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UNIT 1
INTRODUCTION TO GEOGRAPHY
AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE COURSE SYLLABUS

Wednesday January 19
Lecture: History and Applications of Geography
The Four Traditions of Geography
The History of Geography
Important Terms: Geography, Cartography, Spatial Tradition, Human-Land Tradition, Regional (Area Studies) Tradition,
Earth Science Tradition,  Environmental Determinism

Friday, January 21
Lecture: History and Applications of Geography (continued)
Important Terms: Quantitative Revolution, Systems Approach, Spatial Analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), Remote Sensing
Geographic Information Systems
Global Positioning Systems
Remote Sensing
Topographic Maps
Geography at About.com

Monday, January 24
Video: "GIS in K-12 Education"
Lecture: Introduction to the Course and Review of the Syllabus

Wednesday, January 26
Discussion: Article Review Assignments
See: APA Style Guide for Citing On-Line Articles
See: MLA Style Guide for Citing On-Line Articles
Link:National Geography Standards (k-12)
Tutorial: National Geography Standards
Lecture: Introduction to Map Interpretation and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Read: pp. 8-14, 28-37 (Bradshaw text)
Important Terms: formal regions, functional regions, direction, location, latitude, longitude, map scale (representative fraction, verbal scale, graphic scale), isoline, topographic map, map symbols (point, line, area), large scale map, small scale map,
thematic map, choropleth map, dot map, cartogram, geometry

Friday, January 28
Lecture: Introduction to Map Interpretation and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) (continued)
Discussion: Web Page Assignment
See: Instructions for Web Page Assignment
Assignment: Web Page Draft - Due Monday, February 21

Monday, January 31
Note: Article #1 Due
Lecture: Natural environment of the CIS and related issues
Read: Chapter 8 pp. 364-373 "Natural Environment" (Bradshaw text)
Read: Chapter 2 pp. 57-63, 66-70 (Bradshaw text)
Important Terms: Aral Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Volga River, Syr Darya River, Amu Darya River, Remote Sensing, Chernobyl, Oil Exploitation, permafrost, Siberia, Caucasus Mountains, Ural Mountains, Kamchatka Peninsula, Alfisols (brown earth soils), Mollisols (black earth soils), Podzol soils, Taiga forest, steppe, tundra, mid-latitude desert.
See: Student Atlas of World Geography 2nd Edition - Maps 87, 88, 89a, 89b, 89c and 90
See: Student Atlas of World Geography 3rd Edition - Maps 93, 94, 95a, 95b, 95c, and 96

Wednesday, February 2
Lecture: Natural Resources, Land Use, and Environmental Problems in the CIS
Read: pp. 369-373 and p. 385 (Figure 8.25)
Read: Environmental Push Factors and Human Migrations in the CIS
Consider the questions below...
a. - How is the situation in the Aral Sea region related to desertification?
b. - Define "environmental refugee."  Provide examples of CIS environmental refugees.
c. - Describe how desertification is impacting specific CIS countries
d. - Describe how desertification has impacted the Amu Darya River region.

Friday, February 4
Lecture: The Russian Federation - Economic and Population Geography
Read: pp. 373-388, also pp. 356-362.
Read: pp. 37-41
Read: pp. 43-49
Important Terms: dot density map, choropleth map, stages of demographic transition,
population decline, population pyramids, population distribution, primary economic sector,
secondary economic sector, tertiary economic sector, quaternary economic sector, captialism,
communism

Monday, February 7
Lecture: The Russian Federation (continued)
Read: pp. 373-388.
Read: Condolezza Rice Seeks Progress in Russian Democracy

Wednesday, February 9
Lecture: Southwestern CIS and Central Asia
Read: pp. 388-395
Read: pp. 53-57
See: Yushchenko declares victory in Ukraine
See: The CIS in the News

Friday, February 11
Lecture: Urban Environments in the CIS
Read: pp. 395-398, pp. 376-377 "Irkutsk"
Important Terms: Nationalist uniform urbanization (see p. 396), [Russia - republics, territories, oblasts, autonomous
districts], monolithic uniformity, hegemony, centralization, visual symbolism, "secret cities"

Monday, February 14
Lecture: The U.S.S.R. and the Cold War: Historical Implications in the "War on Terror"
Important Terms: Cold War, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
See: The Making of Osama Bin Laden
Exam I Preview/Questions and Answers

Wednesday, Feb 16
EXAM I - Chapters 1,2, and 8, etc etc

CLICK HERE TO GO TO UNIT 2
"The Geography of North America"

CLICK HERE TO GO TO UNIT 3
"The Geography of Latin America and the Caribbean"