Course Overview This course is aligned with South Carolina State Standards for Social Studies. A copy of those standards can be found online by clicking here.
Course Objectives/Standards The Student will demonstrate an understanding of: 1. the physical and human characteristics of places, including the creation of regions and the ways that culture and experience influence the perception of place. 2. the physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth’s surface, including the dynamics of the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. 3. the characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth’s surface. 4. the characteristics of culture, the patterns of culture, and cultural change. 5. the role that geography plays in economic development. 6. the processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement. 7. how cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth’s surface. 8. how human actions modify the physical environment; how physical systems affect human systems; and how resources change in meaning, use, distribution, and importance.
In World Geography, we will look at the organization of the world both physically (where things are) and in humanistic terms (who inhabitants that place). In addition to looking at place, maps, and understanding location, we will look at the themes of our human heritage, such as war, disease, imperialism, religious conflict development and population issues that continue to be questions in our society today. With the media, Internet, and communication making our globe smaller with each new innovation, it only makes sense that we know a little bit about the world, as we are citizens of it as well.
Textbook Geography: The Human and Physical World. 1st ed. New York, NY. McGraw Hill, 2013.
Online Resources Students will be assigned unit-specific readings and/or videos from online media sources such as CNN (students will watch the CNN Student News daily), BBC, the New York Times, the Economist, Genocide Watch.org, Amnesty International, the Smithsonian, PBS, TED, NPR, and other reputable and respected online sources, to understand the implications of in class topics with current events.