Daily Activities, Classroom Participation, Field Work

Throughout the semester there will be miscellaneous additional projects and assignments which will be introduced in class. One of them will require you to use e-mail and the www to communicate. Please be sure that you obtain an e-mail account, address, and establish a homepage account (with address) by September 10.

Field work is an important component of geography. Your assignment is to complete

1) a land use mapping exercise of downtown Bryan, and

2) an exploration of the geography of a cemetery using Boonville Cemetery on Boonville Road in Bryan.

Details are included in ARGE. We will meet on Saturday, ________, to begin the activities. Your report is due no later than _______ but we will establish a date in class. The grading criteria encompass both the process of field work (your thinking processes) and products. Here is a checklist to download (using Acrobat Reader) and print to help guide your final reporting process.

Field Work

You may wish to take these supplies with you.

• clip board
• pencil and graph paper
• shoes and socks
• insect repellent
• large craft paper and tape for headstone rubbings
• crayons (big fat ones), colored pencils
• shaving cream (optional)

Organize your materials and have a clear idea of what you are going to do. The actual field work should take you no more than 1 and one-half hours, depending upon traffic in downtown Bryan. I recommend you work with a partner but it is not necessary. Each individual should hand in a complete final field report with all the products requested.

Land Use Mapping in Downtown Bryan

1. Read Using Geographic Skills to See the World in Spatial Terms in ARGE. There isn't a piece of graph paper...you will need to get a piece from me or buy some. The procedure section is clear and step-by-step. Pick up a map of the 1938 Sanborn map from me to see which block you should map in Bryan. There is an explanation of Sanborn Maps in ARGE. Skim through the other materials on the history of Bryan and Boonville.

2. Consider how we organize the space in which we live. What are the reasons for patterns we observe? Think about Fien's conceptualization of geography.

• Geography is education ABOUT the environment and society, that is, the reasons relate to location, accessibility, price, and zoning.
• Geography is education IN the environment and society. The patterns are the result of changes over time. What are the processes of growth and decline in Bryan? What forces are driving the processes? How does the relative access and value of sites change?
• Geography is education FOR the environment and society. What is the value of knowing about the growth and decline of Bryan? How could this knowledge help in policy decision-making?

3. Products to Hand In:

• land use map of Bryan today (10 pts)
• your summary of change from 1938 to the present (3-4 sentences) (10 pts)
• develop two geographic questions related to Bryan's growth/decline process with an explanation of what other data you would need to answer the questions (20 pts)

Cemetery Exploration

1. Read Cemetery Study in ARGE. Note the supplies you will need for this part of the field work. Be careful not to step in ant mounds! Boonville Cemetery is located on Boonville Road, approximately 1/2 mile east of Highway 6 Bypass. Park by the gates. The side gate on the south should be unlocked.

2. Follow the instructions in #4 and 5 by picking an area of the cemetery to study. Make it large enough to collect at least 15 records.

• Make an accurate (count your steps) sketch map of the location of each headstone, trees, shrubbery, fences, etc.
• Collect the data on the data sheet.
• Make a rubbing.

Be sure you analyze the cemetery in terms of the questions listed on the second page of Cemetery Study and prepare two-three paragraphs of observations.

• What kind of vegetation covers the cemetery?
• What is the orientation of the headstones?
• What social organizations do you observe playing a role in the geography of death?
• Are there more infants or adults?
• What is the soil like?
• What can you infer about family life, migration patterns, national origins of early settlers in Brazos County? The state of their health? Other things?

3. Before you leave the cemetery, walk around the entire plot. What differences do you observe between the northern and southern portions of the cemetery. Speculate on the reasons for the differences.

4. Following the field work and data collection, complete #6A and 6B. Answer the questions posed in #7.

5. Products to Hand In:

• sketch map of cemetery (10 pts)
• data sheet (10 pts)
• rubbing (5 pts)
• three graphs: Female Deaths Against Age at Death; Number of Deaths by Month; Number of Deaths Per Year (15 pts) with a summary of your conclusions
• a summary of your observations and answers to #7 (20 pts)

Grading Criteria

Here are some ideas to keep in mind as you seek to earn full points...

• are the maps complete, neat, clearly explained, include TODALSIGs?
• have I applied geographic concepts to explain spatial change in Bryan and to develop geographic questions?
• have I been thorough and systematic in my field work?
• are the three graphs labeled clearly? Do the summaries reflect the data collected?
• have I applied the concepts and ideas explained in ARGE to analyze the real world?