CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY-CHICO Fall 2010 GEOGRAPHY 105 CALIFORNIA CULTURAL LANDSCAPES Instructor Dr. Dean Fairbanks, Associate Professor E-mail: Use the class WebCT email or Discussion board Phone: 530-898-5780 Office location: Butte Hall, Room 527 Snail Mail address: Dept. of Geography and Planning California State University, Chico Chico, CA 95929-0425 Course Description Welcome to Geography 105, California Cultural Landscapes. This course introduces students to the physical setting and geographical-historical cultural geography of California’s ever changing cultural landscapes. It uses a broad overview approach to examine the spatial and temporal changes in the California landscape resulting from the interaction of various cultural groups with their environment. This is an approved GE course under Area D, Sub-area D3: Cultural and Social Institutions. It also is a GE approved ethnic diversity course. General Education Policy GEOG 105 is a General Education (GE) course in Area D: Behavioral and Social Sciences, Sub-Area D3: Cultural and Social Institutions. It is intended for those students with no previous college-level social science coursework. The GE Program at CSU, Chico has five goals: • to improve reading, writing, critical thinking, discussion and speaking skills, mathematical reasoning, analysis and problem solving, and the ability to access, evaluate, and apply information; • to instill efficient, effective learning skills that will keep the student on a path of perpetual intellectual curiosity; • to enhance general knowledge and attitudes so that students have a well informed, integrated, and coherent picture of the universe and humanity, including the living and non-living physical universe; human cultures, societies and values; and the artistic and intellectual legacy of humanity; • to broaden knowledge about the impact, perspectives, and contributions provided by cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, cognitive, and global diversity; and • to provide, for each student, coherence, connectedness, and commonalty within broad areas of undergraduate education. The principal charge to GE Area D is to provide students opportunities to develop understanding of human behavior and the use of social theory, concepts, and analysis in application to human interaction. Class, race, ethnic, and gender issues should be integrated into courses in this area whenever possible. A course must, in a significant way, deal with human behavior. In each course, students must demonstrate learning: • in social science methods and perspectives, • in historic as well as contemporary perspectives and influences, and • in several relevant theoretical and methodological approaches. Under Sub-Area D3: Cultural and Social Institutions students must demonstrate learning in: • the development and variation of cultural and social institutions; and • how cultural and social development and variations affect groups, institutions, and behavior. Course Format This Fall Section of GEOG 105 is entirely web-based. There are no meetings in a classroom. Students learn about the geographical cultural and physical aspects of California through textbook, website readings, videos, and completion of a student research paper. Student learning assessment is accomplished through graded evaluation of quizzes, the student paper, and a final exam. Students are responsible for their own work. This web-based class requires a lot of self-discipline, good writing skills, and a desire to learn. Students in online courses need to allocate adequate time to complete the required assignments. Students are required to complete all class assignments on time. Effective communication is essential in an online class. Students are required to read class WebCT announcements, discussion-board postings and emails. In addition, students are encouraged to post discussion board questions, and to talk to the instructor via the class WebCT email. Course Goals and Objectives 1. Written communication: Students will enhance their skills in written communication through writing assignments linked to course content. 2. Critical thinking: Students will exercise critical thinking in analyzing human-environment interactions, the events, explanations for, and effects of the Spanish Conquest, Mexican Rancho era, and U.S. take over and development of California. This will include subsequent collective responses of indigenous peoples and the changing ethnic character of immigrants in various geographical regions of California and the cultural landscapes that are developed. 3. Students will demonstrate enhanced factual knowledge of the development over time and space of the physical geographic landscape and subsequent interactions with socio-cultural characteristics of pre- Colombian, Spanish conquest, Mexican Rancho era, U.S. colonialism and contemporary California. 4. Students will be able to describe the predominant cultural patterns over time and space, and inter-ethnic relations between cultures and the regional/local societies in which they exist. Class Requirements and Student Responsibilities Students enrolled in GEOG 105 are required to learn and use WebCT (see the “Getting Started” exercise). All quizzes, exams, exercises, and the student paper requirements are accessed and completed through the use of WebCT software. There will, however, be two assignments that will require students to snail mail me their answer sheets from the textbook. Watch for these in the Syllabus when they come up. Students enrolled in GEOG 105 are required to have an adequate computer and software that can access the Internet and allow completion of the class assignments. See the Chico Distance and Online Education web site for specific technical requirements. For help with computer problems, see Student Computing: How to get help. GEOG 105 students are advised to start and complete their required class work early. All material in this class is accessed via the Internet. Occasional technical problems with Internet access will occur (especially on weekends and evenings). Computer problems are normal. Make sure you have alternate access to the Internet (a second computer, public library, etc.) Students are responsible for turning in all course assignments on time. Students in this online course are responsible to respect the opinions of others. Opinions on ethnic matters are commonly deeply felt. Ridicule and provocation have no place in university education. Student online behavior in classroom discussion board postings and email communications is governed by the CSU- Chico Student Computing: Acceptable Use Policy. Academic Honesty Students are required to do their own work. Using work done by other students is cheating. If you include material in your class paper that is from a source not cited, that is plagiarism. Both cheating and plagiarism are violations of CSU- Chico University Policy. Student violations of University Policy will result in disciplinary action. For more information on academic honesty, see the Student Judicial Affairs section of the University Catalog. Class Assignments Textbook Readings: each week students will read assigned chapters from the course textbook. In addition, there are two short novels for assigned reading and they will have an exam on their content and meaning. Start reading “Where I was from” first, then later in the semester “Tortilla Curtain”. Look to the syllabus calendar for details. Exercises: Each week students will complete an exercise involving California geography website material and questions from the assigned textbook reading. These exercises are not submitted for grading, unless specifically requested by the instructor. Student learning of material in the exercises is assessed through (nearly) weekly quizzes. Quizzes: Each week GEOG 105 students complete a quiz taken from the current exercise. Each quiz consists of twenty-five questions worth one-point each. Students have twenty minutes to complete each quiz. Quiz question answers submitted after the twenty-minute time limit are not accepted. These quizzes are open each Friday from 8AM until 12AM--see schedule below for details. Missed quizzes cannot be made-up. If you are a DSS student please arrange with me through DSS ahead of time if you need extra time. Short Novel Assignments: All GEOG 105 students are required to complete two short writing assignments during the semester. These will be on the two short novels you will read throughout the semester. Look for their times in the syllabus calendar. Final Exam: This exam is an evaluation of student learning of material presented in this class. The final exam contains one-hundred questions taken from all thirteen exercises. The Final Exam will be posted during finals week. Exact date and time of availability will be available during dead week. Class Assignment Make-up Policy: GEOG 105 students are required to complete all assignments by their due dates. Quizzes, the final exam, and short novel reports normally cannot be submitted after 5 PM on their due date. Twenty-five free points are given to all students to take care of a problem such as a missed quiz. See the University Catalog for information concerning class incompletes, drops, and withdrawals from the university. Students should contact the instructor as-soon-as-possible for major emergencies. Grading Twelve quizzes 300 Points Two book review exams 100 Points Final exam 100 Points Total 500 Points (see note below) Note: 25 free points are not counted in the class grade computation. Grading Rule A 93-100% A- 90-92.99% B+ 87-89.99% B 83-86.99% B- 80-82.99% C+ 77-79.99%, C 73-76.99% C- 70-72.99% D+ 65-69.99% D 60-64.99% F <60% Required Texts Fairbanks, Dean H.K. California Cultural Landscapes: An Exploration of Spatial Patterns Over Time, First Edition. KendallHunt: Dubuque, IA, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7575-6824-4. Comes with California Atlas, 3rd edition (make sure your copy of the textbook has the atlas as well). All class exercises and quizzes are keyed to this textbook. Make sure all pages are in the text, especially the exercises at the back of each chapter. If missing pages return it for a complete textbook. Buy the two short paperback novels for this class: • Boyle, T.C. (1996). Tortilla Curtain. Penguin Books. • Didion, J. (2004). Where I Was From. Vintage Books. This textbook can be ordered online from the Associated Students Bookstore. The textbook can be ordered from other online sources including from Amazon http://www.amazon.com and the publisher KendallHunt http://www.kendallhunt.com/. Make sure that the book is in stock and use priority shipping. You are required to have the textbook in time to complete Assessment Quiz One by the end of the first week of the semester. CLASS SCHEDULE NOTE: All weekly Exercises are posted by 5 PM on Fridays, unless noted in Syllabus calendar. Weekly Quizzes are available on Fridays starting at 8AM and are due by 12AM (midnight). Quiz grades are normally posted on the following day. The Final Exam is posted during Finals Week- TBA. COURSE SCHEDULE* Dates Topics Text chapters Assessments Aug 23-­-27 Course Introduction-­- instructor and students; Concepts in Geography, Understanding California (Exercise posted 23rd) Chapter 1 Assignment from TEXTBOOK in mail by 27th 1 QUIZ Aug Sept Sept Sept Sept Sept Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Dec Dec Dec 30-­-3 6-­-10 13-­-17 20-­-24 27-­-1 4-­-8 11-­-15 18-­-22 25-­-29 1-­-5 8-­-12 15-­-19 22-­26 29-­-3 6-­-10 13-­-17 Landforms: Shapes and Materials, Plate tectonics, Geologic Natural Hazards, Geomorphic regions. Climate: Elements and Controls, Climate Regions, Atmospheric Natural Hazards Chapter 3 Assignment form TEXTBOOK in mail by 10th California Plants and Animals: Conservation and Fire Hazards Native American Landscapes, Ethnicity and the Environment. Spanish Arrival and Mission Era: Exploration and Settlement Patterns Mexican Rancho Era Gold Rush: U.S. Take Over and The World Rushes In Beginnings of Modern California and Rise of Southern California: Railroad, Landscape, and Progressive Notions Joan Didion’s “Where I Was From” – Book Review Exam California Agri-­-“cultures” and Irrigation Farming Water: Urban Imperialism and Institutional Development T.C. Boyle’s “Tortilla Curtain” – Book Review Exam THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY Rise of Modern California: WWII and Beyond Modern California: The Geography of the Future Has a Past FINALS WEEK 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 12 QUIZ QUIZ QUIZ QUIZ QUIZ QUIZ QUIZ QUIZ EXAM QUIZ QUIZ EXAM QUIZ EXAM * Subject to change by instructor with no notice provided.