AP Human Geo Course Outline

Core Concepts
- Spatial Perspective: Analyzing human activities across space and understanding patterns, distributions, and spatial relationships.
- Types of Maps: Reference maps (physical, political) vs. thematic maps (choropleth, dot density, graduated symbol, isoline, cartogram).
- Map Scale: Ratio between map distance and Earth distance. Large scale shows high detail/small area; small scale shows low detail/large area.
- Projections and Distortion: Distortion of shape, area, distance, and direction (e.g., Mercator, Peters, Robinson projections).
- Geographic Technologies: GIS (Geographic Information Systems), GPS (Global Positioning System), and Remote Sensing.
Japanese Elite Study Framework (Todai Method)
- Two-Column Note System: Maintain key concepts on the left and spatial visual diagrams or mind maps on the right for immediate active recall.

Core Concepts
- Demographic Measures: Crude Birth Rate ( $\text{CBR}$ $), Crude Death Rate ( $ext{CDR}$ $), Total Fertility Rate ( $ext{TFR}$ $), Infant Mortality Rate ( $ext{IMR}$ $), and Rate of Natural Increase ( $ext{RNI}$ $).
- Demographic Transition Model (DTM): Stages 1 through 5 tracking birth/death rates alongside industrial development.
- Population Pyramids: Structure analysis of age-sex distributions (expanding, stable, contracting populations).
- Malthusian Theory: Exponential population growth versus linear food supply growth; Neo-Malthusians versus critics.

Core Concepts
- Push and Pull Factors: Drivers categorized into economic, cultural, environmental, and political factors.
- Types of Migration: Internal, international, voluntary, forced (refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons - IDPs).
- Ravenstein’s Laws of Migration: Rules describing distance decay, step migration, counter-urbanization, and demographic profiles of migrants.
- Zelinsky Model: Migration transition patterns linked directly to corresponding DTM stages.

Core Concepts
- Folk vs. Popular Culture: Isolated, homogeneous, traditional origins vs. heterogeneous, widespread, rapidly diffusing global culture.
- Language Families & Diffusion: Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan language families; dialects, lingua franca, pidgin, and creole languages.
- Universalizing vs. Ethnic Religions: Universalizing (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) seeking global converts vs. Ethnic (Hinduism, Judaism) tied to specific physical locations.

Core Concepts
- Ethnicity vs. Race: Cultural identity and shared ancestry vs. physical traits and social constructs.
- Spatial Patterns: Ethnic enclaves, spatial clustering, segregation, and suburbanization patterns.
- Centripetal vs. Centrifugal Forces: Nationalism and unity vs. balkanization, ethnic cleansing, and devolution.

Core Concepts
- Territorial Units: Nation-states, stateless nations, multinational states, multi-state nations, and autonomous regions.
- Boundaries & UNCLOS: Antecedent, subsequent, superimposed, and relic boundaries; Law of the Sea zones (EEZ, Territorial Waters).
- Development Indicators: Human Development Index (HDI), Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, and Gender Inequality Index (GII).
- Spatial Development Models: Rostow’s Five Stages of Economic Growth vs. Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory (Core, Semi-Periphery, Periphery).

Core Concepts
- Agricultural Revolutions: First (Neolithic), Second (Industrial Era Mechanization), Third (Green Revolution), and Fourth (Biotechnology).
- Subsistence vs. Commercial Farming: Intensive (terraced rice) vs. extensive (pastoral nomadism, shifting cultivation, ranching).
- Von Thünen Model: Spatial allocation of agriculture surrounding a market based on land rent and transportation costs.

Core Concepts
- Industrial Location Theory: Weber’s Least Cost Theory balancing transportation costs (bulk-gaining vs. bulk-reducing), labor costs, and agglomeration.
- Global Supply Chains: Deindustrialization, outsourcing, export processing zones (EPZs), and special economic zones (SEZs).

Core Concepts
- Central Place Theory: Christaller’s hexagon model evaluating threshold, range, and urban spatial hierarchy.
- Urban Systems: Primate city rule vs. Rank-size rule ( $P<em>n = \frac{P</em>1}{n}$ $).
- Urban Structure Models: Concentric Zone Model (Burgess), Sector Model (Hoyt), Multiple Nuclei Model (Harris-Ullman), and Galactic City Model.