Expectations and Procedures

1. You will need to keep pace with the schedule and satisfactorily complete all work for the course. This is standards-based education. If your work is not up to my standard, it may be revised for a higher grade according to these guidelines:

• make-up is completed within a specified period of time (agreed upon by you and me)

• the revision is discussed during a personal appointment

2. You must attend all classes. This is an inquiry class. The nature of your questions and participation are important and will influence your grade. I will lower your grade if you have more than two unexcused absences. See the Student Handbook for definitions of excused absences.

3. All materials submitted should be typed and/or professionally executed in the case of maps, graphs, charts etc. Web-based submissions should be clear, crisp, and easily accessible. Be sure all work is original or carefully cited.

Explanation of Assignments

Readings | Geography for Life Web Assignment | Essay Assessment | Developing Your Mental Map and Authentic Assessment | Daily Activities/Classroom Participation/Field Work | Geographic Information Systems

Readings

One of the most important daily activities you must complete are the assigned readings. You will read material on both geography [Geography for Life and Why Not Here?] and geography education [the readings listed in the assignment schedule]. These materials are assigned to give you opportunities to reflect on the nature of geography and to identify geography's important concepts and to relate them to significant world issues. You also need to start to grapple with the vital question: How could I teach/explain/engage students to learn about this?

Following the assignment schedule, read each article and keep a notebook Notes on Readings (or see the syllabus for other possible ways to fulfil this requirement). You will use these notes to prepare for the essay assessment (it is open-notes), Geography for Life Web Assignment, and class activities, I suggest you take careful notes on your readings. Your entries in Notes on Readings for each assignment should include:

• a brief summary of the main points of the article. What geographic concepts and generalizations are featured? What information is relevant to teaching geography? What conclusions can be reached? List any important concepts developed in the article. If you are reading Standards, what key ideas appear to be most important in this realm of geography? In some cases you may wish to summarize the articles as concept maps rather than in prose.

• Your personal reflection on the article. How does it relate to geography? How does it "fit" into your developing definition of geography? How could you turn this information into something "teachable and learnable?" Answer the question: How could I teach/explain/engage students to learn about this? You may wish to sketch a little concept map linking the article to others you have read.

I suggest these learning tasks will help you remember the readings:

• Summarize. This requires synthesis and restatement of what you have read in your own words.
• Write Questions. The requires you to respond to the reading.
• Explain. Explain the thought process used in writing the article, solving the problem, or why certain statements are true or false.
• Microtheme. A microtheme is a brief, focused writing assignment that requires you to compare and contrast what you have read, to take a position, and defend that position using evidence from the readings.
• Writing to Read. Use a double entry notebook and describe what an author says in one column and react to the author's comments in an adjacent column. (Recommended)

Essay Assessment

The essay assessment will be on Tuesday November 26. Prior to the class assessment, each student will write an essay question, then an ideal answer (one page) to the question. In class, students will be randomly assigned an essay question and write an answer. When completed, the essays are returned to and critiqued by the "teacher" student. The essay question should focus on and relate to a synthesis of all the readings particularly Why Not Here? Geography for Life, Learning Geography and Teaching Geography. For more information go here.

Sequence of WWW Skills and Activities

A. Claim e-mail account

Establish a web site [ see http://cis.tamu.edu/help/personal.php3]

Know your address and have ability to "publish on the web" by September 10.

B. Create your home page with a brief bio. All your other assignments will be linked to this page. By September 17.

C. Add a picture/image of your favorite place (and yourself!). By September 19. For examples of what to do (and not to do) see http://geog.tamu.edu/sarah/studentprojects01.htm.

D. Add a new, linked page with your definition of and rationale for geography by October 1.

E. Geography for Life Web Assignment. By December 3. Class presentations of web sites in lieu of final exam.

GIS is a key geographic tool used by geospatial professionals in a variety of ways (see http://www.esri.com). It is also a cool technology useful for teaching geography. It is not possible to make you fully competent GIS user in this course but I do wish you to become familiar with it. Therefore, I will distribute a CD-ROM featuring a "light" version (ArcVoyager) of a popular GIS software (ArcView) for you to use. In ARGE there is a series of step by step "cookbook" instructions leading you through learning to use GIS. After an introduction in class, I would like you to complete these activities on your own between 10/16 and 10/25. Read the article "PBL-GIS." I will distribute a "take home" GIS quiz due on 10/29. In addition to the quiz, I want you to write a description of an idea for one "lesson" that students could complete using GIS. We will discuss this in class.