Welcome to AP Human Geography The Why of Where!. “As a young man my fondest dream was to become a geographer. However, while working in the customs office.

Welcome to AP Human Geography

The Why of Where!

“As a young man my fondest dream was to become a geographer. However, while working in the customs office I thought deeply about the matter and concluded that it was far too difficult a subject. With some reluctance, I then turned to physics as a substitute.”

Albert Einstein (1879-1955), Unpublished Letters – this quote was a hoax!

Note: Before we begin, whenever you see text in a different colour than the rest of the text - yellow, red, orange, green etc. This means that it is a moment to stop, reflect, discuss and take some important notes.

Each chapter contains a number of slide shows. Most of the slide shows that are linked on the web are student versions. In other words they have been stripped of content. The teacher will use the more detailed version and project it on the big screen. Whenever you see three dots (…) it means that material has been removed from your slide show and that you need to take notes.

The slide shows contain content from a number of AP books (both past and present). Therefore the slide shows do not follow the book exactly. Preparing ahead of time with your readings and keyissues is essential for your success in this class. Also taking notes becomes key, since the slide shows contain much more than the book.

It is simple – •read the textbook, •do the key issues,•do the activities, •follow the slide shows in class •take notes off the slide shows.!!!•prepare for your tests

“The first day or so, we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day, we were aware of only ONE earth”

Sultan Bin Salan al-Saud, astronaut

Challenge to the students – Get to know the World! Geo-Games, Handouts, Maps and Atlas!

"Geography is a discipline of diversity, under whose spatial umbrella we study and analyze processes, systems, behaviours, and countless other phenomena that have spatial expression. It is this tie that binds geographers, this interest in patterns, distributions, diffusions, circulations, interactions, juxtapositions - the way in which the physical and human worlds are laid out, interconnect and interact"

Harm de Blij, “Why Geography Matters” Discussion

One last quote about what a Geographer is:

“A Geographer is a mile wide and an inch deep”

Discussion!

A mile wide and an inch deep!

One key aspect as to what a Geographer is, is that they can think spatially.

Here is a quick look at Spatial Thinking:

How many decisions have to be made when parking a car in a large parking lot like Yorkdale Shopping Mall?:

• Which section of Yorkdale do you wish to park?

• What stores do you want to go to? • How close to the entrance can you park? - this can be a 3 dimensional decision

• How far from the entrance (distance y)? – let’s call this the side distance

• What floor are you going to park and then can you park near stairs or an elevator

• How far from the entrance (distance x)? – let’s call this the straight-on distance

• Remember that this is just to enter the mall, you will have to come back to this area to exit the mall. • If you had your choice what would be the ideal spot? In the front, in the middle, next to a curb. • The weather conditions might play a role - eg. you don't mind walking on a sunny warm day

• If it is night you may want to be near a lamp post

• Who is with you may play a role? - an older person who does not want to walk a great distance, special parking • Once a spot has been found - is there enough room to park, who are you next to, think about scratches, do you want to back in?

• Once the car is parked how are you going to remember where you parked it?- near certain stores, near certain landmarks including identified areas, remembering letters and numbers and colours and even other cars, looking at the stores and making a decision of how relative your car is to a store.

Back to the course:

There is no ISP (Independent Study Unit) in this course. Instead you will have a series of Activities to work on and hand in.

Some of these Activities will come from readings (a book or a newspaper), some will come from research and some will come from doing an assignment on a particular topic.

There is a text book called “Human Geography in Action”. This book is full of hands on activities that allow you to learn in an interactive way. This book also comes with an interactive computer program.

Discussion about trying to use past work!

You will have two exams in this course.

One will be the final exam for your Ontario credit. I will set up this final exam.

The other final exam will be set up by the College Board. You will write both exams in May. I will do my best to try and get the two exam dates as close together as possible. We have no control over the College Board exam date.

The Ontario credit exam is worth 20% of your final mark. The College Board exam is out of 5 and it will go towards getting an AP credit. It will have no effect on your Ontario mark. This AP mark is treated differently depending on the University you attend.

Because the College Board and AP courses are American based and all of the textbooks are American, you will come across many examples from the United States. Some of the content you will find easy and a review of things you have done before. If I may add a personal comment; “The subject of Geography is in a better state at the high school level in Canada than it is in the United States.”

It is my job also to bring more Canadian content to this course – through the Activities. You will also find many references in the key issues.

There will be some use of GIS in this course - it is becoming evident that your knowledge of GIS in university is to your advantage.

All of your tests this year will follow the format of the AP exam:

Part A – Multiple Choice – mainly coming from the key issues of the texts and what we discussed in class. Knowledge portion of your evaluation.

Part B – CRQ – 1 to 3 essay questions dealing with major topics discussed in class. Thinking/Inquiry, Communication and Application portion of your evaluation.

AP Grade Qualification

5 Extremely well qualified

4 Well Qualified

3 Qualified

2 Possibly qualified

1 No recommendation

Our goal is to get you a 4 or a 5.

The AP exam is marked out of 5!

Results for the Debut year (2004/2005)

Total enrollment for section: 31

Grade 5: 7

Grade 4: 8

Grade 3: 11

Grade 2: 4

Grade 1: 1

Average: 3.52

Results for the second year (2005/2006)

Total enrollment for section: 41

Grade 5: 10

Grade 4: 19

Grade 3: 9

Grade 2: 3

Grade 1: 0

Average: 3.87

Results for the third year (2006/2007)

Total enrollment for section: 48

Grade 5: 11

Grade 4: 14

Grade 3: 5

Grade 2: 8

Grade 1: 4

Average: 3.48

Note: 1 did not write and 5 got ‘0’ – did not write Part B.

12 walked out after 30 minutes into Part B.

The Students that stayed.

Recalculated Total: 30

Grade 5: 11

Grade 4: 14

Grade 3: 3

Grade 2: 2

Grade 1: 0

Average: 4.10

Results for the fourth year (2007/2008)

Total enrollment for section: 42

Grade 5: 11

Grade 4: 14

Grade 3: 12

Grade 2: 4

Grade 1: 1

Average: 3.71

The majority of students that received the 4s and 5s were the ones that consistently did the key issues and activities and kept up with the course.

Results for the fifth year (2008/2009)

Total enrollment for section: 42

Grade 5: 5

Grade 4: 16

Grade 3: 12

Grade 2: 8

Grade 1: 1

Average: 3.4

Students are starting to take the exam lightly since it is the end of the year and they do not see the importance of the AP grade. Wasted opportunity. Lowest scores yet. How will you do against students around the world.

Results for the sixth year (2009/2010)

Total enrollment for section: 46

Grade 5: 4

Grade 4: 13

Grade 3: 12

Grade 2: 6

Grade 1: 11 wow!

Average: 2.8

Downward trend continues. Students are getting lazy and not doing the readings or preparing for tests and exams.

Results for the sixth year (2010/2011)

Total enrollment for section: 48 – 41 Wrote the exam.

Grade 5: 7

Grade 4: 12

Grade 3: 13

Grade 2: 4

Grade 1: 5

Average: 3.3

7 students decided to not write the exam – informed me in advance – this is OK.

Better results!

What I have noticed in the last few years is that students at Crescent already have a solid background in Geography and that students who can think on a global scale and are aware of what is going on in the world have a better chance at a 5 on the final exam. You have to be able to think out of the box. Think spatially. With that in mind we will be incorporating some ‘Current Events’ in the course to keep you up-to-date.

Also there is a super ‘Vocabulary’ list and a ‘Theories’ list that will really help you prepare.

One last point – The class of 05/06 and 06/07 mentioned that having a general knowledge of the location of major countries, regions and cities of the world was a good foundation for this course. In other words; “Do you know where Chad is?”.

With this in mind the teacher will hand out a series of black line masters for each continent. Your job is to identify the country. Try your best and do not be embarrassed to make a mistake. Click here to go to a page which takes you to a ‘Geography Games’ page, this is here for you to learn and have fun at the same time.

Chapter order for this year

Chapter 1 – Basic ConceptsChapter 12 - ServicesChapter 13 – Urban PatternsChapter 9 - DevelopmentChapter 11 - IndustryChapter 10 - AgricultureChapter 8 – Political GeographyChapter 2 - PopulationChapter 3 - MigrationChapter 4 – Folk and Popular CultureChapter 5 – LanguageChapter 6 – ReligionChapter 7 - Ethnicity

The End!