GEO 101 World Human Geography
Fall 2009
Syllabus

Professor: Michael Longan Ph.D.

About World Human Geography

Geography studies the Earth, its people and environments. It asks "where" and "why" questions about social life, about the physical world, and about the cultural meaning of places and environments. Geography thus asks questions that integrate the physical sciences, social sciences, and humanities. How have societies modified the physical environment and what effect has that had on both the environment and society? How do different societies and cultures shape and use space differently? How do opportunities and challenges differ for people living in different places? What meanings do significant places have for people who value them? Moreover, the kinds of questions that geography seeks to answer are directly relevant to some of the largest challenges we face as a society in the 21st century. How will we respond to the challenge of global warming? How do we resolve and prevent geopolitical conflicts, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan among others? How can we effectively confront segregation and other problems created through racism? How will we be able to most effectively use our limited natural resources to be able to feed the world's people? How can we design cities that provide for a good quality of life and opportunities for all and that are environmentally sustainable? To be sure, these are questions asked in other disciplines, but geography has a unique role as an integrative discipline that seeks to answer questions by combining information and perspectives from multiple disciplines. What allows geographers to do so is their interest in the spatial aspects of these problems, because it is in specific spaces and places where these issues play out and where their solutions are to be found. World Human geography asks many of these questions as it introduces students to the major themes of human geography and as it helps them acquire important skills in thinking geographically. Such skills are increasingly important forhelping to solve problems in an increasingly interconnected and complex world.

As you will learn this semester, everything and everyone has a geography. Thus you will likely find that this course directly connects with your own interests, whatever your major. If you are not convinced of this after the third class period, then you should come talk with your professor and he will help you understand what to look for. You will certainly find what you learn in this class to be useful in your career if you make an effort to notice and pursue connections between class material and your own interests. At the same time, the class will also prepare you to be a more informed citizen and will enrich your life by making you aware of the fascinating world that can be found just outside your door.

This class, as with all classes, is taught from a definite point of view that you may or may not agree with. Because different people do not necessarily view the world from the same place, knowledge of the world can never be narrowly objective. Your job is not to see the world from the same point of view as your professor or even your classmates, but rather to think through the implications of the material presented to you and come to your own conclusions. There will be many times when you will not agree with the professor. That is good! At these times, you should interrupt, object, and make a claim for what you know is right. Your professor has even been known to change his own thinking based upon such objections from students! But be prepared also to listen to the objections to your own position and to offer support for your position. That is how we all learn. That is, in this course we are less concerned with what your position is than upon how well you can explain and support it. Expect your professor and your fellow students to challenge what you have to say. Ideally you will come out of this course having learned more about why you believe the things you do. You will be asked to think and write critically, to develop your own ideas about the course material, and to learn to express those ideas in a meaningful and insightful way. For many of you, even juniors or seniors, this may be a new experience.

Course Goals

By the end of this course students will…

• Understand major concepts in human geography including place, space, scale, landscape, etc.
• Understand the geography of population, the environment, culture, identity, the economy, politics, agriculture, and of cities.
• Understand that human landscapes are not simply an inevitable product of nature but are planned, constructed, and contested by identifiable people working within historically and geographically specific social, cultural, political, and economic situations.
• Be able to interpret everyday landscapes and understand some of the spatial processes that help to structure them.
• Be able to participate knowledgeably in discussions with other people about world events and about the importance of geography for these events.
• Be able to identify what is geographical about a given issue discussed in the media.
• Be able to integrate knowledge about population, the environment, culture, economics, politics, and agriculture to understand specific places or types of places (cities for example).
• Develop a greater awareness of how their lives are interrelated with the lives of people in other places.
• Develop an improved appreciation for the places and landscapes encountered in every day life.
• Understand the relevance of geography to their chosen vocation in life (whether they ultimately decide to major in geography or not.)
• Be able to state a position on an issue in writing or orally and effectively support it with evidence.
• Develop strategies for studying and good study habits that will benefit them throughout the rest of their college career.
• Be able to read and critically interpret a wider range of writing on current events and world affairs than when they started the class.

Expectations and Class Etiquette

I understand that I have a great responsibility to you to make sure that this class reaches its potential. While the responsibility for doing well in the class lies with you, I will do all that I can to assist you. I will come to class prepared and will, to the best of my ability, create conditions that foster a significant learning experience. I will provide you with useful and timely feedback on your work by returning papers to you as soon as possible (generally within two weeks for essays). I will be present in office hours or will provide notification of necessary absences. I will listen to, and carefully consider, any questions you have about the material, grading, or any other aspect of the class.
In order for this class to be a success, you must also take responsibility for the class and for your own learning. Accordingly I expect and ask the following from you:

• Please work to the best of your ability in the course and approach it with the attitude that you have something to learn from it regardless of your major or existing interests.
• Please be familiar with this syllabus and course policies and check the syllabus before asking questions about procedures that are covered here.
• Please come to me with any questions about course material or for help with difficulties you are having in the course as early as possible.
• If you must be absent please inform me by e-mail (as detailed below), consult with me and/or your classmates about material you missed, and pick up any assignments that may have been returned.
• Please come to class on time and do not leave class or pack up your things until class is finished. I will not intentionally hold you late. If I should lose track of time do not hesitate to politely interrupt and remind me.
• Please keep disruptions during lecture to a minimum. Do not talk during lecture, except to ask questions or raise points for the entire class. Please do not read newspapers of non-class related material during class. Please turn of mobile phones during class. Such disruptions distract your classmates and your professor.
• The quality of discussion is the collective responsibility of the students in the course. Please participate to the degree you feel comfortable doing so. Please be respectful of your professor and classmates during discussion, making sure to contribute in a manner that is neither rude nor offensive. Practice listening.
  

The Student's Responsibility for Learning Course Content

It is your responsibility to learn the content of the course (theories, concepts, ideas, etc.) by doing the reading, thinking about it before class, taking notes on the material in class, and by talking to the professor about gaps in understanding. Our class sessions will be devoted to reviewing the material you have read in order to solidify your understanding, answering questions prompted by the reading, introducing new material where appropriate, applying what you have learned to understand specific cases, and critically analyzing the material you have read. You should expect to do two to three hours of work outside of class for every hour in class. You should review the material continuously throughout the semester and ask questions about material you do not understand. That is, sit down for at least 15 minutes after each class period and review what was covered by annotating your notes, filling in a lecture outline from memory, or other similar means. While you may be a super talented student who can do well enough on tests just by coming to lecture and taking notes, your goal should not simply be to do well on tests, but to really and truly learn the material so that you can use it in the future. To get the full value out of the course you need to do all of the work including the reading. Budget enough time in your week for reading and for reviewing the material in this class!

Late Assignments and Make-up Exams

You must turn in all assigned work on time. Short essays (see below) are to be handed in during discussion on the date due. Question sheets (see below) are due at the beginning of the corresponding discussion class. I will only accept late assignments in the case of an illness, family emergency, university event, or other events beyond your control. If you must be absent the day an assignment is due please make arrangements to hand in your assignment early or to have a friend turn it in for you. Late assignments will not be accepted via e-mail! Use the mailbox (shelf) in the faculty suite (KCH room 201) to hand in assignments outside of class time. Reasonable exceptions to this policy may be granted depending upon individual circumstances.

You must take the exams as scheduled. Plan travel around exams! I will not allow early exams or make-ups to fit your travel schedule. I will not give make up exams except in the case of an excused absence for a university event, illness, or family emergency or obligation. Please consider taking a different class if your travel plans conflict with the final exam for this course.

Textbooks and Readings
One book is required for this class:

• Knox, Paul and Marston, Sallie, 2009. Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Perspective. Fifth Edition Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.
• In addition to the required book, I suggest that you purchase an atlas. You will need a moderately detailed atlas like Goode's World Atlas or the Rand McNally Answer Atlas. You may use atlases and maps in the library or online maps (Google Maps or Google Earth for example).
• All of your other readings for discussion sessions are available on the Internet through the course web site (see below).

The Geography 101 Web Site
The Geography 101 Web Site is the definitive guide to the class. Please take some time to familiarize yourself with it early on in the course. All of your discussion readings for the course are found online. You’ll also find a complete set of lecture outlines that you can print out and take notes on during lecture and use to study for exams. Additional resources include: a guide to writing essays, a grading guide for essays, a guide to citing sources, sample exam questions, a glossary, and much more!

Accessing Readings from Campus and from Home

Try to access readings for each week at least a week in advance. Do not wait until the morning before class to obtain the reading only to find out that you cannot access the reading because of a technical difficulty. Many of your readings are available from the library's full text databases which you may access from most any computer on campus. You may need to start the Adobe Reader before opening a PDF file. If you live off campus you may be prompted for your username and password to use the proxy server or configure your browser to use the proxy server. You will need to download the Adobe Reader software for PDF files. Instructions for doing so can be found on the IT and library web sites. See the course website for a link to these instructions. If for any reason you have a problem accessing a reading you should alert your professor as soon as possible in person, by phone, e-mail or instant message so that he can address the problem. Unless the reading is truly inaccessible to all students (because of a network outage, etc.) an inability to access an article will not be considered a valid excuse for not doing the reading.

Class Format
World Human Geography consists of lectures and discussion classes. The purpose of the lectures is to introduce and illustrate the ideas and processes that human geographers study. The discussions provide you with an opportunity to learn from your peers as we explore geographical issues in greater depth. The two parts of the course are fully integrated. Material presented in lectures will be necessary for discussions and the work you do in discussions will help you understand the lecture material. Attendance in both lectures and discussions is crucial!

Assignments and Course Work

Course Grading
Your final grade will be based on the following:

There are a total of 500 points possible. Note, however, that you start with 10 extra points for FREE! to do whatever you want with. You can squander them by not turning in an assignment or you can save them up and apply them to your final grade. The purpose for this is to help you easily recover from whatever disasters (academic or otherwise) you might experience throughout the semester (like forgetting to turn in a question sheet for example). The following point percentages will be used to determine your grade (unless an unusual grade distribution occurs). To figure out your grade at any point in the course, divide the total number of points you've accumulated (including your 10 free points) by the total number of points possible (not including the 10 free points).

Reading and Discussion Questions
After completing reading for each discussion session (see schedule) you will need to complete the discussion questions for the assigned reading prior to discussion classes. The answer sheets are found on the course web site and have been formatted for easy printing. Five times over the course of the semester, the professor will ask you to turn in your answers as a check to ensure that you are prepared for discussion. Each answer sheet is worth 1% of your grade so don't forget to do them! (1% can be the difference between an A and an A-!) Answer sheets are graded on a pass/fail basis.

Short Essays and Vocation Reflection Paper
During the semester, you will be asked to write two short five-paragraph essays and a final paper in which you reflect on the relationship between geography and vocation. The specifics of each assignment are found in the introductions to the appropriate discussions in the online discussion manual. Note that while the short essays are due the week after the discussion in which they are assigned, the vocation reflection paper is due on the day that we discuss the geography of vocation. The two short essays should conform to the following guidelines:

• All essays must be typed, double-spaced with a 12-point font.
• Essays are to be between two and three pages in length.
• Essays must include:
  • an introductory paragraph (or two) that culminates in a clear thesis statement;
  • at least three supporting paragraphs that develop the points in the thesis statement;
  • a concise concluding paragraph that sums up your argument.
• Sources must be referenced in the manner shown in the “Guide to Citing Sources in World Human Geography” found on the course web site. Incorrect referencing will lower your grade!
• For each writing assignment you will be given two grades, one for content and argument, the other for format, spelling, punctuation, syntax, etc. Your total grade will be the total points from these two grades.
• " For more details see “Writing an ‘A’ Essay” and “Grading Guide for Short Essays on the course web site.
  

Attendance
I expect on-time attendance for all class sessions unless you are ill, you are required to attend a university event, you have a family emergency, or you have made prior arrangements with me. If you must miss class for these reasons please provide me with a written note or an e-mail so that I can excuse your absence in my records. If you send me e-mail please place the words "GEO101 Absence" in the subject line to help me in my record keeping. Absences for any other reason or consistent lateness will lower your grade. Please be on time to class. Coming in late distracts your professor and your fellow students and some of the most important ideas are often presented at the beginning of class.

Participation in Lecture and Discussion
Sections of the course where the majority of students participate with enthusiasm consistently receive higher course ratings than those where students do not participate. Participation during lecture (asking questions, sharing observations, responding to questions) will help to make this a better class. Your professor responds positively to students who respond positively to him! Discussion sections are a place for you to grapple with the material presented in lectures and readings. You will be expected to participate by raising questions, debating points, developing ideas, and so forth. See "General Notes on Discussion," below. For these classes you must:

• Come to class! You can't participate unless you attend.
• Do the reading assignments in advance and come to class with ideas and questions - as well as with your completed answer sheets.
• Bring detailed notes on your readings or a printout of your readings so that you may refer to specific pages in the readings, look at notes you have written in the margins, etc.
• Be prepared to speak knowledgeably about the topic at hand (this is part of your participation grade).
• Try not to dominate the discussion. If you find that you are the only one talking, ask a question and invite someone else to answer it. 'Well that's what I think. What do all of you think?"

Exams
There are three exams in Geography 101:

• Midterm 1: Monday, Sept. 28
• Midterm 2: Monday, November 2
• Final Exam: Tuesday, December 15, 10:30-12:30

Exam Format
Both the midterms and the final will include multiple choice and short essay questions. See, "Sample Exam Questions" online for an indication of the types of questions asked. Many students make the mistake of not studying sufficiently for exams in this class. Do not make that mistake.

Map Questions
Many people think that geographers simply study the location of places. In reality the location of places must already be known in order to study geography. Therefore you will be expected to know where the places are that we study as well as places from the news. A week or so before each exam, you will be given a list of places you will be expected to know for the exam. It is your job to figure out where they are, if you do not already know. This list of places will be drawn from lecture, discussion, readings, and current events. A set of maps identical to those on the exam that you can use for studying will be provided to you.

Authorized Aid and the Honor Code
The Honor Code will be upheld in this course. Authorized aid in this class will be limited to your own personal knowledge during exams and your own work on all written exercises. When preparing the weekly question sheets you may discuss the readings and the answers to the questions with others but your written answers should be your own. You are encouraged to use the services of the writing center and you should have someone else proofread or offer suggestions on your essay assignments before handing them in.

You must use quotation marks for direct quotes, cite your sources, and include a list of works cited on your essay assignments. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism and may be considered unauthorized aid because you are essentially representing someone else's work as your own. Many first year students mistakenly believe that it is OK to cut and paste text from web sites into their papers without providing both quotation marks and a proper citation. Web sites are no different from any other source and need to be cited fully (including at least author, date, title, and date accessed in addition to the web address). If you do not know how to cite your sources or have any questions about this, please see the "Citing Sources in World Human Geography" on the course web site or talk to your professor. Finally sharing your papers written for this class with others on the Internet without notifying the professor first or downloading papers written by others to hand in (either in part or in their entirety) constitutes unauthorized aid.

Accommodations for Students With Disabilities
If you have specific physical, psychiatric, or learning disabilities and require accommodations, please let me know during the first week of class so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. All discussions will remain confidential.

General Notes on Discussions

The discussions are designed to provide an opportunity for you to think about and work through the material presented in class. Through discussion you and your classmates help each other to understand and apply the ideas from your reading and lectures.

The quality of a discussion largely depends upon the willingness of a critical mass of participants to prepare for discussion, to ask questions or suggest topics, and to respond to the questions and comments of others. Without this willingness to participate, nothing that the professor can do will boost the quality of discussion. The following guidelines will help to ensure that our discussions will be lively and worthwhile:

1. Discuss ideas and the evidence that supports them, not opinions.
2. Do not participate if you have not done the reading. Discussions are not simply a time to share your opinions but are meant to help understand the implications of what you have read.
3. If you have done the reading and are a full participant in the discussion, you may "pass" when asked to contribute.
4. Refer to the text or your notes when needed during the discussion. A discussion is not a test of memory. We are interested in understanding ideas, values, and issues.
5. When someone says something you do not understand ask for clarification.
6. Make notes as you read about points that you want to bring up in discussion. Take notes during discussion of ideas that you may want to remember to share with the class.
7. You don't have to raise your hand, but please be courteous of other speakers.
8. Listen carefully to what others have to say and talk to each other, not just to the professor. If you are the only one talking, invite others to offer their perspective.
9. Take responsibility for keeping the discussion moving. Ask your classmates questions. Share something that interested you in the reading, even if you are not sure where it will lead.

Sometimes we will discuss topics as a large class, but much of the time you will be working in smaller groups. No matter what the format, I expect full participation from all students. Thirteen years of teaching this class have shown quite conclusively that those who opt out of participating in discussions typically do poorly.

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Course Schedule and Important Dates