syll101

GEOG/LAST 355.02 and 355.72

Lands and Peoples of Central America and the Caribbean

Syllabus

Spring 2012 Dr. Scott Brady
Office: 523 Butte Hall Location: Cyberspace

Office Hours: MWF 9-9:40 and 11-12:40.

Writing Center http://online.csuchico.edu/public/Writing_Center/

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]

Description:

Study of the physical environment, human settlement, development, and modern problems of the nations of Central America and the Caribbean. This course is designed to be a component of the Upper-Division Theme on Mexico and Central America. This is an approved General Education course. This is an approved Non-Western course. This course is the same as LAST 355 which may be substituted.

GE STUFF

Course Objectives:

To increase students understanding of the geographical context of Central America and the Caribbean.
To develop students' knowledge of the region's connections to, and interdependencies with, other people and places around the world.
To develop students' skills in synthesizing and analyzing information, including Internet-based information.
To develop students' skills in writing and discussing their ideas.
To help students read, listen, observe, and reason critically.

Required Materials:

Online readings.

Course Format: This is an online readings course. We never meet. We read, do exercises, take 3 exams and write a paper. Students may utilize the chat room feature on our Vista site. I will not monitor chats and they will not be graded. Students should utilize the chat room as a support tool. You can exchange questions, information and helpful hints in the chat room.

Email: Students should utilize the email feature on our Vista site for all communication with me. Sometimes students ask questions that are shared by other students. In such cases, I'll post my answer as an announcement or discussion on the Vista site.

Office Hours: I also will use office hours to answer students’ email inquiries. This will require patience. Students should not expect immediate responses to emails. I will respond only during office hours.

Web-site: I will regularly update the course web-site. Students must visit the site to be aware of changes and additions. You will find links to web-sites embedded in each week of the course. I will also post questions beneath these links that will guide your viewing of these sites. The information that I guide you to will be covered on exams.

Exams: There are 3 exams. They are open book exams that include information from the readings and other materials that I direct you to through the web-site.

Make-up Exams: No make-up exams will be given.

Optional Research Project: Students have the option of completing a research project in this course. The research project is an annotated bibliography. It has two parts: a proposal and the final project. The instructions for the proposal are at this link. The instructions for the final project are at this link. Here's a past example of an annotated bibliography: link. Students will turn in this project in the body of an email, not as an email attachment. You will send your proposal and annotated bibliography to my email address: sbrady@csuchico.edu.

Plagiarism: Unfortunately, students have committed plagiarism on their annotated bibliographies during past semesters. They copied work from an online source and presented it as their own. I referred these students to judicial affairs and asked that they receive the most severe penalty. I will continue to do so.

The University catalogue http://www.csuchico.edu/catalog/cat05/ includes an overly general description of activities that constitute plagiarism. I have included it below.

"Plagiarism: Copying homework answers from your text to hand in for a grade; failing to give credit for ideas, statement of facts, or conclusions derived from another source; submitting a paper downloaded from the Internet or submitting a friend's paper as your own; claiming credit for artistic work (such as a music composition, photo, painting, drawing, sculpture, or design) done by someone else."

Please review the detailed explanation of plagiarism found at this site: http://www.collegeboard.com/article/0,3868,2-10-0-10314,00.html. Please use in-text citations to give credit to your sources. If you have any questions about plagiarism, please contact me.

Grades:

Academic Policies and Regulations

Final grades are based on % of 225 or 150 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	50 points
Research Project	75 points
Total	225 points

If you choose not to complete the research project, your grade will be based on 3 exams. See below

Exam 1	50 points
Exam 2	50 points
Final Exam	50 points
Total	150 points

Online Resources:

Language, Vocabulary and Esoterica

Magazines and Newspapers

Maps

Population

Tentative Schedule:

Week 1: 1/23-1/27

Introduction ppt to course, region and regional geography.

Open the ppt above and view some mages to familiarize yourself with the region. I’ll post a lot of ppt slide shows this semester. Most of them will include maps, text and some of my photographs. This one is just pics of the region.

Readings:

1. Bates, Marston. 1952. “Tropical Climates”. In, Where winter never comes; a study of man and nature in the Tropics. New York, Scribner.

Question Set #1:

Key

Remember that you do not turn in this question set, or any others, to me for grading.

Print 4-5 copies of the map found at this link: map. 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 during the next few weeks.

Interdependencies:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122919202&ft=3&f=1936301

Week 2: 1/30-2/3

Physical Setting: Atmosphere

Climate.

Climate is the long-term average of four atmospheric conditions: temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind and precipitation. This week we’ll look at web-sites and a climagraph exercise to learn about these climatic conditions. First open the link below. It’s a world climate map. Scroll over to the Caribbean and Central America and notice the different climate regions. Obviously this map includes more detail than the climate map that Bates used. For right now I want to you identify the 3 largest climate types in the Caribbean and Central America and their general locations.

http://www.boqueteweather.com/images/world_climate_map.jpg

Earth-Sun Relations

Earth-Sun Relations determine the long-term average of temperature. They also influence the other three atmospheric conditions that comprise a climate.

Visit the link below to see an animation of Earth-Sun Relations.

http://esminfo.prenhall.com/science/geoanimations/animations/01_EarthSun_E2.html

This animation would be even better if it included the Heat Equator that Bates discusses in the assigned reading. The Heat Equator, which causes the most intense heating on the surface of the earth, swings back and forth from the Tropic of Cancer on to the Tropic of Capricorn. You can think of the Heat Equator as the bearer of summer. As it moves over, or near, a particular latitude it brings the warm season. So, when the Heat Equator moves to the Tropic of Cancer, the northern hemisphere begins its warm season. The portion of Earth’s surface between the two tropic lines is always near the Heat Equator, so tropical areas have a permanent warm season.

Here is the sequence of the Heat Equator’s progression from tropic line to tropic line:

On December 21 or 22, our Winter Solstice, the Heat Equator is at the Tropic of Capricorn, 23.5° S.

On March 21 or 22, our Spring Equinox, the Heat Equator is at the Equator, 0°.

On June 21 or 22, our Summer Solstice, the Heat Equator is at the Tropic of Cancer, 23.5° N.

On September 22, our Autumnal Equinox, the Heat Equator is at the Equator, 0°.

And the cycle continues.

This animation does show what Bates was speaking of when he discussed the Heat Equator. To view this, you must click the “Show Earth Profile” tab. You will see that as the earth orbits the sun, the Earth Profile image shows the latitudes at which the “vertical rays of the sun” strike Earth’s surface. “Vertical rays” are the same thing as the Heat Equator.

As you may have already learned, some of the Caribbean and Central America’s pre-Columbian civilizations had already figured out this cycle long before the arrival of the Spaniards.

I encourage you to print out several copies of this map of Caribbean and Central America and draw in the Tropic of Cancer. It will show you which portions of region are tropical according to latitude.

Climagraph exercise. Please open the Word file below and do the climagraph exercise. Climagraphs are a useful way to learn about the climate of specific locations. The file includes a climagraph for Chico and several locations in Caribbean and Central America. The exercise will give you some idea of the climatic diversity found in the tropics.

Climagraph exercise

You can check your climagraphs by looking at mine at this link: My Climagraphs

Readings:

2. Bates, Marston. 1952. “The Rain Forest”. In, Where winter never comes; a study of man and nature in the Tropics. New York, Scribner.

Question Set #2:

Key

Resources:

1. http://esminfo.prenhall.com/science/geoanimations/animations/01_EarthSun_E2.html

This site shows an animation of Earth-Sun relations that Bates described.

2. http://www.boqueteweather.com/images/world_climate_map.jpg

3. Precipitation map

4. Vegetation map

5. http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/100/circulanim/circul_anim.htm

6. http://www.esys.org/wetter/doldrums6.jpg

7. http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/hurr/hurtrack/index.html

Week 3: 2/6-2/10

Physical Setting: Atmosphere (continued)

and,
Physical Setting: Surfaces

Atmospheric Pressure and Circulation.

Open the two links below to familiarize yourself with atmospheric pressure and circulation.

The movement of air in the lower atmosphere is described by the concepts atmospheric pressure and wind. Atmospheric pressure refers to the vertical movement of air. In high pressure, air is subsiding, or sinking, to the earth’s surface. In low pressure, air is ascending, or rising, from the earth’s surface. This web-site animation shows several large areas of persistent high and low pressure with thick blue arrows. Arrows pointing up indicate low pressure. Arrows pointing down indicate high pressure: http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/100/circulanim/circul_anim.htm. Persistent low pressure is found in the tropics. This low-pressure system is known as the Equatorial Low or Doldrums. Persistent high-pressure areas are found at roughly 30° N and S latitude. These high-pressure systems are known as the Sub-Tropical High Pressure Systems (STH). The animation shows that these systems shift seasonally. This movement of these pressure systems is caused by the seasonal movement of the Heat Equator.

What causes low pressure? Well, what causes air to rise? Heating. So, the intense heating located at the Heat Equator creates the low-pressure system that swings like a pendulum across the tropics.

Why does the animation show clouds at the tropical low-pressure system? Because, the lifting of moist air (low pressure) causes clouds to form.

On the animation, why aren’t there clouds by the Sub-Tropical High Pressure systems? Because air descends/subsides in a high-pressure system. Hence, the STH does not include the lifting of moist air that is required for cloud formation

Look at the image at this link to see the wind belts that are created by air moving from high to low pressure systems.

The Northeast Trade Winds prevail between 0° and 23.5° N. These winds blow warm, moist air over Central America and the Caribbean.

As the animation showed, the STH moves into our region of study between November and March, bringing with it a dry season in most of interior Central America.

Look at the map at this link Precipitation map. In Central America, you will see the words “Summer Maximum”. That means that most precipitation occurs during the summer months, just like your climographs show. During the summer months the STH, and the dry conditions it causes, is north of Central America and causing our dry season in the California’s Central Valley. Look at the same map off the coast of northern California. There you will see “Winter Maximum. This means northern California experiences it wettest months during the winter, which is when Mexico is experiencing its driest months. Where is the STH in the winter? In Central America.

This map Vegetation map shows how vegetation regions extend from Southern Mexico into Central America. The Weeping Woods described by Carr are the “Mixed forest” shown on the map. The rain forest described by Bates is the “Tropical rain forest” on the map.

Here is the key to the climograph exercise My Climagraphs. Compare my climographs with yours and see if you can understand how the seasonal migration of the STH influences the graphs.

Plate Tectonics

Central America and the Caribbean’s land surfaces are complex. Rugged mountains and mile-high plateaus make up much of Central America’s area. Recently active volcanoes punctuate the skyline of the Caribbean’s Lesser Antilles and the Pacific slope of Central America and frequent earthquakes regularly shake life up. The dominant tectonic process that has created Central America and the Caribbean’s land surfaces is subduction, which occurs when the Cocos Plate drives under the Caribbean Plate off Central America’s Pacific coast and where the North American Plate drives under the Cocos Plate at the Lesser Antilles. You can see that process at this link:

http://esminfo.prenhall.com/science/geoanimations/animations/35_VolcanicAct.html

After opening up the page, click on “Continental volcanic arc.” Then click the arrow to see the process of subduction. The only problem with this animation is that it shows an oceanic plate moving westward under a continental plate. The directions are reversed in Central America. As the animation shows, volcanism is one product of subduction. Another is seismic activity, specifically earthquakes. This link http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/ shows an up-to-date map of earthquakes around the world. You can see how earthquakes often cluster along Central America’s Pacific coast and the eastern Caribbean where subduction occurs.

Power Point presentations.

1. Subduction. View this presentation to see some of the landscapes produced by subduction.

2. Forest Regions. View this presentation to see some of the forest types described by Bates and Carr.

Readings:

3. Carr, Archie. 1953. “The Weeping Woods". In, High Jungles and Low. Gainesville, University Press of Florida.

Question Set #3:

Key

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.

Resources:

1. http://esminfo.prenhall.com/science/geoanimations/animations/35_VolcanicAct.html

The animation at this site demonstrates the tectonic process, subduction, which has created this region’s torturous topography.

2. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/

This site shows a world map of recent seismic activity. Note the clusters of activity near the tectonic plate boundaries.

Week 4: 2/13-2/17

4. Wallace, David Rains. 1997. “Central American landscapes”. In, Central America: a natural and cultural history, edited by Anthony G. Coates. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Questions to consider:

For this chapter I will not post questions. Instead, I want you to write down the main characteristics of each of the landscapes/regions, and to know the geographic location and extent of each. I also want you to view the ppt presentation below. It shows you some aspects of each of the physical landscape regions. The slides are organized according to several Google Earth routes that are shown in the presentation.

5. West, R C. 1998. Mesoamerican Subsistence Techniques. Pp. 77-102 in Latin American Geography: Historical-Geographical Essays, 1941-1998, Miles E. Richardson (editor). Geoscience and Man, Baton Rouge.