Advanced Placement (AP) World History (8000 B.C.E. to Present)

Mr. Kris Rhinehart

Kristoffer.rhinehart@ship.k12.pa.us 

Shippensburg Area Senior High

AP World History brief description

AP World History is a rigorous, college level course designed to explore human history from 8000 B.C.E. to the present.  The course will emphasize and focus on the development of analytical and writing skills necessary for success at the collegiate level.  This will be done, at least partly, through the critical evaluation of primary and secondary sources and analysis of historiographical arguments.  The course will require significant amounts of reading and assignments completed outside of class time.  AP World History is designed for 10th graders as a substitute for general or academic World History.

Some FAQ’s about Advanced Placement courses:

Q: What does Advanced Placement (AP) mean? 

A: Advanced Placement courses are designed by the College Board (the SAT people) to challenge students in high school by offering them courses that will help to prepare them for the rigorous challenges of college.  They are designed to be on par in difficulty with a freshman level college course.

Q: What are the benefits to taking an AP Course?

A: There are many benefits to taking AP courses in high school. The three most obvious are:

-- 1) To be better prepared for college level expectations and work => studies have shown that students who take AP courses are much better prepared to adjust to college level work

--  2) To better gain admission to the college of your choice => admissions counselors like to see that students have challenged themselves with rigorous courses in high school

-- 3) To earn college credit in high school => AP courses offer an exam at the end of the course that if passed with an appropriate score can earn you college credit at 1000’s of colleges

Q: Are AP courses more difficult than regular courses?

A: YES. They require more outside work, critical thinking & writing and are paced much quicker.

Q: Are AP courses at Shippensburg Senior High weighted?

A: Yes.  Due to their challenging nature AP courses are weighted at a level of 1.15 => therefore if you earn an A in an AP course it will count as a 4.6 on your GPA instead of 4.0.

Course Textbooks and Readings

Primary Text

Duiker, William J and Jackson J Speilvogel. World History. Seventh Edition (AP edition). Boston:

                Wadsworth/Cengage. 2013. 

Supplementary Texts and Readings:

Adas, Michael, Marc J. Gilbert, Peter Stearns, and Stuart B. Schwartz. World Civilizations: The Global  Experience.  6th Edition (AP Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 2011.

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: WW Norton. 2005.

Christian, David andWilliam H. McNeill. Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History.  Berkeley: UP of California. 2011.

Various Articles and Handouts (i.e. past DBQ’s from the AP World History site, Review Materials, primary documents from time periods, AP Test Prep series handouts, secondary readings and interpretations)

AP World History skills and Brief outline

AP World History focuses on 5 Major themes in World History and seeks a global perspective on each =>  all areas of the world are studied and represented (Europe, Asia, Middle East, Central and South America, North America, Oceania) => Students will also be required to identify major countries, landforms and cities on regional maps

Theme 1: Interaction Between Humans and the Environment

§  Exs: Disease (i.e. Black Plague and other diseases), Migration (i.e. reasons for Europeans settling in Americas & disasterous impact on Native populations), Environmental exploitation (i.e. impact of different people on environment and 20th century “Green Revolution”)

Theme 2: Development and Interaction of Cultures

§  Exs: Religion (i.e. reasons for the development of world major religions and interactions between them. . . Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism), Art and Architecture (i.e. how are the artistic movements, like the Renaissance important to historical developments and how are the artistic expressions of cultures similar and different)

Theme 3: State-Building, Expansion, and Conflict

§  Exs: Empires (i.e. Mongol Empire; British Empire, Chinese Empire; Roman Empire; etc…. => how do these empires develop, influence human development and decline), Revolts and Revolutions (i.e. French Revolution, American Revolution => why do these occur and how do they impact human settlement and development), Warfare (i.e. major wars like Napoleonic Wars, WWI & II, Mongols, Romans, 100 Years War, etc… => also focus on the development of military technology and the impact it has on human civilization and power relationships)

Theme 4: Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of Economic Systems

§  Exs: Development of agriculture (i.e. agricultural revolution and increasing agricultural production and technology), Industrialization (i.e. Industrial Revolution in Britain and other areas and the changing nature of work and exploitation), Labor systems (i.e. slavery, free market, Unions, etc…), Economic systems (i.e. Capitalism, Socialism, Communism => why did they develop and what impact did they have on economies and civilization)

Theme 5: Development and Transformation of Social Structures

§  Exs: Gender and familial Roles (i.e. development of women’s rights in different cultures, familial and power based structures in different cultures), Racial and socio-economic classes (i.e. how social status and class structures develop and change in different regions)

AP World History Unit Overview

Unit I: The Neolithic Revolution => Technological & Environmental Transformation 8000 B.C.E. to 600 B.C.E.

Key Concepts

-- Key Concept 1.1: Big Geography and the Peopling of the Earth

-- Key Concept 1.2: The Neolithic Revolution and Early Agricultural Societies

-- Key Concept 1.3: The Development and Interactions of Early Agricultural, Pastoral and Urban societies

Unit II: The Classical Era=> Organization & Reorganization of Human Societies c. 600 B.C.E. to 600 C.E.

Key Concepts

-- Key Concept 2.1: The Development and Codification of Religious & Cultural Traditions

-- Key Concept 2.2: The Development of States and Empires

-- Key Concept 2.3: Emergence of Transregional Networks of Communication & Exchange

Unit III: The Postclassical Era => Regional & Transregional Interactions c. 600 C.E. to 1450 C.E.

Key Concepts

-- Key Concept 3.1: Expansion & Intensification of Communication & Exchange Networks

-- Key Concept 3.2: Continuity and Innovation of State Form and their Interactions

-- Key Concept 3.3: Increased Economic Productive Capacity and its Consequences

Unit IV: The Great Convergence => Global Interactions, c. 1450 to 1750

Key Concepts

-- Key Concept 4.1: Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange

-- Key Concept 4.2: New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production

-- Key Concept 4.3: State Consolidation and Imperial Expansion

Unit V: The Age of Revolution => Industrialization & Global Integration c 1750 – 1900

Key Concepts

-- Key Concept 5.1: Industrialization and Global Capitalism

-- Key Concept 5.2: Imperialism and Nation-State Formation

-- Key Concept 5.3: Nationalism, Revolution and Reform

-- Key Concept 5.4: Global Migration

Unit VI: The Modern Era => Accelerating Global Change and Realignments c 1900-Present

Key Concepts

-- Key Concept 6.1: Science and the Environment

-- Key Concept 6.2: Global Conflict and their Consequences

-- Key Concept 6.3: New Conceptualizations of Global Economy, Society and Culture

Awards and Recognitions

Over the past years, our AP Program at SASHS has been honored in the following ways . . .

Downloads

AP World History Syllabus

AP World History Long Essay Rubric

AP World History DBQ Rubric

Links

Overview of AP World History -- Freemanpedia

AP Course Homepage -- College Board