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Human Geography Course Requirements
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The AP Program unequivocally supports the principle that each individual school must develop its own curriculum for courses labeled "AP." Rather than mandating any one curriculum for AP courses, the AP Course Audit instead provides each AP teacher with a set of expectations that college and secondary school faculty nationwide have established for college-level courses. AP teachers are encouraged to develop or maintain their own curriculum that either includes or exceeds each of these expectations; such courses will be authorized to use the "AP" designation. Credit for the success of AP courses belongs to the individual schools and teachers that create powerful, locally designed AP curricula.
The AP Human Geography course should be designed by your school to provide students with a learning experience equivalent to that of an introductory college course in human geography. Your course should include the systematic study of geographic patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth's surface.
There are no specific curricular prerequisites for students taking AP Human Geography.
All students who are willing to accept the challenge of a rigorous academic curriculum should be considered for admission to AP courses. The College Board encourages the elimination of barriers that restrict access to AP courses for students from ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the AP Program. Schools should make every effort to ensure that their AP classes reflect the diversity of their student population.
High schools offering this exam must provide the exam administration resources described in the AP Coordinator's Manual.
Requirements
To request authorization to label a course "AP," complete the following two steps:
- Complete and submit an AP Course Audit form, on which the teacher and principal attest that their course includes or exceeds the following curricular requirements delineated by college and university faculty.
- Submit an electronic copy of the course syllabus that demonstrates inclusion or improvement on the curricular requirements (see Syllabus Preparation Guidelines). If your course does not include one or more of the curricular requirements but merits designation as a college-level course, see Instructions for Submitting Materials for the process for describing alternate approaches to the course.
 Syllabus Preparation Guidelines
Instructions for Teachers
Instructions on how to submit AP Course Audit materials via the Web will be posted on AP Central and mailed to principals in January 2007.
Curricular Requirements
- The teacher has read the most recent AP Human Geography Course Description, available as a free download on the AP Human Geography Course Home Page.
AP Human Geography Course Home Page
- The course provides a systematic study of human geography, including the following topics outlined in the Course Description:
- Nature of and Perspectives on Geography
- Population
- Cultural Patterns and Processes
- Political Organization of Space
- Agricultural and Rural Land Use
- Industrialization and Economic Development
- Cities and Urban Land Use
- The course teaches the use of spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human organization of space.
- The course teaches spatial relationships at different scales ranging from the local to the global.
- The course teaches students how to use and interpret maps, data sets, and geographic models. GIS, aerial photographs, and satellite images, though not required, can be used effectively in the course.
Resource Requirements
- The school ensures that each student has a college-level human geography textbook (supplemented when necessary to meet the curricular requirements) for individual use inside and outside of the classroom.
- The school provides a collection of maps, atlases, and other resource materials (which could include data sources, case studies, mapping software, newspapers, and magazines) for use by students.
- The school ensures that the teacher has copies of additional college-level geography textbooks and other appropriate college-level books for his or her consultation.
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