The Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) exam consists of two sections: sixty multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and three free-response questions (FRQs); both sections have equal percentages in the exam weighting (College Board 2020). Because the main motivation of the students taking this course is to earn college credit by scoring a three or…

This paper introduces four local field studies designed and conducted by two Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) teachers. All of these activities were designed for ninth-graders taking APHG courses. Both teachers implement multiple instances of field study in different units of the APHG curriculum throughout the academic year (e.g., two…

The purpose of this article is to introduce two easy-to-use analytical tools--OPTIC (Overview; Parts; Title; Interrelationships; and Conclusion) and SCRAP (Spatial-Temporal; Conditions, Connections, or Comparisons; Region; Aura, Association, or Analog; Pattern or Exceptions)--that can help teachers guide student learning with maps and photos.…

In this paper, the authors introduce a student project that can help students stay engaged in Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) classrooms through the end of the year, through a project that can be implemented after the APHG exam is given. The tight curriculum schedule of APHG leaves little room for implementing student-centered learning…

Discussions are one of the activity types that help students build their content-related background knowledge, understanding, and concepts through various communication approaches. Students express and share their perspectives and ideas with other students through a small- or large-group discussion. The formats of discussions may vary; they may be…

Classroom teaching and field trips are both conventional ways of teaching geography in higher education. But where the former can be highly theoretical and abstract, the latter is rather practical, empirical, and concrete. In this paper, I argue there is a need to better incorporate theory into field trips. I seek to explore relations between…

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed an alarming chasm between traditional higher education pedagogies and the lived experiences of students, posing new challenges to educators worldwide . Addressing this, our study proposes a curricular paradigm shift that foregrounds sensory and embodied learning. Influenced by a Critical Pedagogy of Place…

Military Families and the Arts is an ArcGIS StoryMaps collection that serves military families by mapping art museums and arts centers located near active-duty military installations. The interactive maps are organized by military branch and browsable by an alphabetical list of active-duty military installations. The ArcGIS StoryMaps collection…

While students generally understand how humans impact their physical environment, it can be challenging for them to explain how this key geographic theme is "bidirectional." How does the land influence the people and vice versa? This exchange is what creates a sense of place for every spot on our planet. Being so physically and…

This activity is part of a larger set of activities and presentations developed by the Michigan Geographic Alliance to help teachers meet the proposed Social Studies standards in 6th and 7th grade. The Michigan Geographic Alliance website also has explanatory presentations, supplementary maps, and readings. In this 10-20 minute intermediate…

In this paper, we analyse the 6th grade Geography textbook published in 2018 at the Didactic and Pedagogical Publishing House S.A., Bucharest. The textbook devised in accordance with the school curriculum approved in 2017 began to be used in schools in Romania starting with the school year 2018-2019. The structure of the book (thematic units and…

As students study the political organization of space in the Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography classroom, they must understand forces behind the creation of modern nation states, challenges to the stability of modern states, and political developments such as supranationalism and devolution (Human Geography Course Description). In this two…

This activity is an amusing, but serious exploration into the idea of shapes for grades 4-8. Its purpose is to encourage students to begin thinking about shapes using concrete (and asphalt) examples from their immediate surroundings (i.e., street, block, neighborhood) while enhancing their mental image of world geography. Rather than allowing all…

In this article, we argue that when complex sociopolitical issues such as ethnocentrism and racial segregation are represented as complex, emergent systems using agent-based computational models (in short agent-based models or ABMs), discourse about these representations can disrupt social studies teacher candidates' dispositions of teaching…

Growing up in Loretto, Tennessee, population 1,700, people called it "going to town" when they went to any city big enough to have a McDonald's, Walmart, or a movie theater. If someone is not from a small town, they may not know what type of economic activities a small town can support. Will the town have a police department? Will there…