• HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

    Course Description:

    Students study Earth’s human geography beginning with the use of maps and other geographic representations, geospatial technologies, and spatial thinking to understand and communicate geographic information. Students will examine patterns and processes of how human characteristics and activities vary across Earth’s surface and how humans understand, use, and alter the surface of Earth. Conceptual in nature rather than place specific, this course is organized systematically around the topics of population and migration geography, economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, and urban geography. Students will also learn to employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human patterns and processes and their environmental consequences.

  • UNIT TITLE

    OVERARCHING INQUIRY QUESTION

    UNIT OVERVIEW

    Introduction to Human Geography

    How can geography help the world?

    This unit will introduce students to the concepts and skills used in human geography. It will introduce terms and concepts that will be used throughout the other units.

    Population

    How many people is too many?

    This unit will be exploring how population varies across Earth’s surface and over time. It will explore why humans live where they live, and why they do not live in other places. It will also explore different issues related to population, including measuring pop

    Migration

    How does migration create change?

    This unit focuses on how and why people migrate, moving to new towns, countries, or regions for work or family. Students will observe patterns in human migration and use those patterns to predict and address issues faced by communities at various scales. Students are eventually going to make a claim describing and explaining how migration creates change in a summative assessment. Throughout this unit, students are completing activities and gathering evidence to help them make these claims.

    Economic Development

    What does it take to create and sustain a global economy?

    In this unit, students will analyze the interconnections that create and maintain a global economy. Students will study the Human Geography spatial patterns of more or less developed countries and economic sectors, how development is measured, and discuss the impacts of a global economy, both in human and physical systems.

    Culture

    What is culture and how does it move?

    This unit is designed to encourage inquiry into the characteristics of culture and the processes of movement and change that cultures go through over time and from place to place. Students will use inquiry to consider how locations influence and are influenced by shared systems of value and expression among various people groups.

    Political Organization of Space

    Do we need countries?

    This unit is designed to encourage inquiry into the sources of conflict and cooperation that result from and the influences of how we divide control over territory. Students will use inquiry to examine and evaluate issues of global interdependence and local control, and the history, present, and potential futures of the modern state system.

    Urban Land Use

    How do we make better places for people to live?

    In this unit, students will study the forms and functions of both urban and rural settlements, compare land use in different regions, the processes of urban planning, the connections between urban and rural places, and propose solutions to issues common to Human Geography settlements around the world.