Geography
110: World Regional Geography
Fall 2002
UW –
Instructor: Professor Catherine Helgeland (Cathy)
Office: W262
Phone: 683-4729 (office); 684-7590 (home)
Office Hours: Mondays:
Tuesdays:
Thursdays:
Also for as long after class as necessary, by appointment, or whenever I am in my office and not facing a deadline.
E-mail: chelgela@uwc.edu
Date: Test: Topic: Assignments*:
deB & M: DD:
__________________________________________________________________
9/3 Introduction
9/5 20th C. Overview 1-39
______________________________________________________________________________
9/10
1-14
9/12
______________________________________________________________________________
9/17 Contemporary
9/19 Western Europe 66-82 63-82
______________________________________________________________________________
9/24 Western Europe 66-82 83-102
9/26 No Class
but…………………………………………….> 103-132
______________________________________________________________________________
10/1 Northern & Mediterranean 82-94 133-154
10/3 Eastern Europe 94-105 155-174
______________________________________________________________________________
10/8 EXAM I 175-201
10/10 Introduction to Encarta 203-226
Reference Suite
______________________________________________________________________________
10/15 SSA: Physical 335-343
10/17 SSA: History/Economy 343-352
______________________________________________________________________________
10/22 SSA: Cultural Patterns 352-358
10/24 Western East
& Equatorial
______________________________________________________________________________
10/29
10/31 Apartheid and After Handout(s)
______________________________________________________________________________
11/5 EXAM II
11/7 COUNTRY REPORTS DUE!
NA/SWA: Defining the Realm 278-286
Date: Test: Topic: Assignments*:
deB & M:
____________________________________________________________________________
11/11 Last day to drop or
change to audit
11/12 NA/SWA: Physical Geography & Oil 293-296
11/14 NA/SWA: Culture & Islam 286-292
____________________________________________________________________________
11/19 NA/SWA:
African Transition Zone
11/21 NA/SWA:
States, and the “Stans”
______________________________________________________________________________
11/26 NA/SWA:
11/28 Happy Thanksgiving!
______________________________________________________________________________
12/3 Living in
12/5 Life as a
Palestinian Refugee
______________________________________________________________________________
12/10 The Current Political Situation
12/12 The Solutions: Are There Any?
______________________________________________________________________________
12/19 FINAL
EXAM
* All of the above assignments are in
the text, Geography: Realms, Regions, and
Concepts, 10th edition, by H. J. de Blij and Peter O.
Muller, Wiley & sons,
Geography 110 is a three-credit social science course. It will partially fulfill your requirement for social science credits necessary for your associate and bachelors degrees. In addition to fulfilling this program requirement, one of my major aims is to make you more aware of the discipline of geography, a very broad and encompassing field of study. Another of my primary aims is to have fun – I love teaching and learning and geography, so I am doing exactly what I want to do. Furthermore, I am doing it exactly where I want to – in a fabulously rich state geographically and in a small university that gives me the contact with students that I think is essential in good teaching and effective learning. I hope that some of my enthusiasm for what we’re about here rubs off on you and that by the end of the semester, you will have an enhanced appreciation for our environment and for learning about it.
Geography
110 is a course in world regional geography.
In some such courses, every region of the world is studied in a
whirlwind, broad-brush fashion.
Because
of the current worldwide concern with terrorism and the ongoing and seemingly
intractable (impossible to resolve) conflicts in the Middle East, I have chosen
to include a study of the Middle East, part of the region entitled “North
Africa and Southwest Asia.” The third
region we will study is Africa South of the
In
addition to the content to be covered, this course will enable you to develop
or enhance certain skills (also called proficiencies), including the ability to
analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and interpret information and ideas. A second proficiency that you will hone
during the semester is the ability to read and listen with comprehension and
critical perception. This means that you
will read, question, and understand your texts and lecture material. Notice that I said, “Question your text and
lecture.” Anyone can read a text and sit
in a lecture, but doing so does not mean you learn anything. Learning requires that you become involved
with the material, that you understand it, and
that you question it. You must challenge the texts and what
I tell you in class. For you to read
and listen with comprehension and
critical perception you must be satisfied that what you are reading and hearing
makes sense. Besides, the best teaching
and learning take place when students are involved and questioning, so I will
stop the class to force you to think about the material and develop questions to
search for information you wish to know.
Start thinking! Come to class on Thursday with at least one
question about culture – write it down on your 3x5 card so you don’t forget
it. I will collect this card and grade your
question, so make it a thoughtful one and make it one on a topic that you truly
wish to know more about.
A third proficiency that you will develop is the ability to interpret graphs, tables, diagrams, and maps. You will be required to become an expert on one country in the North Africa/Southwest Asia realm. To do this, you can use any reference material you wish but part of your resources must include a software package entitled the “Encarta Reference Suite.” The Encarta is loaded on machines in the campus computer labs in Hillside Hall. The reference suite includes an unbelievable wealth of maps, graphs, statistics, charts, videos, still images, and audio clips. We will use graphs, diagrams, and various types of images throughout the semester from our texts and from my slides, as well. The essence of any geographic study is the place where something is found. Any topic can be made into a geographic study by asking several questions. First, what are we talking about? Where is that thing? Why is it there? and So what? Of course, to show where something is, geographers use maps, so a large part of this course will be studying cultural and physical phenomena as portrayed on maps.
Ah, yes. Now we get to the crux of the matter. Keep reading.
Exams: We will have three major exams, each worth 100 points. The exams will cover the material from the preceding portion of the course and will be a combination of question types, including multiple-multiple choice, definitions, diagrams, short answer, and essay. If you must miss an exam or will arrive late for an exam, I must be notified in advance or no make-up will be allowed. In order to notify me, please talk to me personally (office phone: 683-4729; home phone: 684-7590). In the event that you are unavoidably late for an exam, call the main office (683-4700) to leave a message for me with the secretary or send me an e-mail at <chelgela@uwc.edu>. Any make-up exam will be predominantly essay in format.
Daily Quizzes: Each day in lecture, I will give you a five-point quiz that covers the previous day’s class discussions and the reading assignment for that discussion. The quiz will be given promptly at the beginning of class, and there are no make-ups given. Therefore, you must be in class every day and you must be on time. Each day’s quiz will be quite brief, usually only two multiple-multiple choice questions.
Let me explain the theory underlying these daily quizzes. Pedagogical research (research on learning) has shown that the more attention students pay to their work, the better their learning. But you know, and I do too, that it is human nature to procrastinate on work such as reading a text assignment or reviewing class notes unless there is a direct payoff. A grade on an exam three weeks hence is so far off that many people are not motivated to do the reading. So they don’t, and as a result, many people don’t learn as much as they would if they did study their notes and did do the reading. So – the daily quizzes are a way to provide you with an immediate payoff. You do the reading, review your notes, and show up to take the quiz and the result is threefold for you: 1) you get points to add to your semester total; 2) you learn better than if you didn’t do the reading or note reviewing (or didn’t do it until right before the exam); 3) as a result, your depth of understanding and your exam grades are better.
Over the course of the semester, each person will complete approximately 15 study group summaries and 20-25 daily quizzes. Since each is worth five points, you will earn between 175 and 200 points from them. Your grade in the course will not be higher than your average on the daily quizzes and summaries. That means, for example, that if your average on the daily quizzes and summaries is a 76 (a C), but your average for the rest of the course is an 81 (a B-), you will receive a C for the semester. Therefore, it is imperative that you do the assigned reading, review your notes, and that you attend class and study group faithfully. Because I am aware that students must occasionally miss class for legitimate reasons, I will drop your two lowest daily quiz grades and your two lowest study group grades, so if you absolutely must miss class or group, you have some cushion in terms of grades. Most students (usually about 95% - 98% of every class) raise their grades by these points since the questions are usually quite easy. Students whose grades are hurt by the daily quiz points are almost always students who cut classes or arrive late. Don’t let that happen to you!.
Twenty-point quizzes: During the semester, we will have several written quizzes, each worth 20 points. Since scheduling make-up quizzes takes more organization, dedication, intelligence, cunning, and/or luck than I possess, absolutely no make-up quizzes will be given. Therefore, I will automatically drop your lowest written quiz grade, but if you miss more than one quiz, you will likely be in grade trouble.
Country
reports: After
completing Holy Land Whose Land? your study group will begin work on your country
reports, using the Encarta Reference Suite mentioned above and any additional
information you wish. You will have four
weeks to complete your report.
Your country reports have two main purposes. One is to teach you to use geographical
reference materials to learn about a particular area and to understand the many
complexities that go into making any area what it is. A second purpose of the country report is for
anyone in your group to function as an expert on your country in our class
discussions on North Africa/Southwest Asia.
This region is very diverse culturally and physically, but every country
in it is entwined (wound up with) the situation in the
You will be doing your reports as a group. Therefore, it is important that everyone
contribute to the group effort. To do
so, I would advise that you divide up the work and have each member be
responsible for a given section of the report.
At the end of the semester, I will ask group members to comment on the
effectiveness of their own participation in the group, both on the report and
in your weekly group meetings, and the effectiveness of other group members, as
well. I will take group members’
comments into account when assigning grades for group participation. You will receive up to 25 points for your
effectiveness in your group.
In summary, your final semester grade will consist of (approximately):
Daily quiz & group summary grades: 175 - 200 points
Written quizzes 80 points
Country reports 50 points
Group participation grade 25 points
Hour exams 300
points
Total Points Possible: 630 - 655 points!
Semester grades will be figured on a percentage basis, with letter grades determined by a “curve” of points. Generally, the following curve applies:
A 93-100% C 73-77%
A- 90-92% C- 70-72%
B+ 88-89% D+ 68-69%
B 83-87% D 63-67%
B- 80-82% D- 60-62%
C+ 78-79% F <60%
Remember, however, that your final semester grade cannot be higher than the average of your daily quizzes and study group summaries so be certain that you are at class, on time, every day and have done your reading, reviewed your notes, and turned in your summaries!!!
By the way, I do not grade students against each other – I grade you against my expectations of what you should learn. That means that the more you help each other learn, the better off everyone is. It also means that if everyone in class meets my expectations at a high level, you all get As. Therefore, concentrate on learning the material well and with great understanding. Work at explaining concepts and answering questions for your classmates, because the better able you are to explain and support each other, the more you learn. You must be certain, however, that the results of your learning are presented in your own words, not the words of someone else in the study group or of your text authors. Any students who present answers identical or very similar to the text or to the answers of other students will automatically receive a 0 for that assignment. Copying is called “plagiarizing” and is considered a very serious offense in academic work. Do yourself a big favor and don’t even think about plagiarizing anything from a written source or from a study partner.
In college courses, a generally accepted guideline for the amount of time required outside of class is two to three hours for every course hour in class. Since we are spending three class hours per week in class, you should allot roughly 6-9 additional hours per week for reading and for studying for quizzes and exams. Your text is very extensive and intensive. Reading it will require far more time than reading a novel. Then, you have to learn the material, which will take more time. To help you, I will distribute “Text Concept Sheets” that guide you toward the material that I consider most important, but maximizing your learning in this class will still require a significant input of time and effort on your part. Remember – college is not high school and the amount of effort necessary to do well here will likely be significantly greater than it was in high school. Don’t sabotage yourself by skimping on your primary activity – learning!
I do not have a formal attendance policy. In other words, I do not automatically deduct points for absences, nor do I take attendance each day, but it is impossible to do well in this course if you miss class since many points on quizzes and exams come from visual materials, lecture, slides, and class discussions that are not repeated in the text. Furthermore, you will earn points - in daily quizzes and group summaries, 20-point quizzes, or exams - almost every day that we meet, and since I drop your lowest grades in each category, there will be no make-ups for these points. Therefore, your grade is dependent in large part on your regular attendance.
A word of caution here – I expect that your education is a very high priority at this time in your life. If it isn’t, you probably shouldn’t be here. That means that, except for health or critical family matters, your classwork comes ahead of other commitments. Work schedules, concerts, trips to Florida (or anywhere), deer hunting, car troubles, taking your little brother to his scout meeting, etc. must take a back seat compared to your school commitment. You need to be here, fully alert, on time, and ready to work hard every class day, and you need to get your assignments done well, on time, and in a thoughtful manner. If you must miss class, please don’t ask me later if you missed anything important – of course you did! But please do ask me what it was that you missed.
If you have a religious affiliation or a disability for which you need an accommodation, please see Student Services as soon as possible. Also, please notify me so that I can make provisions in a timely manner.
Please keep this handout and refer to it occasionally during the semester. Hopefully, doing so will prevent some misunderstandings that might otherwise occur. Now – let’s get started and have a fun semester. Anybody know what the intifada (intifadeh) is?