Map Assignments

During the semester, you will submit three map assignments. These assignments require you to search for, find, and record some up-to-date information related to a course topic and use the information to make a map.  You may make the map in any way you choose—sketch it yourself, map the data onto a published base map, or use computer software. The important thing is that you construct the map. Photocopied maps are not acceptable. If you find that someone has already produced the map you wanted to make, you can always find another map from a different time period and show the change over time.  An online source of outline maps that may be downloaded, printed, and used can be found here.

Although your text contains many maps that are appropriate for this course, its statistical information dates back to the mid-1990s.  It takes several years to write, revise, publish, and market a text book.  Because you can find more recent information from the plethora of sources available, you can produce more current maps.

My objectives in giving you this assignment are to

1) make you aware of the various types of data that are available,
2) familiarize you with the reference and map library departments at Evans  Library,
3) encourage you to use the Internet productively,
4) force you to think about the spatial patterns of the information you find, and
5) expose you to more recent facts and figures relevant to your course.

If you find data that you map yourself, you should hand in one or two pages containing the information you found and (optionally) no more than two paragraphs explaining how and why the information is worthwhile and relevant to GEOG 304 students.

Make sure you cite the source of your information on the map you submit.

Grading
In order to receive full credit your map must

1) present information about a topic that is obviously relevant to the course,
2) contain information that comes from an appropriate source and cite that source,
3) contain information that is up-to-date,
4) be mapped appropriately so that the viewer can understand the point
(this will be more important for maps 2 and 3), and
5) appear neat and clear enough that I could use your map to demonstrate a point in class.

If you accomplish number 5, you will have almost certainly satisfied points 1 through 4. Your goal should be to make a map that I will show to your classmates.


Geography Education Standards Option
For those of you who plan to teach when you graduate, I offer an educational option that encourages you to think about how you can use what you are learning in your classroom when you begin teaching. Examine the TEKS for your grade, find and list a topic related to economic geography, write one page explaining how you will incorporate something you have learned in economic geography into your curriculum. This does not have to be a formal lesson plan, but you must show how you can use an economic geography concept in your classroom.