Men are so inclined
to content themselves with what is commonest; the spirit and the senses
so easily grow dead to the
impressions of the
beautiful and perfect, that every one should study, by all methods, to
nourish in his mind the faculty of feeling
these things. ...For
this reason, one ought every day at least, to hear a little song, read
a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it
were possible, to speak
a few reasonable words.
Goethe,
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. Bk. v, ch. 1 (Carlyle, tr.) [source:
Stevenson]
Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate
Education
1.
Good practice encourages student-faculty contact.
Frequent student-faculty contact in and out of classes is the most
important factor in student motivation and involvement. Faculty
concern helps students get through rough times and keep on
working. Knowing a few faculty members well enhances students'
intellectual
commitment and encourages them to think about their own values
and future plans.
2. Good practice encourages cooperation among students.
Learning is enhanced when it is
more like a team effort than a solo race. Good learning, like
good work, is collaborative and social, not competitive and
isolated. Working with others often increases involvement in
learning. Sharing one's own ideas and responding to others'
reactions improves thinking and deepens understanding.
3. Good practice encourages active learning.
Learning is not a spectator sport. Students do not learn much
just sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged
assignments, and spitting out answers. They must talk about what
they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and
apply it to their daily lives. They must make what they learn
part of themselves.
4. Good practice gives prompt feedback.
Knowing what you know and don't
know focuses learning. Students need appropriate
feedback on performance to benefit from courses. In
getting started, students need help in assessing existing knowledge and
competence. In classes, students need frequent opportunities to
perform and receive suggestions for improvement. At various
points during college, and at the end, students need chances to reflect
on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to
assess themselves.
5. Good practice emphasizes time on task.
Time plus energy equals learning. There is no substitute for time
on task. Learning
to use one's time well is critical for students and professionals
alike. Students need help in learning effective time
management. Allocating realistic amounts of time means effective
learning for students and effective teaching for faculty. How an
institution defines time expectations for students, faculty
administrators, and other professional staff can establish the
basis for high performance for all.
6. Good practice communicates high expectations.
Expect more and you will get it. High expectations are important
for everyone-for the poorly prepared, for those unwilling to exert
themselves, and for the bright and well motivated. Expecting
students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when
teachers and
institutions hold high expectations for themselves and make extra
efforts.
7. Good practice respects diverse talents and ways
of learning.
There are many roads to learning. People bring different talents
and styles of learning
to college. Brilliant students in the seminar room may be all
thumbs in the lab or art studio. Students rich
in hands-on experience may not do so well with theory. Students
need to the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that
work for them. Then they can be pushed to learning in
new ways that do not come so easily.
General Education Course Requirements
Course:
GEOG 355
Password:
AWH4H
Final grades are based
on % of 300 total points, earned from the categories below.
A=92-100%; B= 80-91%;
C=68-79%; D=50-67%; and F= less than 50%.
| Exam 1 | 50 points |
| Exam 2 | 50 points |
| Final Exam |
100 points |
| Quizzes 10 X 5 | 50 points |
| Annotated Bibliography |
50 points |
| Total | 300 points |
Attendance: It has been my experience as a student and instructor that there is a strong correlation between attendance and performance. Students who rarely miss a class and actively participate in classroom discussions tend to perform well on tests, quizzes, and in class discussions; students who lack the discipline required for regular attendance tend to perform poorly. Hence, daily attendance isstrongly encouraged. However, attendance will not affect your final grade.
Make-up Exams: No make-up exams will be given. If a student misses exam 1 or 2 with an appropriate excuse, then the make-up will be the comprehensive final exam, which will then be counted as 150 points. Only one exam can be made up in this fashion. If a student misses a second exam that exam will be recorded as a 0.
Quizzes: Approximately 10 quizzes will be given throughout the semester. They will always occur on Fridays and will be announced on the preceding Monday. There will be no make-up quizzes. Quizzes will cover material from lecture material.
Research Project: Students are required to complete a research project in this course. The research project consists of 2 parts: (1) a research proposal, (2) a final draft of an annotated biblography of at least 1500 words. I will help students choose individual research topics.
Readings and Participation: A fundamental element of a liberal education is the development of the ability to read critically. Hence, your success in this course largely depends on the amount of time and effort you devote to the assigned readings. To encourage your progress in this matter, I will grade students on the notes that they take on the assigned readings. I will also assign particular students to lead discussions on the required readings. Students will be graded on their performance. In addition, test questions will not only be drawn from lecture materials. Rather, a certain number of test questions will pertain to information found in the assigned readings.
Language, Vocabulary and Esoterica
Magazines and Newspapers
Week 1 (Jan. 28-Feb. 2)
Introduction
to course,
region and regional geography
Readings:
1/30 Orientation paper due:
Students will
turn in a typed, double-spaced, 250-word essay in
which they answer the
following questions:
1) Why did you enroll in this course?
2) Why did you choose to complete this theme?
3) What experience in Central America or the
Caribbean do you have?
4) What do you hope to learn in this course?
5) Which regions of Central America or the Caribbean most interest you?
6) Which issues related to Central America or the Caribbean most interest you?
7) Who are
you?
Print 4-5 copies of
the map found at the link above. You should go to "Print Preview"
and make the orientation "Landscape" and enlarge it as much as
possible. You can do this by reducing the margins of the page in "Page
Setup" and increasing image size to 125%. These maps will be useful for
note-taking next week.
Week 2 (Feb. 4-Feb. 8)
Physical
Setting: Atmosphere
Readings:
1.
Find Tela on Google Earth or a map.
Which of the three tropical climographs that you completed would
be most
similar to Tela's?
Tela is a coastal city
that
is ~45 miles due west of La Ceiba.
Because it shares the same elevation, latitude and coastal
location as
La Ceiba, Tela's climograph would be most similar to La Ceiba's.
2. Although the chapter is based on a location
in Colombia, Bates description is appropriate for rain forests in
Central
America.
3.
Look at the "Rain Forest" map and note that rain forests are found
along Central America's coast strips.
This region is also called the Central American littoral.
4.
Why does Bates feel that "jungle" is an inappropriate synonym for the
tropical rain forest?
Jungle is
a term that often implies a thick mass of
vegetation that is impassable for travelers.
In contrast, tropical rain forests often have open forest floors
that
are easy to walk through. This is
because multiple layers of forest canopies shield sunlight from the
forest
floor and limit growth of plants in that zone.
5.
Why does he compare the forest to a cathedral?
A defining architectural
characteristic of a cathedral is a high vaulted ceiling.
A defining characteristic of a tropical rain
forest is its tall trees in which the lowest branches sprout from the
long
trunk high above the forest floor (See map on p. 210).
Interlocking branches of the various tree
crowns form a natural cathedral ceiling.
6.
On what grounds base his claim that few diseases are "associated with
the
tropical forest"? Why is it that
malaria is often caught in the tropical forest?
Because the mosquitoes
that
carry diseases like Yellow Fever and Malaria travel only short
distances and
because these diseases require human hosts, Bates concludes that a rain forest absent of humans would be
relatively disease-free. Malaria
epidemics occur in regions of tropical rain forests where humans have
clustered
into settlements and created niches that have put them into contact
with
mosquitoes and provided hosts for pathogens like Yellow Fever and
Malaria.
7.
How do rains in the tropical rain forest differ from what we've been
getting
recently in California?
Tropical rain forest
rains
are torrential. Large quantities of
water (several inches) fall in a short period of time.
In much of California our rains are merely
sprinkles. In Chico we consider a one
inch of rain in a 12-hour period a gully washer.
8.
What does Bates mean when he says that the rain forest and coral reefs
"represent
the maximum development of life"?
The rain forest and coral
reef support the highest density (populations of organisms/area) of
biological
organisms in the world. They also
support the highest density of diversity (number of different
species/area).
9.
With regard to light, how is a rain forest like the sea? Both the
sea floor and forest floor are dark places shielded from sunlight. In which zone does most
photosynthesis occur? Sea
surface, shallow water or forest canopy.
10.
What does Bates mean by "giantism"?
How does it explain bamboo, tall trees, and the vine habit?
Plant survival in a
tropical rain forest depends on individual plant species' adaptations
that
allow them access to sunlight. Giantism
is one such adaptation. It allows a giant
grass species like bamboo to ascend above the forest floor and harvest
sunlight. Trees grow extremely long
trunks and only put out branches high above the floor to harvest
sunlight (See
map on p. 201 to get some idea of how tall trees are.).
The vine habit is another adaptation in which
plants grow in such a way that they climb the trunks of the tall trees
so that
their leaves are able to harvest sunlight.
Often the original tree becomes a dead hardwood prop that merely
supports the climbing vine. A common
name for such vine species is "Strangler Fig".
11.
How is the prehensile tail of rain forest mammals a parallel of plant
giantism
in the rain forest?
The prehensile tail of
rain
forest mammals is an adaptation that allows them to climb and live most
of
their lives in the forest canopy. The
tail is strong and can curl and grip.
12.
How is the forest floor zone like a "cork lined room" compared to the
air just above the canopy?
Cork insulates a room
from
changing atmospheric conditions. The rain
forest floor is insulated by the great mass of forest canopies above it
so that
it is protected from temperature changes and winds.
13.
In which forest zone did the mosquitoes live?
They lived in the forest
canopy where humidity was lower, breezes were frequent and temperatures
spiked
each day. Human settlements in the rain
forest involve forest clearance. That
brings these atmospheric conditions of the forest canopy to the forest
floor...and the disease-carrying mosquitoes follow.
14. Note how diversity of mosquitoes influenced frequency of biting.
15.
What does Bates mean by niches?
Niches
are micro-environments (For example, the small pool of water that
collects at
the base of a bromeliad leaf.) which provide specialized habitats for
many
different biological organisms.
How is it related to diversity and independence? The
tropical rain forest contains a multitude of niches which support the
great
diversity of biological organisms and allow these organisms to survive
in
relative independence from other organisms.
16.
How is a bromeliad a niche? Bromeliads are plants that often
grow as
epiphytes in tropical forests. They root
themselves to tree branches and create micro-environments that are very
different from a simple tree branch.
They collect water and tree litter that falls from above. This mix of decaying vegetative matter and
water is a micro-habitat or niche for other biological organisms.
17.
Bates obviously wrote before deforestation was a problem.
However, his point is correct. The
tropical rain forest has little economic
value. The economic motivation that has
led to so much of it being cleared is its value as cleared land for
agriculture, not for the economic value of the diverse organisms that
live in
the forest.
18.
Note the poor soils of the forest and their short-term value to farmers
and how
farmers have adapted an agricultural system to the limits of the rain
forest.
Resources:
Precipitation
map
Vegetation map
http://esminfo.prenhall.com/science/geoanimations/animations/01_EarthSun_E2.html
http://www.esys.org/wetter/doldrums6.jpg
http://iri.ldeo.columbia.edu/~bgordon/ITCZ.html
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_national/hurricanes/
Questions to
consider:
1.
In which season does Carr begin his description? Carr
is describing a location that would have a
climagraph similar to that of Tegucigalpa.
You should look at that climagraph.
2.
Type "Zamarano, Honduras" in Google Earth and you will see that
valley and surrounding mountains that he is describing.
Carr worked at the Escuela Panamericano in
the Zamarano Valley
3.
Note that Carr mentions the clouds carried by Trade Winds to those
peaks.
4.
What is the change in forest trees/type as he ascends from the valley
to the
peaks?
5.
What does type of forest is montaņa?
Where are the montaņas?
6.
What happens to the amount of precipitation as he ascends to the cloud
forest?
7.
Ocotal is place name in
Central America that means "place of the
pines" . Ocote is a common name for
one of the several species of pine trees that grow naturally in
Guatemala, El
Salvador, Honduras, Belize and Nicaragua.
"al" or "ar" is a suffix that means "place
of".
8. Liquidambar, or sweet gum, is an interesting tree. Similar to
pines, the sweet gum migrated to the tropical highlands during the
Pleistocene. In California the tree is planted as an ornamental
because of its brilliant fall colors. Chico's Esplanande includes
several good examples. In the forests of the southeastern US, the
sweet gum is a useless tree because it has no economic value as
timber. In Central America the tree is used as shade in coffee
fincas, planted as an ornamental and, as Carr mentions, is a
characteristic tree in the cloud forests.
9.
What does Carr mean when he says that "the transition areas between
these
vertical zones is the equivalent of many miles of latitude"?
10.
Pinabetal = "place of the
pinabete pine tree".
11.
Guamil = crop land that has
been fallowed.
The blackberry vines that colonize these patches form habitat
for highland fauna. You'll learn more about guamil later this semester.
12.
Carr was a naturalist so he included many names of the local flora and
fauna. Only pay attention to those that
I mention in these questions/notes.
13.
Notice how lush the cloud forest is in comparison to the parched valley
below. This is possible because of
greater moisture on those high peaks.
14.
In several places Carr uses the word disjunct to describe the
distribution of
could forests. Why is that word correct?
15.
What are epiphytes? Note their
distribution and density in the montaņa.
16.
In what form do cloud forests get their water?
17.
Why does Carr state that epiphytes are the "dominant plants of the
cloud
forest"?
18.
What feature of the cloud forest did Carr find to be "striking"? Why?
19. What
is a bromeliad?
20. Why
would a herpetologist be disappointed in
the montaņa?
21.
Check out the image of a quetzal at this site:
http://www.cloudforestalive.org/tour/qcam/quetzaldetails.htm
Also
read the site's description and history of the bird.
Here's
another good site:
http://www.birdinghonduras.com/BH_Guide.html
Skim
p. 11 to p. 16.
22.
How does Carr explain the "infrequent occurrence" of the
quetzal? What are the roles of topography
and human activities in his explanation?
23.
With what evidence does Carr base his claim that quetzals are
"prisoners"?
24.
How do clearance of forest for agriculture, blackberry tangles and
peccaries
explain the presence or absence of
tamagas?
Here's
a link to an image of a peccary:
http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla/Pecari_tajacu.html
I once had a pack of peccaries invade my soggy campsite in the tropical
rainforest of La Mosquitia. They are
quite smelly animals.
Here's
a link to an image of a tamaga:
http://www.afpmb.org/pubs/living_hazards/B1LOJANU.jpg
Here's
a link to an image of a tapir:
http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Perissodactyla/Tapirus_bairdii.html
You'll
read more about tapirs later this semester.
Week 6 (March 3-7)
Required Online
Reading:
http://www.mindfully.org/Heritage/2003/Civilization-Collapse-EndJun03.htm
Video:
Fall
of the Maya
Resources:
http://puffin.creighton.edu/museums/cohagan/copan_over.htm
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mayas.htm
http://www.mesoweb.com/
http://www.civilization.ca/civil/maya/mmc09eng.html
Brady, S. 2003. Honduras’
Transisthmian Corridor: A Case of Undeveloped Potential in Colonial
Central
America. Revista
Geografica, 133: 127-151.
Brady, S. 1999. The Historical Geography of the Earliest
Colonial Trans-isthmian Routes in Central America. Revista
Geografica. 126:
121-143.
http://www.csuchico.edu/gisp/ip/studies/latin_merida.html
http://www.delange.org/ElTajinVideo/Voladores.htm
