Geography Ladder · High school · Grade 9–12

Human Geography

How people shape places, following the AP Human Geography units: population and migration, culture, political geography, agriculture, cities, and industry and development.

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70 topics in 7 units. Builds on World Geography. Not sure this is the right course? Find your rung.

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Unit 1 Thinking Geographically

9 topics

Location, place and region, scale, distance and connection, the data geographers use, and how people and environments shape each other.

  1. Absolute and Relative Location
  2. Site and Situation
  3. Formal, Functional and Perceptual Regions
  4. Scales of Analysis
  5. Distance Decay and Time-Space Compression
  6. Density, Concentration and Pattern
  7. Geographic Data
  8. Choosing a Thematic Map
  9. People and Environment

Unit 2 Population and Migration

18 topics

Where people live, how populations grow and age, the demographic transition, population policies, and why and how people move.

  1. Where People Live
  2. Three Kinds of Density
  3. Birth Rates, Death Rates and Natural Increase
  4. Fertility, Infant Mortality and Life Expectancy
  5. Doubling Time
  6. Reading Population Pyramids
  7. Pyramid Shapes
  8. The Dependency Ratio
  9. The Demographic Transition Model
  10. The Epidemiological Transition
  11. Malthus and His Critics
  12. Population Policies
  13. Women, Education and Fertility
  14. Kinds of Migration
  15. Push and Pull Factors
  16. Ravenstein's Laws of Migration
  17. Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Internally Displaced People
  18. Effects of Migration

Unit 3 Cultural Patterns

10 topics

Culture traits and landscapes, how ideas spread, language families, religions and their spread, and what happens when cultures meet.

  1. Culture Traits, Folk and Popular Culture
  2. Cultural Landscapes
  3. How Things Spread
  4. Language Families
  5. Branches of Indo-European
  6. Lingua Franca, Pidgins and Creoles
  7. Universalizing and Ethnic Religions
  8. Where Religions Began and Spread
  9. When Cultures Meet
  10. Globalization and Culture

Unit 4 Political Geography

11 topics

States and nations, sovereignty, boundaries and their disputes, the shapes and governments of states, forces that unite and divide, and organizations above the state.

  1. States, Nations and Nation-States
  2. Multinational States and Stateless Nations
  3. Sovereignty and Territoriality
  4. Kinds of Boundaries
  5. Boundary Disputes
  6. Boundaries at Sea
  7. Shapes of States
  8. Unitary and Federal States
  9. Forces That Unite and Divide
  10. Organizations Above the State
  11. Electoral Districts

Unit 5 Agriculture and Rural Land Use

8 topics

Where farming began and how it changed, kinds of farming, the von Thünen model, rural settlement and survey patterns, and debates about food.

  1. Where Farming Began
  2. Agricultural Revolutions
  3. Intensive and Extensive Farming
  4. Subsistence and Commercial Farming
  5. Farming and Climate
  6. The von Thünen Model
  7. Rural Settlements and Survey Patterns
  8. Debates About Food

Unit 6 Cities and Urban Land Use

7 topics

Why cities grow where they do, systems of cities, models of how cities are laid out, and the challenges cities face.

  1. Urbanization
  2. Why Cities Grow Where They Do
  3. Central Place Theory
  4. The Rank-Size Rule and Primate Cities
  5. Models of North American Cities
  6. Models of Cities Around the World
  7. Urban Challenges and Responses

Unit 7 Industry and Development

7 topics

Sectors of the economy, how industry spread and where it locates, measuring development, theories of development, trade and sustainable development.

  1. Sectors of the Economy
  2. The Spread of Industry
  3. Weber's Least Cost Theory
  4. Measuring Development
  5. Theories of Development
  6. Trade and Globalization
  7. Sustainable Development
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