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World Regional
Geography
GEA 2000, U02. Fall 2006
Class Location: PC 438 Time: 12:30-1:45 p.m. M,W
Instructor: Benjamin
Smith
Email: bsmith@fiu.edu
Office: DM 437B Office
Phone: 348-2074
Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday 11:30-12:15, 2:00-3:15,
or by appointment
Teaching Homepage Which You Must Check Frequently: http://www.fiu.edu/~bsmith/teaching.htm
So you want to know
everything there is to know about the world? (or perhaps fulfill a requirement)
Either
way, you have come to the right place.
It is my hope that this course will be one the broadest ranging, most
chocked full o’ information courses you will take in college. I also hope it will be one of the most
enjoyable. For nearly every area of the
world, we will discuss environment, politics, culture, economy… well just about
everything. We will cover not only what
is out there, but also the major patterns and processes which cut across
regions that explain why what is out there is where it is.
This is a foundational
course.
Consider
this course to be “anatomy of the world.”
In medicine, anatomy is the foundation of everything. You cannot operate, prescribe medicine or do
anything particularly effectively (or at least not know why it is effective)
without knowing anatomy. This course is
the equivalent for geography, but I would also argue it is potentially equally
foundational for many of you who are not in geography. If you are in business, chances are some
aspects of your operation (raw materials, labor, suppliers, customers, etc.)
will be located outside the local area.
If you are an engineer, environmental factors and social factors help
determine what is appropriate to create, as well as how it is created. If you’re a doctor, you will be treating
patients from all over the world, and it helps to know a little bit about where
they are from. Law is getting
increasingly internationalized, and the list goes on and on. And as a human being, who has respect for
other human beings, it is important to know what the rest of planet is
like. Gaining basic knowledge about the
world and how it works is the first step to becoming a good citizen of the
world.
This
means there will be a lot of
information and ideas presented in this course, but I think it will be
information that will in someway be useful, or at least enlightening, for
you. Thus you must come prepared to
class, and be prepared to learn.
The Goals of the
Course
1.
Have a basic
awareness about what is out there in the world. This includes countries,
economic activities, international institutions, environmental problems,
cultural complexes, etc. This does not
mean you will need to know the name of every mountain, river, and provincial
capital in the world. But it does mean
that when some place or some issue is raised in the news, other courses, etc.
you have an idea about what is being discussed, or at least enough of an idea
to begin to learn more based on related information.
2.
Understand major
processes that shape the world. Very
little which happens on earth happens in isolation. Large processes – such as trade, religion,
and migration – cut across countries, regions, and hemispheres. Thus, it is not enough to know what is out
there; it is equally important to understand how things work.
3.
Be able to
critically examine what you hear about the world. This is not about you adopting mine, or
anyone else’s, perspective on the world.
What this is about is
realizing that there are multiple perspectives about many of the world’s big
and little issues, and being able to examine your’s and others’ assumptions about
how the world works. This does not mean
not having a position, only a willingness to examine other perspectives on
their own terms.
Required Texts
World Regional Geography (without
sub-regions): Global Patterns, Local Lives, 3rd Edition. By Lydia
Pulsipher. W.H. Freeman ISBN:
0-7167-6825-9
Student Atlas of World Geography, 4th
Edition. By John Allen. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.
ISBN: 0-07-299846-6
Important Dates
Monday, September 4, Labor Day, No Class
Wednesday, September 13, First Map Quiz – North, Central
and South America
Wednesday,
September 27, First Exam
Wednesday, October 9. Second Map Quiz – Europe, Russia and the
Newly Independent States
Wednesday, October 25, Third Map Quiz – North Africa, Southwest
Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa
Wednesday,
November 1, Second Exam
Friday, November 3, Last Day to Drop Course with DR grade
Wednesday, November 15, Fourth Map Test – South Asia, East
Asia, Southeast Asia
Wednesday,
November 29, Writing Assignment Due
Monday, December
11, Final Exam
Grading
There will be 500 total points available in this class,
broken down as follows:
50 points: Map
Quizzes
50 points:
Attendance Quizzes & Activities
50 points: Writing
Assignment
100 points: Exam 1
100 points: Exam 2
150
points: Final Exam
500 points Total
The grading
scale is A = 100-93%, A- = 92.9-90%, B+ = 89.9-87%, B = 86.9-83%, B-
=82.9%-80%, C+ = 79.9-77%, C = 76.9-73%,
C- = 72.9-70%, D+ = 69.9-67%, D = 66.9-63%, D- = 62-60% F = 59-0%, which
translates to, in points:
Exams
Each
exam will be a combination of multiple choice, matching, and short
answers/miniature essays, drawn from lectures, readings, videos, etc. –
basically anything covered in class or assigned in reading.
The
first two exams are non-cumulative, meaning they cover material not previously
tested. The Final Exam, however, is a combination
– for the most part, it an exam over new material covered since the second
exam; but it also has a cumulative portion, that focuses on major issues which
cut across all sections of the course.
Thus:
Exam 1: 100 pts (all
material from beginning of class).
Exam 2: 100 pts.
(all material since the first exam)
Final: 150 pts (100 pts of material since second
exam, plus 50 points worth of questions on major issues)
Map Quizzes
Throughout
the semester there will be four map quizzes, which test your knowledge of where
the world’s stuff is on maps. The
features that will be tested include, but are not limited to: countries,
cities, rivers, seas, mountains, peninsulas, and sub-regions.
You
will be given a study list in advance of each map quiz, to help make your task
easier.
Map quizzes will contribute a maximum of
50 points towards your final grade.
However, there will be more than 50 points of map questions offered
during the semester. This means you can miss several questions on
map quizzes over the course of the semester, and still receive the full 50
points. This means if you have one poor
quiz, or solid, if not perfect, performance on all quizzes, then you will still
receive full points.
Attendance, Attendance Quizzes &
Activities, and Participation
You are expected to attend every class just as I am,
especially since I am going to give you points for doing so. Arrive at all lectures prepared. This means having read and considered the
material assigned for that class. This
does not mean committing the entire selection to memory before each class; it
does mean you have spent enough time on the reading, so that when I bring up a
topic or place in class, you know a little something about it.
To keep track of attendance and give you
incentive to be prepared, I will have “attendance quizzes,” which will require
you to answer very simple questions about that day’s reading, or an in class
activity, which will draw on your knowledge of the days reading. To keep the stress level down, as
long as the class by and large does well on the attendance quizzes, everyone
who turned in a quiz will receive full-credit for that quiz and I will not
grade the next one individually either.
However, if the class as a whole does poorly, I will be forced to grade
the subsequent quiz individually. NOTE: Please bring paper to class.
Attendance quizzes and activities will
contribute a maximum of 50 points to your final grade. Like with the map quizzes, there will be more
than 50 points of attendance points available – meaning you can miss a class or
perhaps have an off day on the reading.
Participate
actively in lecture. This means actively
processing the information and participating where appropriate. Ask questions and engage (which means no reading of the
newspaper, use of cell phone or mp3 player, or doing homework for other
classes), while being respectful of other students and their opinions.
I want everyone do well: being in class and engaged is a big part of
that.
Writing Assignment
While
more specifics will be given later in the semester, there will be a short,
typed writing assignment that will be worth 50 points. This assignment will be an opportunity for
you to communicate, in an organized, thoughtful way, your level of
understanding of, and ability to apply, the core concepts of this course. This is not a research paper (although it
will likely involve watching a film outside of class); instead, consider it more
of a take-home essay question. It will
be due on Wednesday, November 29, at the beginning class, and must be submitted
in both physical form (typed and stapled) and electronically (in order to check
for plagiarism).
Absences, Make-Up
Excused
absences include serious illness; illness or death of an immediate family
member; University-sponsored trips; and major religious holy
days. It is your responsibility to
inform me of the absence in advance by e-mail (and as soon as possible if it is
a university event or holy day), but no later than two class sessions after the
missed class. In order to have an
absence excused, you must provide sufficient documentation. If this is done, I will do my best make sure
you make up what you missed.
Make-up exams
will only be given in extreme circumstances, and the make-up exam will not be
the same one given to those who took the test on the established date. There is no excuse to miss paper deadlines –
you can always finish early.
Teaching
Website, On-Line Articles, and Updates
At the top of this document, you will find
the address for my teaching homepage, which is http://www.fiu.edu/~bsmith/teaching.htm
. There will be a copy of the syllabus
there, the course schedule, handouts, exam quiz review sheets, and links to in
class reading assignments – anything I hand out. In addition, I will keep a blog (which will
be accessible from the teaching page) for this class on which I will post
announcements (such as the unlikely event of a class cancellation), answer
questions and link to articles which are related to the class that I come
across. Thus, if you have a question about the structure of the class (due
dates, test structure, etc.), check the website and the blog, because the
answer will probably be there.
Office
Hours & Making Contact
My office
hours are posted at the top of this document.
If you are having trouble at all, I strongly encourage you to stop by or
call during office hours, or make an appointment to do so. My job is to make sure you learn the
material, not just to assign grades. I
will also try my best to answer questions via e-mail, but realize that apart
from teaching this class, I am also teaching a second course, doing research,
and administrative work, thus the quickest, best way to get an answer is to
stop by or call me during office hours.
Academic Integrity, Cheating and Plagiarism:
Since you will
have a brief writing assignment for this class, you must be careful to avoid
plagiarism. Do not try to turn in an
essay you downloaded from the internet, do not change a few a words in one and
hand it in. The writing assignment in this class will require so little time, you
are a sad, pathetic, human being if you have to cheat at it (plus you will fail
the assignment). Familiarize
yourself with the penalties for “Academic Misconduct” in the student handbook,
and to learn more about how not to plagiarize, go to the following websites
(suggested to me by Gail Hollander)
1) “Plagiarism: What It is and How
to Recognize and Avoid It (Indiana
University)” at http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/plagiarism.html
Teaching
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