Trin= ity Valley Community College

Dr. Thomas W. Hainze, Jr.

Physical Geography - GEOG 1301

Course Syllabus

Contact Information

Office
Athens 127 Baugh Technical Building
Phone
Athens 903-675-6317
Email
mailto:thainze@tvcc.edu?subject=3DEmail to me=

Principles of Geography :

Physical Geography is a three cr= edit hour course studying the relationships between human activities and the glo= bal environment. Emphasis is on physical geography with analysis of the sun/ear= th interaction, the climate, land and water features and mineral, vegetation, water, and animal resources.

Warning Note:<= /b>

Note, this is an Internet course. Internet courses are not for all students. It requires a great deal of self discipline and self motivation. To do well in the class, it is necessary for the student to work on the course material on a regular basis. Though there are no classes to attend, this class does require that you participate all through the course. If you wait to t= he end to try to do it all, you will not succeed as I will set strict deadline= s on when things are due.

Textbook The textbook= is a free online site. http://www.physicalgeography.net/home.html

Blackboard Access We are using the Blackboard software to communicate with each other. It is important that you get on Blackboard and become familiar with it as soon as possible. It will not be possible to successfully complete this course without access to Blackboard. I will do a= ll I can to help you get access, but ultimately it is your responsibility. =

Grades

A – 900 to 1000 points

B – 800-899 points

C – 700-799 points

D – 600-699 points

F - Below 600 points

Grade Calculation

Chapter assignments for chapte= rs 1 through 6 will be worth 60 points each (30 for the outline, 20 for the multiple choice, and 10 for the essay) 360 points

Chapter assignments for chapte= rs 7 through 10 will be worth 80 points each (50 for the outline, 20 for the multiple choice and 10 for the essay) 320 points

Mini Essays four at 50 points = each 200 points

Mid Term Exam 60 points

Final Exam 60 points

In addition, there will be some extra credit assignments during the semester.

Chapter Assignments
The book has 10 chapters. The first 6 chapters will have abo= ut a week per chapter, while the last 4 chapters will have about 2 weeks per chapter. The last four chapte= rs are much longer than the first six. The posted due dates are guidelines. I will take them after the due dates, but = if you are running late a crunch is going to come at some point. In addition, = you get a 5% bonus for submitting them by the posted dates. I will provide link= s in the assignment section of blackboard for you to submit the assignments to me. You will need to attach y= our files to them. The names of t= he files should be:

yournameCh1ES (for the essay question and answer), yournameCh1MC (for the multiple choice questions and answers) and yournameCh1OL (for the outline) for the first chapter and for subsequent chapters replace the 1 with the chapter number. Points will be deducted for failur= e to follow the submission requirements. You can combine them into one file, but label it yournameCH1ALL.

These assignments have three par= ts: a detailed outline of the chapter material (30 to 50 points depending on the chapter), 10 multiple choice questions from the chapter (20 points), and 1 essay question from the chapter (10 points). Details will be provided inside blackboard.

Part 1 a detailed outline is much more than the topics in the Table of Contents. You need to have short phrases for= most paragraphs explaining the key point made in that paragraph. You can do this= in either a word processor or using power point. I will provide an example of two g= ood ones from another course inside blackboard.

Part 2 multiple choice questions. Each question shou= ld have at least five (5) options. In addition, I want the correct answer indicated and the section number where the question/answer can be found in = the online textbook. Good questions get at the important points in the chapter,= not the most obscure. They also d= o not focus on details, but an understanding of the material and knowledge of the terminology. For example, don’t ask questions that require a specific number unless that number= is important to the concept (pH of 7 being neutral is important), but the date someone was born is not important. These should be done in a word processor.

Part 3 essay question. A good ex= am essay question requires the student to both understand the material and to think about the topic, not just regurgitate the material in the book word f= or word. Your essay question should not be a “list the….”, b= ut should focus on requiring the students to write explanations of concepts in= the chapter in complete sentences in two or three paragraphs. In addition to the question, I want you to provide the section number(s) where the book addres= ses the issue and provide an answer to the question. Also the answer should be doable i= n less than 250 words. These should = be done in a word processor. The= y will be graded in a sliding scale based on my evaluation of the quality of the question and of the answer.

Mini essay questions<= /span>

Mini-essays are short essays (generally 1 or 2 pages or 250 to 500 words) with less formal formatting requirements than traditional term papers.= The mini-essays will not be accepted after the due date because I wi= ll post the better ones for class discussion.= The submittal for these will be much like those of the chapter assignments with an assignment posted for you to submit your word processor files. The name of these files should by yournameME1 through yournameME6.=

Tests

There will be two tests. A midterm covering chapters 1 thro= ugh 6 and a final covering chapters 7 through 10. These will need to be proctored. You will have about a week to take= them. Each exam will be worth 60 points.= If you have been doing your assign= ments and paying attention in class these tests should not be too onerous. There will be about 20 multiple ch= oice questions and one or two short essay questions.

Schedule

TBD provided inside blackboard.<= o:p>