Teaching
Homepage
World Regional
Geography
GEA 2000, Spring 2010, U02, U04, U06, U09, U10
Main Lecture Room: SIPA 125
Time: Mon.,Wed. 3:00-3:50
Instructor: Benjamin Smith Email: bsmith@fiu.edu Office: SIPA 305
Office Phone: 348-2074
Office Hours: Mon. 2:00-2:45, Wed.
Discussion Sections
U02: Mon. 9:00-9:50, GC 278B
U04: Mon. 12:00-12:50 GC 277
U06: Wed. 11:00-11:50 CP 214
U09: Fri. 11:00-11:50 Chem & Phy 107
U10: Fri. 12:00-12:50 ECS 132
Monday
and Wednesday TA (U02, 04, 06):
Billy Hall
E-Mail: whall002@fiu.edu Office Hours: TBA
Friday TA (U08, U09): Mamyrah Propser
E-Mail: mprosper@fiu.edu
Office
Hours: TBA
Teaching Homepage Which You Must Check Frequently:
http://www.fiu.edu/~bsmith/teaching.htm (also available on http://ecampus.fiu.edu )
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 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.
Why This Course is in
the University Core Curriculum
This course is part of the University Core
Curriculum, in the area of Social Inquiry.
Like all courses in this area of the Core Curriculum, GEA 2000 is
designed to: “investigate social, political, and economic configurations;
cultural and psychological features of human life; gender, race/ethnicity, and
social class; consciousness and identity; social interactions with the natural
environment; and local, national, and global aspects of the human world.”
Furthermore, GEA 2000 is a particular type of social inquiry, namely one that
helps you as a student to “be able to compare and contrast societies and
cultures.” In fact, we are confident
this course will achieve all of the above goals. For nearly every area of the globe, this
course will discuss how environment, politics, population, culture, and economy
have shaped the diverse lives of people living on this increasingly connected
planet. Furthermore, as a geography course, special attention will be paid to
how issues of place and location influence and are influenced by human activity.
Thus, this course will not only shed light on what is out there in the world,
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 in other majors (IR, economics, social studies education, etc…). 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.
Learning
Outcomes
1. Have a basic awareness about what is out
there in the world. This includes countries, economic activities,
international institutions, environmental cycles, cultural complexes, etc. At the most basic level, before you can talk
about what connects different parts of the globe, you need to be aware what the
different parts of the globe are. Thus
being able to identify major political and environmental features will be a
part of the course. But more than that,
knowing at least of little bit about the historical geography of major facets
of our world provides a base on which to learn more. Like a doctor needs to
know anatomy to be able to practice, as a future professional in – and citizen
of – the world, this grounded knowledge is a foundation upon which further
growth and learning can be built.
2. Understand major processes that shape the
world. Very little of what happens
on Earth happens in isolation. Large
processes – such as trade, religion, environmental degradation and migration –
cut across countries, regions, and hemispheres.
At the same time, it is important to understand that these processes
always take place in specific on the ground circumstances. Thus, it is not enough to know what is out
there; it is equally important to understand how things relate (or sometimes do
not).
3. Be able to critically examine what you hear
about the world. This course 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, 5th Edition. By Pulsipher & Pulsipher. W.H. Freeman ISBN: 1-4292-3244-7
Important Dates in the Main Lecture
Monday,
Jan. 16, No Class, University Closed, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Monday, Feb. 7, First Exam
Monday, Mar. 21, Second Exam
Friday,
Final Exam
Important Dates in
Discussion Sections
Jan. 17.
– No Discussion
Section, U02 & U04, MLK Day
Jan. 24,
26, or 28 – First Map Quiz: North America, Middle/South America and Caribbean
Feb. 28,
Mar. 2 or 4 – Second Map Quiz: Europe, Russia and the Newly Independent States
Mar. 28,
30 or April 1 – Third Map Quiz: North Africa, Southwest Asia, Sub-Saharan
Africa
Apr. 11, 13 or 15 – Fourth Map
Test: South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania
Grading
There will
be 500 total points available in this class, broken down as follows:
50 points: Map Quizzes
100 points:
Discussion Section Attendance & Participation
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
Due to the large enrollment of this class, each exam
will be multiple choice. Questions will be drawn from lectures,
discussions, videos, etc. – basically anything covered in lecture and
discussion. To aide you in your
preparation, study guides will be provided on the teaching website.
On the first two exams, there will be 50 multiple
choice questions. The first exam will
cover the Introduction, North America and
Middle/South America. The second exam
will cover Europe, Russia,
SW Asia & North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
On the final, there will be 50 multiple choice
questions covering South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania.
On top of that, there will be an additional section consisting of 25 multiple
choice questions which will cover “trans-regional issues” we will have been
discussing since the beginning of class (meaning this section is
comprehensive). There will be a special
study guide for this section.
WHAT YOU MUST BRING TO EXAMS
Because the enrollments are so large in this class,
you will need to bring your FIU ID card with you to the exams.
Map
Quizzes
Throughout the semester there will be four map
quizzes, given during your discussion section, 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.
Reading the textbook before you come to class, even quickly, will
help your grade tremendously. I basically lecture from the book (with a
little bit of added material of my own), and having an idea of what is coming
up in lecture will allow you to more easily keep up with my pace. Reading
will also make you prepared for discussion section. It’s also a repetition thing – you are more
likely to remember if you see information in the book, then here it from me,
then talk about it in discussion, then finally learn it through studying for
the exam.
Attendance in the Lectures
Whether
or not you come to the Monday and Wednesday lectures is up to you (except on
days of the exam) – though I can almost guarantee those who do well in the
class will show up. It only makes
sense.
If you
come to the Monday and Wednesday lectures, I expect you to be on time, be
engaged and non-disruptive to other students (which means no reading of the
newspaper, use of smart or cell phones, Facebook,
doing homework for other classes, setting off fireworks, etc..). Those students
who keep other students from learning, or who are disrespectful of other
students and/or the instructor will be asked to leave that day’s lecture.
I want
everyone to do well, and showing up on Monday and Wednesday will certainly
help.
Attendance
in the Discussion Sections
However,
you must attend your weekly discussion section; this is because the benefit of
discussion section only comes when all students are there. As motivation to attend your discussion
section, you will be receiving 100 points for attending and participating. Getting
all 100 of these points will help to boost your grade tremendously – not going
means you can get no better than a C+ in the course.
You must attend the discussion section you
signed up for when you registered for the class – you will not get credit if
you show up at a different discussion section (it just becomes logistically
impossible to keep track of otherwise).
To get
attendance points, you must not only show up to discussion section on time, but also engage. It will be at the discretion of discussion
section TA to not award attendance points to students who demonstrate an active
lack of engagement (by not participating in group exercises or by coming and
doing something else like texting, listening to Ipod’s,
or quilting), disrupt class or are disrespectful to other students.
You will
get one free absence in discussion section – meaning that if you miss one
class, you will still get full attendance points.
Absences, Make-Up
Excused absences from discussion
include serious illness; illness of a spouse or dependent; death of an
immediate family member; University-sponsored trips; and major
religious holy days. It is your
responsibility to inform your discussion section TA of an absence from discussion section
or an exam in advance of class by e-mail (and within 2 weeks of the
start of class if it is a university trip or holy day), but no later than two
class sessions after the missed class.
In order to have an absence excused, you must provide original
documentation which the discussion section TA can keep. If this is done, and the discussion section
TA determines the absence to be excused, they will not figure the missed day
(provided there is not a quiz or exam) into your grade.
Make-up exams and quizzes will
only be given in extreme circumstances. The make-up exam will not be the same one
given to those who took the test on the established date, and will be given during
the final examination period, during which time you will take both the make-up
exam/quiz and the final. To sit a
make-up exam, you must 1) provide documentation to your TA in class within two
class periods of the missed exam/quiz addressing why your absence qualifies as
excused 2) have that documentation accepted by the TA 3) email your TA asking
to be given a make-up exam and 4) receive back an email from your TA confirming
a make-up exam will be given.
Your choices to attend or not
attend have consequences – just like they would at work. The TA’s and I take our responsibilities
and roles as teachers seriously; I hope you hold your role and responsibility
as a student in equal respect.
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 .
You can also always find it by Googling
“Benjamin Smith Teaching.” There will be a copy of the main course syllabus,
copies of all the TA section syllabi, the course schedule, exam study guides,
map quiz study guides, and lecture outlines.
Due to the cost of printing, none
of the materials will be handed out. If
you want them, you must go to the website.
Links to all of this information (as well as
possible exercises for discussion sections), will can also be found on http://ecampus.fiu.edu. If
you have trouble logging on to that website, contact UTS to help you get on
board.
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.
Email, Office Hours & Making Contact
My office hours (as well
the office hours of the TA’s) 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
any of our office hours (including my own), or make an appointment to do so.
Our job is to help you learn, not just
to assign grades.
If you have a question,
and cannot find the answer on the website or in the book, please, if you can,
hold on to it until discussion section – because chances are other students
have it as well and answering questions is what discussion section is for. If the question is urgent, please feel free
to email your discussion TA – their job is to make sure you are supported in
this course. You, of course, can also
email me. However, please recognize
that each TA, besides leading discussion sections, is also taking a full load
of classes of their own, and that besides teaching this
class, I teach another course, several independent studies, serve on
committees, conduct research and have a 2 year old at home. While we want you to learn and do your
best, please respect the fact that we are people who only have 24 hours in a
day, and that email from 120 people would take up a lot of that. And check the website – it is designed to
answer most of your questions before you ask them.
But again, let me repeat,
above all, we want to help you succeed.
If you can’t figure out the answer, please email us.
Academic
Integrity and Cheating: