Transcript Welcome to AP Human Geography The Why of Where!

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Unpublished Letters –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.
What kind of student are you?
What kind of student will you be this year?
Will you:
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Copy
Avoid
Lie
Eager to learn
Enjoy
Be angry
Entitled
Responsible/Non-responsible
Honest/Dis-honest
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Effort/No effort
Realistic/Non-realistic
Borrow/Steal
Argue
Disagree/Agree
Whining
Marks Driven
Dedicated
• Motivated
• Cheat
• Want but are not willing to
work
• Plagiarize
• Engaged
• Organized
• Not Listen
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 key issues 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 and/or readings
•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.
The AP exam is marked out of 5!
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.
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 key issues or
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!
Results for the sixth year (2011/2012)
Total enrollment for section: 47 - 46 wrote the exam.
Grade 5: 5
Grade 4: 16
Grade 3: 17
Grade 2: 5
Grade 1: 4
Average: 3.3
1 student was away for the
exam.
Surprised – students stopped
doing the key issues relied too
much on my slideshows and
did not prepare for the exam
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-todate.
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 Concepts
Chapter 12 - Services
Chapter 13 – Urban Patterns
Chapter 9 - Development
Chapter 11 - Industry
Chapter 10 - Agriculture
Chapter 8 – Political Geography
Chapter 2 - Population
Chapter 3 - Migration
Chapter 4 – Folk and Popular Culture
Chapter 5 – Language
Chapter 6 – Religion
Chapter 7 - Ethnicity
The End!