JC Human Geo: Let's Not Call it an Exam

Friday, January 7, 2011

Let's Not Call it an Exam

Instead, let's call it your final projects in Human Geography.

Basically what you'll be doing is choosing from among a menu of options of mini-projects related to each of the topics we covered in class. You will complete several mini-projects and you may choose the assignments that appeal to you the most. For each mini-project, you will write a short explanation of why the subject matter resonates with you.

Here's a list of the topics:

1. The Post-9-11 World

2. Regionalism and Language

3. Forced Migration: War, Famine, Natural Disasters

4. The Changing Environment
5. Food and Us

6. Regional Conflict and Cultural Effects: Israel & Palestine / Afghanistan / India & Pakistan / Tibet

7. AIDS in Africa

8. The Rwandan Genocide

9. South Africa and the History of Apartheid

10. The G-20

11. US / Mexico Relations

12. Immigration in Western Europe

13. What is a Country?

14. Religion and Geography

Some of these mini-projects will be individual and some will be collaborative with other students. Everything will be done online and you will have full-access to the Web.

To prepare, go back over each of the topics we covered this semester and re-read your blogposts. Get together with friends and talk about the topics and help one another think about them. If you don't have time during the day, Skype is a great option.

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(adapted from the AP Human Geography course description)

Conceptual Understandings

Maps and Spatial Data: The goal is achieved when students learn to use maps and spatial data to
pose and solve problems, and when they learn to think critically about what is
revealed and what is hidden in different maps and spatial arrays.

Relationships among Phenomena: Students should thus learn not just to recognize and interpret patterns but to
assess the nature and significance of the relationships among phenomena that
occur in the same place, and to understand how tastes and values, political
regulations, and economic constraints work together to create particular types of
cultural landscapes.

Scale: Students should understand that the
phenomena they are studying at one scale (e.g., local) may well be influenced
by developments at other scales (e.g., regional, national, or global).

Origins: Students should see regions as objects of analysis and
exploration and move beyond simply locating and describing regions to
considering how and why they come into being and what they reveal about the
changing character of the world in which we live.

Interconnections: Students should view places and patterns not in isolation but in terms of
their spatial and functional relationship with other places and patterns. Moreover,
they should strive to be aware that those relationships are constantly changing,
and they should understand how and why change occurs.

Essential Topics

Geography: Geographic concepts emphasized throughout the course are location, space, place,
scale, pattern, regionalization, and globalization. These concepts are basic to students’
understanding of spatial interaction and spatial behavior, the dynamics of human
population growth and movement, patterns
of culture, economic activities, political
organization of space, and human settlement patterns, particularly urbanization.

Population: Students may assess why
fertility rates have dropped in some parts of the developing world but not in others,
and how age–sex structures vary from one country to another. Analysis of refugee
flows, immigration, internal migration, and residential mobility helps students
appreciate the interconnections between population phenomena and other topics.
Environmental degradation may prompt rapid out-migration and urbanization, in turn
creating new pressures on the environment. Refugee flows may be magnified when
groups have no access to political power because of the way boundaries have been
drawn. Rapid immigration to certain parts of the world fosters regional differences in
industrial employment and political sentiment toward foreigners.

Cultural Patterns and Processes: A central concern is to comprehend how cultural patterns are represented at a
variety of geographic scales from local to global. Diffusion is a key concept in
understanding how cultural traits (for example, agricultural practices and language)
move through time and space to new locations. Students learn that the concept of
region is central to the spatial distribution of cultural attributes.
The course also explores cultural differences at various scales according to
language, religion, ethnicity, and gender. The geographies of language and religion
are studied to illustrate processes of cultural diffusion and cultural differences. For
example, students learn to distinguish between languages and dialects; ethnic and
universalizing religions; and popular and folk cultures, and to understand why each
has a different geographic pattern.
An important emphasis of the course is the way culture shapes human–
environment relationships. For example, religion can influence environmental
perception and modification.
Students also come to understand how culture is expressed in landscapes, and how
landscapes in turn represent cultural identity. Built environments enable the geographer
to interpret cultural values, tastes, and sets of beliefs.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Let's Not Call it an Exam

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