So it begins....

Geography is the study of the "Why" of "Where". We will explore a range of topics and will explore how these different phenomena effect the Earth's surface or space. We live for the unique spatial perspective of geography so you'll hear the term spatial a lot such spatial reasoning or spatial interaction. You always occupy some sort of space and you're always somewhere and adjust to that space, right? Here's a short video from the National Council for Geographic Education that gives you an overview of Geography and an overview from National Geographic.

AP Human Geography will cover 7 units: the nature of Human Geography, Population & Migration, Culture:Folk and Pop, Political organization, Agricultural and rural land use, Cities and Urban land use, and Industrialization and development. First, here's a link to the College Board's AP Human Geography course page. If you haven't signed up for all the College Board's services, then do so as soon as possible. You'll need it for this course and the Challenge years to come for PSAT, SAT, SAT 2, etc.

According to our textbook, geography is defined as the scientific study of the location of people and activities across Earth and the reasons for their distribution. You'll be needing the books' web site so go to it and book mark it. The following link is to a YouTube channel by one of the authors of our book and one of the foremost researchers and authors in this field, Harm DeBlij. Unfortunately we will not be able to watch it in class, but watch it at home if you can so he can give you personal tutorials about various concepts in this class. You can also access it through the book's student site.

We'll also be using the Annenberg Foundation's Learner web site, The Power of Place which is a classic series, some what out of date, but still valid.

Here's a link that gives an overview of many of the geographers and models that you will need to know. Weekly we'll be using maps and graphics from the New York Times and other sources. Here's an example from their coverage of the newest country on Earth, South Sudan which was born on July 9th. Just about all printed maps are now out-of-date as a result of Africa's 54th country.

Let's begin......
All work that is handed in will follow the Modern Language Association or MLA format. The easiest souce to find out what that is and if your work is in the correct format is Purdue University's Online Writing Lab or OWL. When you go, look on the left for the navigation bar and click on what you need. BE sure to check out the MLA Sample Paper as that has a complete paper with little boxes that explains many things. We stress formatting because it makes it easier to get to your creative, original ideas.

Being a new student to an AP class can be a big adjustment. Click on the links below or cut and paste into your browser to go to some very good study and academic skill sites to learn how to learn at this level. We'll introduce and use lots of these in class, but some of the below are far more involved and interactive than we have the capability of being in class. Try them out. You have nothing to lose!

From Dartmouth, Virginia Tech, St. John's, and St. Thomas universities. Many of these are interactive, some have videos and others will allow you to enter in your daily schedule and then you can print out adjustments that they make for you like less TV time and more review time. Another key site is from Dr. James Maas a professor of psychology at Cornell University which is all about sleep. None of us get enough and once you work out a schedule, it's time to get more. Try them and see!