Course Descriptions: Social Studies

Advanced Placement Human Geography is a course which introduces students to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use and alteration of the Earth’s surface Students will learn about the methods and tools geographers use in their research and applications.

Content is presented thematically rather than regionally and is organized around various subfields including economic geography, cultural geography, political geography and urban geography. Case studies are drawn from all world regions with an emphasis and understanding the world in which we live today. Among the topics of study included are: geography, its nature and perspectives, population and migration, cultural patterns and processes, political organization of space, agriculture, food production and rural land use, industrialization and economic development and cities and urban land use.

The goal of the course is to provide a learning experience equivalent to that obtained in most college introductory human geography or cultural geography course. By the end of the course, students should be geoliterate, more engaged in contemporary global issues and more multicultural in their viewpoints. Students must be willing to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic course. Extensive reading and solid writing skills, along with a willingness to devote considerable time to study are necessary to be successful in this class. This is an elective class and does not replace any state mandated social studies course.

The Advanced Placement examination is taken in May.

This course is designed to explore the history of the world up to 1775. The student travels through time from the “cradles of civilization” to man’s first experience as a “global” being. Attention will be given to man’s interaction to his environment, cultural patterns and the impact on our culture today. The course is taught chronologically, using the technology, textbooks and human resources available to our school.

This course is designed as a continuation of the study of Global History 9. This course covers the chronological events in world history since 1775. The major topics include the Age of Revolution; the development of capitalism, socialism, and communism; the major world conflicts; international cooperation; and the Information Age. Emphasis is placed on the political, social, and economic interdependence of the nations of the world including the roots and results of terrorism. Students will take the Regents Examination in Global History and Geography II in June.

This course will include a chronological survey of United States history in general, with an emphasis on the United States as a developing industrial and post industrial nation. Constitutional and legal issues will be explored in depth, as will be the problems of a dynamic industrial society in an increasingly complex and technology-oriented world. Students will take the Regents Exam in U.S. History and Government in June.