AP Human Geography Review Lecture Notes

Introduction

• Purpose: Summarize all seven units of AP Human Geography.
• Fast-paced review for quick concept refreshment before exams.
• Additional resources: Ultimate Review Packet, topic review videos, and Mr. Sin Discord server.

Unit 1: Geography Basics

Maps

• Types: Thematic maps and reference maps.
• Map projections: Distortion issues (shape, area, distance, direction).
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Layer data for spatial relationships.

Research

• Quantitative: Census data, numerical and objective.
• Qualitative: Attitudes and beliefs, subjective.

Spatial Concepts

• Technology and communication decrease distance decay and increase connectivity.
• Environmental sustainability: Environmental determinism vs. possibilism.

Scale

• Scale of analysis: How data is organized (national vs. local).
• Scale: Earth's surface view (small scale = large area, little detail; large scale = small area, detailed).

Regions

• Functional (nodal) regions: Organized around a node.
• Perceptual (vernacular) regions: Based on beliefs and attitudes.
• Formal (uniform) regions: Defined by common attributes.

Unit 2: Population and Migration

Population Distribution

• Influences: Economic, social, political, environmental opportunities.
• Urban vs. rural: Economic and social opportunities.

Population Density

• Arithmetic: Total people/land area.
• Physiological: Total people/arable land.
• Agricultural: Farmers/arable land.

Population Vocabulary

• Key terms: CBR, CDR, NIR, growth rate, sex ratios, doubling time, dependency ratios.
• Population pyramids: Age and gender structures.

Demographic Transition Model

• Stage 1: Low growth.
• Stage 2: Population boom (industrial/medical revolutions).
• Stage 3: Moderate growth (urbanization).
• Stage 4: Zero population growth (ZPG).
• Stage 5: Decline (deaths exceed births).

Migration

• Push/pull factors: Political, economic, social, environmental.
• Types: Forced vs. voluntary migration.
• Effects: Diffusion, acculturation, assimilation, cultural resistance.

Unit 3: Culture

Cultural Concepts

• Cultural relativism vs. ethnocentrism.
• Cultural landscape: Shared practices, beliefs, attitudes, customs.

Diffusion

• Types: Relocation, expansion, hierarchical, contagious, stimulus.
• Historical influences: Colonialism, imperialism, globalization.

Religion and Language

• Universalizing vs. ethnic religions.
• Language families, dialects, and diffusion.

Unit 4: Political Geography

Political Organization

• Nation vs. state: Definitions and examples.
• Nation-state: Homogeneous state.
• Multinational state, multi-state nation, stateless nation.

Political Power

• Self-determination.
• Colonialism, imperialism, neocolonialism.
• Boundaries: Relic, antecedent, subsequent, consequent, superimposed, geometric.

Gerrymandering and State Types

• Gerrymandering: Redistricting for political advantage.
• Unitary vs. federal states.

Sovereignty and Supranational Organizations

• State sovereignty challenges.
• Supranational organizations: EU, NATO, UN.

Unit 5: Agriculture

Agricultural Practices

• Intensive vs. extensive agriculture.
• Types: Plantation, mixed crop and livestock, market gardening, shifting cultivation, ranching.

Settlement Patterns

• Clustered, dispersed, linear.
• Survey methods: Metes and bounds, long lots, township and range.

Agricultural Revolutions

• First, second, and green revolutions.
• Effects: Food surpluses, globalization, technology impact.

Debates and Societal Roles

• GMOs, organic farming, local food movements.
• Role of women in agriculture.

Von Thünen's Model

• Spatial layout of agriculture around a market.

Unit 6: Urban Geography

Site and Situation

• Site factors: Climate, resources, location.
• Situation factors: Connections (rivers, roads).

Models of Urban Structure

• Burgess concentric zone, Hoyt sector, Harris and Ullman's multiple nuclei, Galactic model.
• LDC urban models: Latin American, Sub-Saharan African, Southeast Asian.

Urban Sustainability

• Infrastructure, transportation, smart growth policies.
• Challenges: Redlining, blockbusting, gentrification.

Unit 7: Globalization and Development

Economic Sectors

• Formal vs. informal economy.
• Economic sectors: Primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, quinary.

Global Trade and Neoliberal Policies

• Comparative advantage and trade benefits.
• Neoliberal policies: Free trade agreements, WTO, IMF.

Development Theories and Models

• Rostow’s stages, Wallerstein's World-System Theory.
• Dependency theory and commodity dependence.

Conclusion

• Continual influence of globalization on economic and social structures.

Additional Resources

• Ultimate Review Packet, Discord server, further reading and materials available online.