Syllabus

Texts | Course Requirements| Exam Policy | Scholastic Dishonesty |

Assignment Schedule | Activities and Readings in the Geography of Texas (ARGOT)

Texts & Readings

• Dallas Morning News. 2004. 2004-5 Texas Almanac; Benson and Company.2001. School Atlas of Texas
• Activities and Readings in the Geography of Texas (ARGOT) Available as .pdf files
• Readings on electronic reserve at http://library.tamu.edu
  
  • Jordan, Bean, and Holmes. 1984. Texas, Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9
  • Swanson. Geo-Texas. 1995. Geo-Texas, Chapters 2, 3,10
  • Arreola. 2002. Tejano South Texas, Chapters 4, 9
  • Miller and Sanders (eds). 1990. Urban Texas, Chapter 1
  • Finnegan. 1995. Deep East Texas

Course Requirements

1. Two examinations (50% of your grade).
The exams will cover class lectures, readings, and knowledge and skills gained from completing ARGOT activities. The tests are not cumulative.

2. Activities and Readings in the Geography of Texas (ARGOT) activities (50% of your grade).
How much do you know and can do with geography? These activities are designed to give you hands-on experience in discovering more about the topics discussed in class. Take time to do well on these activities. Quality is important. Work with a study group to ensure accuracy and completeness. Each activity will count equally and be graded using a scoring rubric. Read the assigned articles carefully--as you do the text.

• 12-15% A's
• 30-35% B's & 30-35% C's
• 12-15% D's &/or F's

3. Attend class.
It is imperative that you attend class on a daily basis in order to secure the knowledge necessary to succeed in this course. Despite the fact that this is a large class, I invite questions and comments about the topic and especially how it relates to current events. Should you miss class, however, please get the notes from a fellow student or your study group, not me. I will take attendance on random dates. If your grade is at the cut off between grades, I use attendance to determine whether you should gain the benefit of the doubt.

4. Keep up with the reading.
The lectures will be more meaningful and thus valuable if you keep up with the reading in your text, contemporary events in Texas, and do ARGOT activities regularly. Discuss issues with members of your study group.

5. Study group.
I recommend but do not require you to form a study groups with no more than three other members. This group should serve as a support group for members that:

• gives assistance, support, and encouragement for mastering course content and skills,
• gives assistance, support, and encouragement for thinking critically about the course content, explaining precisely what one learns, engaging in intellectual discussion, getting work done on time, and applying what is learned to one's own life, and
• provides a structure for managing the course requirements, e.g., workbook activities, attendance, assessments (tests).

Even though each of you is personally responsible for handing in each workbook activity and taking the tests, I suggest that you work cooperatively in a study group. More information on study groups is located in ARGOT.

6. Work with your group.

Exam and Quiz Policy

If you are absent for an exam, there will be a make-up offered only if (1) you contact me either by phone or in person within 24 hours of the date, and (2) you provide me with a written doctor's note stating that you were incapacitated and unable to attend the exam. I will not contact the Health Center, nor is it a sufficient excuse for you to have been at the Health Center and thus to have missed the exam. Check University regulations regarding excused absences. If in doubt, call.

Scholastic Dishonesty

Please see the University Regulations regarding scholastic dishonesty. I encourage you to work with a study group to complete activities and to learn the material. Note, however, that providing answers for any assigned work or copying someone else's work, either with or without their permission, is considered unethical and a violation of the University Code of Honor. It will cause you to lose all workbook activity credit for the semester. Work cooperatively in your group and contribute; do not copy blindly.

Plagiarism is passing off as one's own the ideas, words, writings, etc. which belong to another. In accordance with this definition, you are committing plagiarism if you copy the work of another person and turn it in as your own, even if you have permission from that person. (after Wayne E. Wylie) See http://www.tamu.edu/aggiehonor/