Advanced Human Geography—Semester B

Your GPS can't help you now.

This course has been granted a-g certification, which means it has met the rigorous iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Courses and will now be honored as part of the requirements for admission into the University of California system.

From the baby steps of early agriculture, to the bustling madness of today's postindustrial and postmodern cities, this course covers a whole lot of historical scope for a geography course.

Human Geography: not just a class about maps.

In take two (a.k.a. Semester B), we'll take a closer look at the three ways in which humans have impacted their environment: agriculture, industry, and urbanism.

We'll gab about such pressing quandaries as...

  • How did we end up reaping more than we sowed? (Translation: What processes have shaped the world's agricultural production systems?)
  • Is it really mo' money mo' problems? (Translation: What are the origins and implications of key patterns of economic development?)
  • And: whose bright idea was it to build a parking lot over this historic graveyard? (Translation: What determines the location and form of urban landscapes?)

Sure, agriculture might be a little out of your comfort zone (we mean come on, do you really know what's in your hamburger?), while urbanization might seem a tad too close to home (especially if you live in or near a big city). But Shmoop's got new ways, old ways, and puns (!) to help you learn the ins-and-outs of these three big topics.

Best of all, you'll come away from this course knowing where the little floating dots go on "von Thünen." Trust us, that's important.

Unit Breakdown


  1. Advanced Human Geography—Semester B - Geography—Its Nature and Perspectives

    In this unit, we'll look at the groundwork of APHUG—how people and the environment relate to each other spatially, and how people and people relate to each other (and we don't mean through heart-to-heart talks). We'll acclimate ourselves to the AP test model, hash out the difference between "place," "space," and "location," and become cozy with the core concepts upheld by human geographers everywhere.

  2. Advanced Human Geography—Semester B - Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor…and a Head Count

    Unit 2 puts the "human" in human geography, with an extended look at population and demographic statistics. We'll learn how to make scary-accurate predictions about a country with nothing but a graph, a pen, and our wits. We'll explore how statistics concerning births and deaths, fertility and mortality, immigration and emigration relate to one another, and what they say about the state of a nation. And we'll engage some of the current and ongoing crises of population worldwide. Sure, there will be a lot of numbers to wade through. But hey, at least it's not AP Calculus.

  3. Advanced Human Geography—Semester B - Culture: It's All About the Pieces

    So we lied. We said that the previous unit put the "human" in human geography, but there's nothing more human than good food, great music, and…rampant consumerism. In this unit, we'll touch upon all corners of the culture question—the norms, values, and beliefs that make up a culture, as well as particulars such as language and religion. We'll also look at factors that complicate culture, such as globalization and conflict. Because it's not human geography without a whole lot of human conflict.

  4. Advanced Human Geography—Semester B - Shrines, Sentences, Sisters, and Support Groups

    Unit 4 takes Unit 3's mission and goes deeper—into race relations, gender oppression, and…the origins of language.

    It's all very high stakes.

    We'll also make our first rigorous foray into urban geography, one of the four pillars of APHUG, while also trying our hand at working with primary and secondary sources simultaneously (Photo essays? Yes please).

  5. Advanced Human Geography—Semester B - Politics and Geography: Carving Up the World Like a Thanksgiving Turkey

    We've touched upon economic geography, cultural geography, and urban geography. We can't end the semester without a nice unit-long nod to political geography, could we? In this unit, we'll delve into the wonderful world of geopolitics, with a close eye to imperialism, colonialism, ethnic conflict, war… And if that's not a bright enough way to end the first half of the course, we'll throw in a little domestic terrorism, too. APHUG! Over and out!

  6. Advanced Human Geography—Semester B - Pass the Veggies: Agriculture and Human Geography

    Agriculture—where would we be without it? Sure, agriculture and animal husbandry paved the way for this fried monstrosity. But it's also the reason why you're not running around trying to hunt an irate goat right now. More time to study for the APHUG exam, areweright?

  7. Advanced Human Geography—Semester B - Show Us the Industry

    And while you're giving thanks for modern agriculture, might as well make that a twofer and tip your (mass-produced) hat to industrialization, too. In this unit, we'll look at technological innovations throughout history (starting with the Neolithic Revolution, not with Apple—as much as Apple would like to make us think they were the first innovators). We'll look at the Industrial Revolution (obvi), ways in which industrialization has made the world smaller, and how it's helped some places more than others. Sadface.

  8. Advanced Human Geography—Semester B - We Built This City

    Why do cities smell so bad? Believe it or not, that is a question we'll get to in this here unit. But as much as we'd like to wax poetic about the sights and smells of city life for a whole unit…that wouldn't totally prep you for the needs of the APHUG exam. So we'll look at the evolution of cities, theories of urban organization, tools for predicting population size and growth in cities, and uniquely urban issues such as sprawl and housing discrimination. Then we'll wax poetic about city smells.

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