AP Human Geography Unit 1 Overview

Introduction: The "Why of Where"

• Unit 1 focuses on developing skills, concepts, and understanding to think like a geographer.
• "Why of Where": Understanding why things (people, places, phenomena) are located where they are.
• Examples of questions addressed:
  • Population: Why are there more people in China and India?
  • Economic Development: Why are some countries wealthier?
  • Migration: Why do many migrants come from Africa and the Middle East?
  • Culture: Why is English and Christianity dominant worldwide?
  • Globalization: How does it serve as both a strength and threat?
  • Political: Why does the EU exist, and why did the UK leave?
  • Food & Agriculture: Why has there been an obsession with organic foods?
  • Industry: Why are products made in factories outside the US?
  • Urbanization: Why are the largest cities in poorer countries?

Spatial Analysis

• Introduction to spatial thinking and analysis.
• Understanding spatial relationships: location, distance, direction, patterns, interconnections.

What is Spatial Thinking?

• Ability to reason about spatial relationships.
• Key fields: geography, computer science, engineering, urban planning.
• Applications:
  • Analyzing geographical data patterns and trends.
  • Designing and analyzing transportation networks.
  • Modeling and simulating complex systems.
  • Visualizing and interpreting data for decision-making.

Location & Place

• Absolute Location: Fixed, specific coordinates (latitude, longitude).
• Relative Location: Location in relation to other places, subjective and varies by context.
• Place: Characteristics of a location, both human (race & ethnicity) and physical (climate, rivers, mountains).

Distance & Connection

• Physical and "time distance" between locations important for geographers.
• Time-space compression: Modern tech decreases time-space between places.

Density & Distribution

• Density: Number of something in a defined area.
• Distribution: How something is spread out over an area.
• Examples:
  • Population density: Number of people per land area.
  • Wealth distribution: Income or wealth distribution among a population.

Maps

• Essential tool for geographers to represent the world spatially.
• Purposes:
  • Navigation
  • Understanding spatial patterns and trends.
  • Communicating information.
  • Decision-making.
• Types of maps covered:
  • Thematic Maps: Focus on specific themes such as population or wealth.
    • Choropleth maps: Use color/patterns to show data distribution.
    • Proportional symbol maps: Use symbols to represent data quantities.
    • Dot density maps: Use dots to represent data quantities.
    • Isarithmic maps: Use lines for equal intervals or changes.
    • Flow maps: Show movement over time.
    • Cartograms: Distort areas for data representation.

Regions

• Regionalization: Dividing large areas into smaller regions for various purposes:
  • Administrative, Economic, Cultural, Environmental.
• Importance in spatial analysis for understanding patterns and connections.
• Introduction to world regions and sub-regions necessary for course progression.