AP Human Geography Summary

Introduction

• Overview of the review of all seven units in AP Human Geography.
• Purpose: To summarize main concepts and help with review before exams.
• Mention of resources like the Ultimate Review Packet and Discord community.

Unit 1: Geography, Maps, and Spatial Concepts

• Types of Maps:
  • Thematic vs. Reference Maps.
  • Importance of map reading and data interpretation.
• Map Projections:
  • All projections distort aspects like shape, area, distance, or direction.
  • Example: Mercator projection distorts shape and size but preserves direction.
• GIS (Geographic Information Systems):
  • Layers data on maps to analyze spatial relationships.
• Research Types:
  • Quantitative: Number-based data (Census).
  • Qualitative: Opinion-based data (attitudes and beliefs).
• Spatial Concepts:
  • Distance decay and increased connectivity through technology.
  • Environmental sustainability concepts: Environmental determinism vs. possibilism.
• Regions:
  • Functional (nodal), perceptual (vernacular), and formal (uniform) regions.

Unit 2: Population and Migration

• Population Distribution:
  • Factors affecting where people live (economic, political, social opportunities).
• Population Density:
  • Arithmetic, physiological, and agricultural density explained.
• Demographic Concepts:
  • CBR, CDR, NIR, sex ratios, dependency ratios.
  • Importance of understanding population pyramids and the Demographic Transition Model (DTM).
• Migration:
  • Push and pull factors driving migration.
  • Types: Forced vs. voluntary migration.
  • Ravenstein's laws of migration.

Unit 3: Culture

• Cultural Relativism vs. Ethnocentrism:
  • Understanding cultures from their perspective vs. judging them by one's own standards.
• Cultural Landscape:
  • Expression of culture through land use patterns, architecture, and traditions.
• Diffusion:
  • Types of diffusion: Relocation, expansion (hierarchical, contagious, stimulus).
  • Historical examples: Colonialism, globalization, and the internet's role.
• Religions:
  • Difference between universalizing and ethnic religions; their impacts on cultural landscapes.
• Language:
  • Language families, dialects, and their diffusion across regions.

Unit 4: Political Geography

• Nations vs. States:
  • Definitions and differences between nation, state, nation-state, multinational state, and stateless nations.
• Self-Determination:
  • Nations' rights to govern themselves for cultural identity preservation.
• Political Boundaries:
  • Types: Relic, antecedent, subsequent, consequent, superimposed, geometric boundaries.
• Gerrymandering:
  • Redistricting for political advantage and its implications for democracy.
• Political Power:
  • Unitary vs. federal states; centripetal vs. centrifugal forces.

Unit 5: Agriculture

• Agricultural Practices:
  • Intensive vs. extensive agriculture; subsistence vs. commercial agriculture.
• Settlement Patterns:
  • Clustered, dispersed, linear settlements explained.
• Agricultural Revolutions:
  • Neolithic, Second Agricultural Revolution (Industrial), Green Revolution.
• Bid Rent Theory:
  • Relationship between land prices and distance from urban centers.
• Von Thünen's Model:
  • Spatial layout of agriculture around a market center.

Unit 6: Urban Geography

• Sight vs. Situation Factors:
  • Unique characteristics of a place vs. connections between places.
• Urban Models:
  • Burgess concentric zone model, Hoyt sector model, multiple nuclei model, and others.
• Density Gradient:
  • Changes in settlement density and their implications for infrastructure and urban sustainability.
• Gentrification:
  • Positive economic growth vs. displacement of current residents.

Unit 7: Economic Geography and Globalization

• Formal vs. Informal Economy:
  • Regulated vs. unregulated jobs.
• Economic Sectors:
  • Primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary, and quinary sectors explained.
• International Division of Labor:
  • Core vs. periphery countries and the impacts of neoliberal policies on global trade.
• Theories:
  • Rostow's stages of economic growth, Wallerstein's world systems theory, and dependency theory.

Conclusion

• Encouragement for continued study and review before exams.
• Invitation to access additional resources for deeper understanding.