Introduction

The purpose of the AP course in Human Geography is to introduce you to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth’s surface. You will employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human social organization and its environmental consequences. You will 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 considered 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, you should be able to:
 * Introduction to the Course **

• **//__Use and think about maps and spatial data.__//** Geography is fundamentally concerned with the ways in which patterns on Earth’s surface reflect and influence physical and human processes. As such, maps and spatial data are fundamental to the discipline, and learning to use and think about them is critical to geographical literacy. The goal is achieved when students learn to use maps and spatial data to pose and solve problems, and when they learn 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 phenomena in places__//**. Geography looks at the world from a spatial perspective—seeking to understand the changing spatial organization and material character of Earth’s surface. One of the critical advantages of a spatial perspective is the attention it focuses on how phenomena are related to one another in particular places. Thus students should learn not just to recognize and interpret patterns but also to assess the nature and significance of the relationships among phenomena that occur in the same place and to understand how tastes and values, political regulations, and economic constraints work together to create particular types of cultural landscapes.

• **//__Recognize and interpret at different scales the relationships among patterns and processes.__//** Geographical analysis requires a sensitivity to scale—not just as a spatial category but also as a framework for understanding how events and processes at different scales influence one another. Thus, students should understand that the phenomena they are studying at one scale (e.g., local) may well be influenced by developments at other scales (e.g., regional, national, or global). They should then look at processes operating at multiple scales when seeking explanations of geographic patterns and arrangements.

 • **//__Define regions and evaluate the regionalization process.__//** Geography is concerned not simply with describing patterns but also with analyzing how these patterns came about and what they mean. Students should see regions as objects of analysis and exploration and should move beyond just locating and describing regions to considering how and why they come into being—and what they reveal about the changing character of the world in which we live.

 • **//__Characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places__//**//__.__// At the heart of a geographical perspective is a concern with the ways in which events and processes operating in one place can influence those operating in other places. Thus, students should view places and patterns not in isolation, but in terms of their spatial and functional relationship with other places and patterns. Moreover, they should strive to be aware that those relationships are constantly changing, and they should understand how and why change occurs.

 It is MY responsibility to transform your daily thinking processes into speculating, interpreting, and applying everyday experiences with preexisting knowledge through the lens of geography. If I help you develop these thought processes, the geographic models, theories, and concepts will naturally follow.

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