization and development

 Spatial organization of the world economy
 Variations in levels of development
 Deindustrialization and economic restructuring
 Globalization and international division of labor
 Natural resources and environmental concerns
 Sustainable development
 Local development initiatives: government policies
 Women in development

Unit 7 Cities and Urban Land Use: (13%-17% of AP Exam)

Reading: Rubenstein: Chapters 13 and 14

Agglomeration Cityscapes Emerging cities

Barriadas Colonial city Employment structure
Bid-rent theory Commercialization Entrepôt
Blockbusting Commuter zone Ethnic neighborhood
CBD (central business district) Concentric zone model Favela
Census tract Counterurbanization Female-headed household
Centrality Decentralization Festival landscape
Centralization Deindustrialization Gateway city
Central-place theory Early cities Gender
Christaller, Walter Economic base (basic/nonbasic) Gentrification
City Edge city Ghetto

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Globalization Planned communities Suburbanization
Great cities Postindustrial city Symbolic landscape
High-tech corridors Postmodern urban landscape Tenement
Hinterland Primate city Threshold/range
Hydraulic civilization Racial steering Town
Indigenous city Rank-size rule Underclass
In-filling Redlining Underemployment
Informal sector Restrictive covenants Urban growth rate
Infrastructure Sector model Urban function
Inner city Segregation Urban hearth area
Invasion and succession Settlement form (nucleated, Urban heat island
Lateral commuting dispersed, elongated) Urban hierarchy
Medieval cities Shopping mall Urban hydrology
Megacities Site/situation Urban morphology
Megalopolis/conurbation Slum Urbanization
Metropolitan area Social structure Urbanized population
Multiple nuclei model Specialization World city
Multiplier effect Squatter settlement Zone in transition
Neighborhood Street pattern (grid, dendritic; access, Zoning
Office park control)
Peak land value intersection Suburb
Development and character of cities
 Origin of cities
 Rural-urban migration and urban growth
 Global cities and megacities
 Suburbanization and edge cities

Models of urban systems

 Rank-rule size
 Sector model
 Multiple-nuclei model
 Changing employment mix
 Changing demographic and social structures
 Uneven development, ghettoization, and gentrification

Built environment and social space

 Housing
 Transportation and infrastructure
 Political organization of urban areas
 Patterns of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status

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