AP Human Geography -- Summer Assignments 2015 Welcome AP Human Geographers! Our journey begins! Our exploration of human geography will involve journeys to all regions of the globe, acquaintance with people far and near, and experiences with cultures both familiar and not. We are on an adventure! And it will be wonder-filled! Our course, Advanced Placement Human Geography, henceforth will be lovingly referred to as: AP HuGe. Yes. AP Huge. For those of you interested in acquiring the texts and examining them during the summer, they are as follow: Fouberg, Murphy & Blij. Human Geography: People, Place and Culture. AP Edition. 11th Edition. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2015. There are three purchasing options for that text. It is strongly encouraged that you select either the “loose leaf” or the “hard cover” editions. As you will need to take use both your laptop and your text on occasions, the e-text may pose coordination challenges. Please make certain that you acquire the correct edition of the book: the 11th Edition & AP Edition. Shop for the best price, whether Wiley, Amazon or another book seller. Additionally, we will be reading various selections from the following anthology: Moseley, Lanegran & Pandit, ed. The Introductory Reader in Human Geography. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0199913749 I. Of AP HuGe Human geography is the study of human beings, their activities and their institutions, where they are located, and why they are there. More fundamentally, AP HuGe is about the world we live in – now; it is a way to understand and to appreciate human experience. To guide our adventure, we have an essential question – one question that we can return to again and again, as it yields an inexhaustible supply of responses. That question is: How does where we are impact who we are, and how does who we are impact where we do what we do?

II. Summer AP HuGe Assignments Your summer assignments have three parts. The first involves reading a book and writing an essay. The second requires you to select a refugee/displaced person problem and to follow it in the news. The third asks you to play online geography games, so that you can learn the “where is” of our planet. You may complete these tasks in any order. However, your reading and writing, and your news log are due the first day of class, Thursday, the 10th of September. A. Summer Reading & Writing 1. Reading Select and read at least one of the following books. Boo, Katherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. New York: Random House, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0812979329 Brooks, Geraldine. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. New York: Anchor Books, 1995. ISBN-13: 978-0385475778 Chang, Leslie. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0385520188 Fonseca, Isabel. Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. ISBN-13: 978-0679737438 Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. New York: Picador, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-1250062185 Each books explores different aspects of human geography. However, all may be considered through the lens of our essential question: How does where we are impact who we are, and how does who we are impact where we do what we do? The question need only be edited for your particular use. For example, should you select Bury Me Standing, it may be written as: How does where Roma are impact who they are, and how does who Roma are impact where they do what they do? Similarly, should you select Behind the Beautiful Forevers, the question could be: How does where slum residents live impact who they are, and how does who slum residents are impact where they do what they do?

To shape the question to your selected book, simply substitute the prevailing group noun (Chinese factory girls or Islamic women). Only the last book, The Sixth Extinction, can make direct use of the question as it is. (For your reference, blurbs for each text, drawn from the back cover of each book are provided at the end of these assignment pages.) Please make annotations in your selected book. In particular, mark specific lines, passages and/or pages with an “eq” (for essential question) to designate that that part was perceived to connect to your essential question. These will be evaluated. 2. Writing Using your specific, modified version of the essential question, craft 3-4 page essay in response. Make use of your annotations to guide inclusion of specific evidence. Also, please see the attached rubric to guide your crafting of the essay. B. Human Migration – Refugees/Displaced Persons Using The Wardlaw-Hartridge School access to the The New York Times online (www.nytimes.com; login: [email protected]; password: whschool), visit the following link: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/09/world/migrants-global-refugeecrisis-mediterranean-ukraine-syria-rohingya-malaysiairaq.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=photo-spotregion®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 It leads to an interactive article entitled, “The Global Struggle to Respond to the Worst Refugee Crisis in Generations.” After reviewing the various refugee crises (Syria & Iraq, Southeast Asia, Mediterranean Sea, and Ukraine), select one of those problems. During the summer, read at least four articles related to that ongoing refugees/displaced persons problem, recording your findings on the log sheet appended to this assignment. C. World Geography What do you know of your world? Basic geographical knowledge of what is where is usually limited to a particular country or to places with which one has personal acquaintance. Perhaps, it is incomplete because it was not sufficiently explored or emphasized, required or valued. During the summer, it is vital to that you become familiar with “what is where.” And to acquire that knowledge, you will play various, simple online geography games. The first set of these may be found at World Geography Games: http://world-geography-games.com/

There are various choices. They may be completed in any order. However, you need to complete and to master all of the topics, except “Flags.” When you explore each topic, learning “what is where” as you go, you should strive for a perfect score – no errors. Note that your achievement is recognized by the appearance of an animated icon! How wonderful! Your preparatory study will provide you with an excellent foundation about “what is where.” During the first week of class, you will complete quizzes assessing your proficiencies. III. Addenda Below and available on Haiku (a course site to which you will be invited over the summer, please find the following items:   

Blurbs describing each of the AP HuGe summer reading books (see below) A Writing Rubric for your essay response (see Haiku) The NYT Refugess/Displaced Persons Log sheet (see Haiku)

IV. Final Thoughts I am delighted that you will be engaged in this wonderful learning experience. We will discover so much about humanity and our world. If you have any questions about these assignments or about the course, then please let me know. Have a wonderful summer! I look forward to seeing you in September!

Blurbs for each text, borrowed from the back covers: Boo, Katherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. In Behind the Beautiful Forevers, our “bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. (Yet) terror and global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal…Behind the Beautiful Forevers…carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds – and into the hearts of families impossible to forget.”

Brooks, Geraldine. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women. “Nine Parts of Desire is the story of Brooks’ intrepid journey toward an understanding of the women behind the veils, and of the often contradictory political, religious, and cultural forces that shape their lives. Defying our stereotypes about the Muslim world, Brooks’ acute analysis of the world’s fastest growing religion deftly illustrates how Islam’s holiest texts have been misused to justify repression of women, and how male pride and power have warped the original message of a once liberating faith.”

Chang, Leslie. Factory Girls: From Village to City in a Changing China. “China has 130 million migrant workers, the largest migration in human history. Factory Girls…tells the story of these workers, primarily through the lives of two young women…over the course of three years as they attempt to rise from assembly lines in the industrial city of Dongguan. (The story) takes us inside a sneaker factory so large that it has its own hospital, to makeshift English classes where students shave their heads in monklike devotion, and back to a farming village, revealing the poverty and idleness that drive girls to leave home in the first place. Factory Girls demonstrates how the mass movement from rural villages to cities is transforming Chinese society.”

Fonseca, Isabel. Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and Their Journey. “Fabled, feared, romanticized, and reviled, the Gypsies – or Roma – are among the least understood people on earth. Now a diaspora of twelve million, their culture remains largely obscure... In Bury Me Standing, alongside unforgettable portraits of individuals – the poet, the politician, the child prostitute – Fonseca offers sharp insights into the humor, language, wisdom, and taboos of the Roma. She traces their exodus out of India 1,000 years ago and their astonishing history of persecution; enslaved by the princes of medieval Romania; massacred by the Nazis; forcibly assimilated by the communist regimes; and, most recently, evicted from their settlements by nationalist mobs throughout the new “democracies” of Eastern Europe.”

Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. “Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us…Kolbert tell us why and how human beings have altered life of the planet in a way so species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept, (The Sixth Extinction)…is likely to be mankind’s most lasting legacy, compelling us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.”