Skip to main content
Loading Explore guides…
AP Human Geography Unit 1 · Acedra
Home
Explore
Geography
AP Human Geography Unit 1
Sign in to save
Chat
If YouTube asks you to sign in, open the video on YouTube.
Watch on YouTube
Reload player
Transcript
63 segments
Copy
Hide video
0:00
Hello there geographers and welcome to the first unit summary video for AP Human Geography in this video we will be reviewing all of the major Concepts that you need to know from unit 1 of AP Human Geography now before we get started I need you to click the link in the description of this video to get the study guide that goes along with the video the study guide can be found in my Ultimate Review Packet it goes along with this video and will make sure that you remember all
0:24
of the major concepts in this unit. When you get the study guide don't forget to check out the rest of the packet as well the packet has unit review videos for each unit practice quizzes study guides answer keys full practice AP exams FRQ resources important vocab lists exclusive videos and other resources to help you get not only an A in your class but a five on the national exam. So now that
0:47
you have your study guide out and you are ready to go let's review unit one. Now the first part of this unit is all about maps and right away we need to remember that whenever we are looking at a map we are looking at a distorted image of the globe. Every map projection has distortion in either the direction shape area or distance. This happens because you can't take a three-dimensional object
1:07
such as a globe and perfectly project it onto a two-dimensional surface. There are hundreds and hundreds of different map projections and each of them have different uses. But for AP Human Geography you only have to be familiar with a few. The Mercator map projection is a conformal projection and is excellent at showing accurate direction, which is one of the reasons why it was used for naval expedition. But this projection has significant distortion in the size and location
1:33
of land Maps which we can clearly see when looking at Greenland and Africa the map gives the illusion that Greenland is larger than Africa when in reality Africa is more than 14 times larger than Greenland the good homo scene projection is an equal area pseudo-cylindrical projection it does a great job at showing the true size and shape of land masses but has Distortion in distances near the edges of the map it is not helpful for direction since it is is an interrupted man
2:01
remember interrupted Maps try to remove Distortion by removing parts of the globe while uninterrupted Maps do not remove any parts of the globe which may cause more Distortion in some areas of the map the Robinson projection has more Distortion near the poles which helps preserve the size and shape of land map but in its effort to minimize Distortion it ends up spreading the Distortion out across the entire map for all areas next is the gall Peters projection which is one of the
2:28
more accurate map projections at showing the true size of the earth's land mass but at the same time this projection does have significant Distortion with the shape of land masses and also Direction remember the fundamental problem that every map has is Distortion moving on from map projections to types of maps we can see their two broad categories reference maps and thematic Maps reference maps are informational Maps these Maps show boundaries the toponym and geographic
2:56
features of a play reference maps are often used for Direct actions to display property lines political boundaries elevation changes public transportation routes or to show key features of a place one type of reference map you'll want to be familiar with is a topographic map these Maps use contour lines to display the terrain and elevation changes in an area the closer the lines are together the steeper the train is the more space there is between the lines the less
3:23
elevation is changing now before we move on to thematic Maps I want to quickly review absolute and relative distance and also Direction absolute direction is the exact Direction you are heading for example if you are traveling south the compass would be at 180 degrees while relative Direction depends on the surrounding area for example here you can see that the yellow circle is north of the blue circle notice the direction depends on the location of the other circle now absolute
3:49
distance is the exact distance between two places it's normally measured in miles or kilometers and relative distance is the approximate measurement between two places for example if you want to drive from Minneapolis to Orlando it would take about 23 hours next we have thematic Maps which display spatial patterns of places and use quantitative data to display specific topics throughout AP Human Geography you will see a variety of different thematic maps chloropluff
4:16
maps display data by using different colors or different shades of color with each color or shade of a color showing a different quantity of the data set dot density Maps show data by placing points on a map where the data is occurring this allows the reader to see the spatial distribution of data but can be confusing if the data is clustered together remember when we are using spatial analysis we will come across information that is clustered together for example notice on
4:42
the screen right now these circles have little space between them the circles here are packed together but if we spread the circles out over a geographic area we can see that now the circles are dispersed you will hear these terms come up throughout the entire year so make sure you are familiar with them for example when looking at this dot density map of the United States we can see that people are more clustered together in the east coast and are more dispersed in
5:06
areas such as the Dakotas or States like Wyoming Montana or Nebraska going on to our next thematic map we have a graduated symbol map which uses shapes items or symbols to show the location and the amount of data these Maps can be very visual but sometimes can be confusing due to the overlapping information isoline Maps use lines to connect different areas that have similar or equal amounts of data a common example of this would be a weather map that shows areas with
5:35
similar temperature then there is a cartograph map which shows data in a dynamic way with the greatest value represented by the largest area for example we can see in this cartogram that China and India have larger populations than Canada and Bahrain lastly there are flowline maps which are great at showing the movement of different Goods people animals services or ideas between different places now while being able to identify these Maps is one thing it's more important that you
6:01
understand how to read so once you're done with this video go back to my ultimate review packet and take the map quiz once you finish the quiz you can also check out my video breaking down each question we've been talking about maps and looking at different ways they can be used but we need to also go over Geographic data how it is collected and also how it is categorized one of the ways in which geographers can collect data is through remote sensing which is a process of
6:27
collecting information about the world from satellites that are orbiting the Earth this information can help us better understand changes that occur in different places over time and can be used in geographic information systems to create thematic Maps which help us better understand spatial patterns remember a GIS is a computer system that can collect analyze and display Geographic data it creates layered Maps which gives geographers insight into the spatial
6:53
associations and patterns of a place satellites are also helpful at providing an absolute location through the global positioning system or GPS for sure today people use GPS to help navigate between different places or to find specific spots on the Earth's surface these three different Technologies are all known as geospatial Technologies and they allow different businesses people governments and
7:16
also organizations to locate places and visualize Geographic data but those are not the only ways in which geographers collect data there are also field observations which are done by having people visit a place in the real world and record their first-hand observation which is great at getting accurate data but can also be costly and sometimes hard to get another in person or sometimes digital
7:39
approach to Gathering data is through personal interviews here geographers can learn about a place and collect individuals unique perspectives by asking different questions to gain insight into an area media reports can also be used to better understand what people in an area are experiencing and what is happening to that area newspapers online line articles or local news stations all give different insights into a place or data can be collected by looking at government documents
8:07
the laws that are put in place in an area show cultural values and priority they also provide insight into the different systems that govern a place which can help geographers better understand what happened at a place what is happening now and what might happen in the future then there are travel narratives which unlike government documents or media reports show a more personal perspective here geographers can gain insight into individuals experiences and observations of
8:33
places while they were visiting or living in the area lastly we can see data be acquired through landscape analysis and photo analysis this helps geographers better understand changes to an area and can show the impact humans may have had on the environment this is done by studying images captured by geospatial technology looking at photographs or observing video recordings of a play your geographers can look at Wildlife vegetation the geography and other physical
9:00
elements of a place photo analysis is a skill you will definitely want to be familiar with for both your class and for the national exam now before we go on to talk about different types of data I want to make sure you're comfortable with doing photo analysis pause this video and complete the table in your study guide once you're done with the video you'll be able to go and check the answer key in the ultimate review packet to make sure that you're understanding these contents all
9:21
right so when we look at data we can see there are two main categories of data qualitative data and quantitative data qualitative data is information that is often in word form and is up for interpretation debate and discussion this data is subjective and will differ depending on who has collecting it and how it is being collected this type of data is often collected through observations and interviews an example of this data would be the approval rating of your school's
9:46
lunch food notice here that the information will differ every time you conduct your survey well on the other hand quantitative data is often in number form and is not up for debate this information is concrete and is objective not subjective this information may be collected by a country's census which is an official count of a population which includes a variety of demographic data such as age education level housing status sex and more an example of this data would be the
10:12
demographic breakdown of India where we could look at the population pyramid to better understand how many people are in each age called if you do need more help with practicing qualitative and quantitative data you can also find exclusive videos and resources in the ultimate review packet to help you practice these Concepts Okay so we've covered now how to collect Geographic data but now we need to talk about what we can use that Geographic data for to start we have to remember
10:37
that when we change our scale we gain different insight into Geographic data which makes sense if I'm looking at a local scale I'm not seeing much of the Earth's surface but I'm able to see lots of details of an area this would be great for understanding exactly where data points are occurring but if I change my scale to a national scale I lose some of the finer details however I am now able to see different spatial relationships occurring within a country's boundary lastly if we
11:02
use a small scale map and look at a global scale we are able to see even more patterns but also end up relying more on generalization governments use Geographic data to better understand their constituents needs and to better understand how to plan for the future we look at the local level we can see City governments use quantitative and qualitative data to make decisions about zoning to
11:25
plan for the future growth of their settlement to do this they will look at data such as population changes to understand the needs of their residents for example if the population is very young they will need to get funding for a new school or if the population is older they will invest more in health care services if we change our scale to a regional scale we can see Regional governments
11:45
such as state governments in the United States that will use data to allocate State funds for infrastructure projects social services and pass laws for the region to reflect the needs and wants of the people nationally we can see Federal governments who use data to decide what federal laws and programs should be created and kept in place oftentimes National governments will look at what Regional governments have done to see if it would work on a national scale on a global scale
12:11
we can look at supernational organizations such as the United Nations which looks at the current state of the world these organizations look at geospatial data to help counter Roar famine epidemics and conflicts between different nations all to help make the world a better place and it isn't just governments that use data businesses do as well businesses use geospatial data to not only understand the needs and wants of their customers but also their operation on a local scale
12:37
businesses may use information that is organized by census tracts to better understand the median income of an area this will allow them to open stores in neighborhoods where their customers are located on a regional scale businesses can compare different store sales to look for areas that are more favorable for the business such as regions that have a lower tax rate for businesses or a higher percentage of of workers with the skills that are desirable nationally businesses
13:02
look to see how different stores and offices are performing around the country to better identify good company policy businesses will also look for trends that are occurring nationally which could be used to increase productivity and sales of regional branches if we change our scale to the global scale we can see that businesses will look for new sources of resources workers ideas and markets to expand their business too they will use Geographic data to understand changes in the
13:30
global market to look for developing economy for either the production of goods or possibly new markets to sell their goods lastly individuals use Geographic data in their lives as well on a local scale we can see people use geospatial data to help get them from place a to place B by using their GPS individuals looking to move into a new house might use thematic maps to look at crime rates in a neighborhood commute times or check to see what services exist in an area on a regional
13:57
scale we can see individuals look at different opportunities in an area and compare them to the surrounding region for example in the United States the 50 states often have similar laws and systems in place but each state does differ in their legislative policies which allows people to compare the performance of each state to see which policies work the best on a national scale individuals will look at how their country performs economically and socially when trying
14:22
to decide which individuals to vote for oftentimes individuals look at different data and information to inform themselves on the type of leadership they want for their country lastly we could look at the global scale where individuals look at geospatial data to better understand the world in which they live compare different countries and to gain insight into the different Global Systems
14:43
that impact them notice how each time we change our scale we gain different levels of insight into the data and the more that we start to zoom out the more General the data become now we've been talking for a while now about different Geographic data and how it can show different spatial patterns but let's dive deeper into some some of these spatial Concepts we've been talking about to
15:01
start you want to make sure that you remember the difference between absolute and relative location and notice that I said location not direction or distance we already talked about those terms earlier in this video absolute location is an exact location on the Earth's surface it uses longitude and latitude think about your phone and GPS the name of a location may change over time but those coordinates will always remain the same relative location on the other hand is the
15:25
relation a place has to the surrounding area for example if I was to describe my location using the different buildings around me or geographic features of the area it's not exact like absolute location but it can still help you with figuring out a person's location so when talking about a place we're talking about its physical and human characteristics physical characteristics are
15:45
things like rivers mountains vegetation or climate of an area whereas the human characteristics would be things such as the languages spoken in an area the religions that are practiced the amount of people living in a place the culture that are present in the area or other General demographic data both physical and human characteristics provide a location a sense of place this is an emotional response that helps form a person's perception of a play the more unique a place
16:12
is or the more memories you have of a place the stronger the sense of place now sometimes certain locations do not invoke any strong feelings from people and they lack the unique features that help the location stand out this could cause the location to have placelessness which is when a play seems to lack in identity one of the ways we can gain insight into a place is by observing the spatial associations that exist within a place when looking at a place geographers will
16:37
look at the spatial distribution of the plate which consists of density concentration and any patterns that may be present concentration looks at how things are spread out objects may be clustered together or dispersed density looks at the amount of objects or people in an area for example urban areas are often more densely populated since more people live there compared to rural areas lastly pattern is the arrangement of things in an area such as if objects are in a
17:03
grid formation or a linear pattern when we observe different spatial distributions of a place we can gain a better understanding of the flow the use the purpose and culture of that place for example look around your classroom the next time you are in it how are the desks arranged are they spaced out facing the front of the room or are they clustered together in pots each of these different
17:24
Arrangements tells you something about how the classroom will be used if the desks are all in a line facing the front of the room with space between the desks odds are you'll be listening to the teacher more and talking with your peers a lot but if your deaths are clustered together you will probably be talking with your peers working on group projects or having more interactions with other students so we can see that we can learn a lot about a place just from observing it but
17:48
in order to truly understand a place we also need to understand its connections with other places the world today is more connected than ever before thanks to advancements in technology apology and communication it's easier than ever to travel communicate trade and interact with places and people all over the world all of these connections make the world feel that much smaller this phenomenon is known as time space compression traditionally places and people were impacted more
18:16
by distance Decay which is a geographic concept that looks at How likely a person or place is to interact with another person or play the farther the people or places are apart the less likely they are to interact this is why you're more likely to hang out with people that attend your school instead of a school on the other side of town or why you are more likely to shop at stores near you instead of in another city but thanks to the advancements in technology the
18:41
impact of distance Decay has decreased as it's become easier than ever to interact with other places and people around the world Okay so we've been talking about how places interact with other places but now we need to talk about how places interact with the environment when looking at human environment interaction we can see that society and impacts the environment and the environment in turn impacts Society the idea of environmental determinism looked at this
19:05
relationship between the environment and society and while it is no longer as widely accepted it still provides us insight into the role of the environment and Society determinism believes that the environment dictates the success of a society certain environments allow for a society to thrive and succeed while other environments restrict a society over time people started to criticize
19:27
environmental determinism for promoting European imperialism and for discounting the role of humans and their ability to adapt to adversity the day many people believe in environmental possibilism which is the idea that the environment puts a limits on a society but people have the ability to adjust the physical environment and create their own success remember environmental determinism believes that the environment determines the culture and possibilism believes that the
19:52
environment and culture both influence each other one of the ways in which we can see society today change their local environment is by repurposing their land for specific purposes this is known as land land that is used for agricultural use is utilized for the production of different agricultural products both for human consumption and animal consumption land used for industrial land consists of factories and Manufacturing facilities that produce different products for
20:18
society land designated for commercial use is for businesses and stores to sell their final goods and services then there is residential land use which is a land that is designated for people to live on and build homes recreational land use is land that's been set aside for people in society to relax and unwind such as land dedicated to football stadiums Parks or campsites and lastly there is transportational land use which is the land that is designated for roads railroads
20:45
airports ports or public transportation such as Subway this is what allows people and goods to get around a society by understanding the society's land use patterns we gain insight into what industries they prioritize what cultural values they have and how Society designates their land to meet the different wants and needs of their people now when societies seek to meet their wants and needs they will consume natural resources which are resources that are produced
21:11
in nature natural resources consist of renewable resources such as crops and trees these resources can be used multiple times without running out then there is non-renewable resources such as oil and natural gas once the resources used it's gone it's important that societies around the world create sustainable policies to help their society become more sustainable when societies are sustainable they ensure that they use the Earth's natural resources in a manner that allows them to
21:39
meet their wants and needs without compromising future Generations from doing the same Okay so we've talked about the environment places spatial associations and data but now we need to talk about scale and scale of analysis remember scale is the distance on a map in relation to the corresponding distance on the Earth's surface there is a global scale national scale Regional scale and local scale and if we want to get even more detailed with our scale we can also look
22:05
at categories such as the sub-national scale or sub-state scale which is below the national scale this would include looking at a map of a city county region or even a census tract which is one of the smallest classifications of a geographic area now in talking about scales of analysis we will still use global national regional and local scale but with scales of analysis we're trying to
22:27
understand how the information and data is being organized and presented a global scale of analysis does not use country's boundaries to present the information instead it shows Global pattern the information here is not connected to any one country making this map here a global scale map and a global scale of analysis a national scale of analysis has the data and information organized by the country here we can see we have a global scale map but notice how the data is organized
22:54
by each country since the data is connected to specific countries it makes us a national scale of analysis or Regional scale of analysis can be displayed in a variety of different ways but here we can see that we have a national scale map however the information is being organized into different Federal Reserve Districts making this a regional scale of analysis lastly here we can see we have a local scale of analysis notice how the information that is being presented in this
23:18
map is organized by the different counties in the United States one thing you'll want to notice is that as we change our scale from a global scale to a local scale you're able to get more details in the information small scale Maps such as this one use more generalizations to present the data since the maps are more zoomed out while large-scale Maps such as this one have more details and use
23:40
less generalization since the maps are zoomed in oftentimes students get confused with small and large-scale Maps remember small scale maps are zoomed out and large-scale maps are zoomed in whenever we change our scale we can observe different spatial associations patterns and gain insight into different Geographic areas scale and scale of analysis can be confusing for students so what I want you to do now is complete the table in your study guide if you need help completing
24:05
the table you can also check out my exclusive videos and practice problems in the ultimate review packet to help you make sure that you're understanding everything all right now moving on from scale of analysis to Regional analysis we can see that we have three main different types of regions remember a region is a geographic area that is defined by one or more unique characteristics or certain patterns of activity there are formal regions also known as uniform
24:29
regions these are Geographic areas that have common attributes and are traditionally defined by economic political social or environmental characteristics for example political boundaries in Latin America create formal regions that are State or the Rocky Mountains create a formal physical region in the United States functional regions also known as nodal regions are Geographic areas that are organized around a node or Center Point oftentimes the node or Center Point is based
24:57
around a specific economic activity travel or communication airports radio stations power plants or subway stations all create functional regions lastly there are perceptual regions also known as vernacular regions these are Geographic areas that are linked together due to people's opinions attitudes feelings or beliefs on the region these regions exist in people's minds and do not have a perfect definition these regions will differ depending on who you talk to for
25:24
example the Middle East is a perceptual region depending on who you talk to each person has a different idea of what countries are part of the Middle East one general rule of thumb to remember is that if a region is based on the cardinal directions it is most likely a perceptual region since when using cardinal directions we are looking at relative location and direction over time we see regions change overlap and become contested this is especially true if we change our
25:49
scale of our information and there you have it geographers we are done with unit one now don't forget to check your answers to the study guide in the answer key in my ultimate review pack and also take the unit one practice quiz to make sure you're ready for your unit one test remember if you found value in this video and you want to see more human geography content then also make sure to subscribe and join me for unit 2. as always I'm Mr. Sinn and I will see you next time online
Here to help you learn
Sign in to keep a private conversation with your course tutor.
Ask me anything about the material…
Sign in to chat