Physical Geography 1

Class Times: MW 9:35-11. 11:10-12:35, 5:20-6:45 Classroom Village (CV) 4

Dr. Melanie P. Renfrew, www.lahc.edu/earthscience/geography

professorrenfrew@yahoo.com For e-mail, please i.d. your name & Geog 1 in subject line.

Office Hours: MW 9:15-9:30, 12:35-1:35, 4:30-5:15; MW 9:45-10:15 p.m. (or when evening students finish lab or tests), in CV 4, or by appointment.

Course Description: Physical geography is an exploration of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere. Major topics are Earth-sun relations, mapping and satellite imagery, weather and climate patterns, ecology, plate tectonics, landform development, and human impacts on the environment. This is a foundation course for students interested in Earth sciences and environmental studies, as well as a major in geography. Nature walks are a regular part of the class.

Textbook and other requirements: 1. DK Smithsonian EARTH, 2005, J. F. Luhr, NY: Dorling Kindersley: Hardback recommended. 2. Rand McNally Education Atlas of World Geography, 2006.

Required Materials: 8-9 Form 883 Scantrons (have matching and completion on back), pencils, eraser, 24-pack colored pencils, portable pencil sharpener which contains the shavings. Please have these materials in your book bag, as we’ll do activities with them. Insect repellant, hat and sunglasses, comfortable walking shoes, and water bottles are needed for nature walks. Please don’t skip them, as headaches come from eyestrain or dehydration. I want you to enjoy these walks. Bugs are attracted to perfumes and the color yellow, and West Nile virus is a remote risk.

Please make sure to eat before class, and drink water: the brain cannot function without nourishment and good circulation! When we don’t eat or drink water, ‘fog brains’ prevent us from processing the maps or new way of thinking: geography wasn’t taught well in our schools, so it takes extra alertness to learn “spatial” thinking (3-D, maps). We are in this learning process together. Try to figure out how to be ready, e.g., tea, washing your face, exercise and fresh air before class to stimulate circulation, etc.

Please do not wear perfume to class, as we can’t control the circulation well, and it makes others uncomfortable or have histamine reactions (allergies). Some people do not realize how strong their scent radiates, and it deprives others of oxygen.

Harbor Lake walks and “Alternate class sites”: On any non-rainy day, we may take a nature walk to Harbor Lake, or around the wetlands. (These are not “field trips” or an “alternate site.”) Please come prepared. Take notes, as what we cover will be on tests.

Alternate class sites: 1-3 classes will be scheduled at nearby Palos Verdes sites. WATCH IN CLASS FOR DATES AND DIRECTIONS, as it depends a bit on weather. Please carpool. We will meet for 45 minutes, so 15-20 minutes will be allowed for driving to and from LAHC. We will discuss all 4 “spheres” on these days, and it will be on tests.

Grading:

· Distribution: 90-100% = A, 80-89% = B, 67-79% = C, 60-66% = D, < 59%=F.

· Please record test scores as you receive them. Test 1 ______Test 2 _____Test 3____

· Quiz scores: _____ _____ ____ _____ ____ ___(lowest quiz score will be dropped.)

· The total possible points may be approximately 400: about 200 points - Tests, Quizzes, Comprehensive Final Exam;

· Approximately 200 points: + 100 – Homework & class exercises. 100 points -Participation & Effort (Respect: no talking while the professor is teaching, visibly trying, improvement on test scores, no cell phones or walking in and out of class to answer cell phones, no text messaging, no whining, no swearing). Students who distract others from their class activities (talking about other things) will have 5 points removed from this score each time, plus it will affect your final P & E letter grade, and rude students will not be allowed to stay. If you are on the border between 2 grades, this Participation and Effort score is the most important decision-maker for your final grade.

· Students can work together, but each is responsible for understanding the material, and writing in his or her own words. If someone copies your work, both will get a zero.

· No cut-and-paste copying from the Internet: Plagiarism is using someone else’s work. Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated, and will earn an F.

· No make up tests without a genuine emergency or medical excuse: notify me on e-mail on the day of the scheduled test, or call 310-233-4557. (This number is an office I am not using because of campus construction, but I check it occasionally. E-mail is preferable.) If you are sick, be ready to take a make-up, possibly essay test on the day you return, during an office hour. If you miss a test otherwise, your lowest test score will be doubled.

· No make-up quizzes: your lowest one will be dropped. No quiz scores will be doubled; if you miss more than one without a genuine illness, a zero will be recorded.

· Extra credit field trip write-ups only count at the end IF your Test 3, homework at the end, and Final exam scores are C’s or above: reports cannot substitute for tests or the final , and will be recorded in a separate column on the grading sheet; i.e., the end. Do not focus on Extra Credit rather than studying content covered in class & the book.

· Take charge of your college transcript: delay college and get a job first if it is not “in your heart” to learn. If you can’t finish the class for any reason, you must drop it yourself.

· Student success takes a plan! I want to help, but you must strategize from the start how to do well. To get an A, plan on at least 6 hours of study time a week, depending on your background. Students at Harbor are preparing for UCLA, USC, and jobs in D.C., so it is important to have solid content and grading. Compete, or jobs requiring education and skills will be moved overseas (“offshore”).

Homework and class exercises: 1. Start watching local TV weather forecasts (e.g., Channels 7, 9), and forecasts on the Weather Channel if you have it, almost every day. Weathercasters I recommend are Dallas Raines (7), Rick Dickert in Sky Fox if you’re an early bird (5-7 a.m. on 11), Jackie Johnson & Josh Rubenstein (9), and I’m still deciding about the others. Announcers don’t always understand the weather or the audience.

2. Find the map locations on the next page on 2-4 blank world maps, right away.

3. Atlas, Earth text, and Internet exercises will be assigned almost every week.

Reading schedule (Earth text pages): Study guides will give more detail.

I. Introduction to Earth, Earth in Space: Read 6-17, 43-51; Study pages 48, 128-129.

II. Atmosphere: 126-129, 438-477

III. Hydrosphere: 126-131, 210-259, 382-435

III. Biosphere: 132-137, 282-373

IV. Lithosphere: Skim 21-41, 52-103. Study 78-82. For 104-125, 140-209, 260-281, 430-433, 480-495, there will be a study guide.

Test dates: Feb. 27, March 19, April 30, quizzes in between. Final Exam:____________

A take-home exam will be considered only after progress is evaluated on Test 3, a cumulative, multiple-choice test. Students earning a solid A all the way through can skip the final. Field trip reports cannot be substituted for a final: the instructions are different.

GEOG 1 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY MAP LOCATIONS TO KNOW

Mountain Ranges Large Lakes & Seas Rivers

Rocky Sea of Okhotsk Mississippi

Cascade Sea of Japan Missouri

Appalachian Bering Sea Colombia

Sierra Nevada East China Sea Colorado R. & delta

Sierra Madre (E & W) South China Sea St. Lawrence

Andes Philippine Sea Rio Grande

Alps Yellow Sea Amazon

Carpathian Gulf of California Orinoco

Pyrenees Gulf of Mexico Rhine

Atlas Hudson Bay Danube

Ethiopia & “Turkey eastward” Bay of Bengal Nile R. & delta

are also mountainous regions. Arabian Sea Congo

Himalaya Caribbean Zambezi (Victoria Falls)

North Sea Niger R. & delta

Archipelagoes Baltic Sea Huang He (Yellow R.)

Hawaii Mediterranean Sea Chang (Yangtze)

Indonesia Black Sea Indus

Philippines Caspian Sea Ganges

Japan Red Sea Brahmaputra (N of Himalayas) “West Indies” Persian/Arabian Gulf Mekong

Lake Victoria Tigris

Large Islands Lake Turkana (NW Kenya) Euphrates

Greenland Lake Superior Yenisey

Madagascar Lake Michigan Volga

Great Britain Lake Huron Ob

Ireland

Sri Lanka Straits/Canals

Sumatra Panama Isthmus, Canal

Borneo Gulf of Suez, Suez Canal

Java Strait of Malacca

New Guinea Strait of Gibraltar

Honshu Strait of Hormuz

Taiwan English Channel

New Zealand (N. & S. Isl.) Turkish Straits

Peninsulas Other major geographical features

Palos Verdes Great Basin in NV/UT

Baja California Sahara Desert

Alaska, Florida Sahel (semi-arid grasslands south of Sahara)

Yucatan Tibetan Plateau

Iberian Great Barrier Reef

Turkey Great Rift Valley.

Italy Great Plains, U.S

Greece

Scandinavian Other map patterns in class related to topics we study

Arabian (plate tectonics, volcanoes and earthquakes,

India climates and biomes, etc.).

Korea The goal of geography is not to memorize place locations,

Malay but to understand spatial patterns on Earth, see

SE Asian correlations and solutions: seeing the “bigger picture.