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

• To increase students understanding of the geographical context of Mexico.
• 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.

• Online and Reserve readings.
• http://www.csuchico.edu/library/llo/

                Password: 2FK5S

Final grades are based on % of ~ total points, earned from the categories below.
A=92-100%; B= 80-91%; C=68-79%; D=50-67%; and F= less than 50%.
 

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.

Book Review: Students are required to read and review a book, and present a 10-minute oral report on the book.  This link provides the details of the book review assignment. Book Review Assignment Evaluation Form.

Research Project: Students are required to complete a research project in this course. Students will write a travelogue in which they describe and explain the landcapes of Mexico as if they were travel;ing through them by bus.  Assignment instructions at this link.

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

• A.Word.A.Day Home Page : vocabulary, wordpower, words, language, english, dictionary, lexicon, logophile, wordsmith
• OED Online
• The Engines of Our Ingenuity: Main Page
• Say hello to the world
• Geographical Dialects
• CIA's Homepage for Kids
• Ethnologue, Web Version
• http://earth.google.com/

Magazines and Newspapers

• The Atlantic Online
• National Geographic
• MotherJones.com -- News and Resources for the Skeptical Citizen
• Utne Reader Online: A place in cyberspace where ideas and community intersect
• HCN.ORG: Environmental News in the West
• The Christian Science Monitor | Daily Online Newspaper
• Welcome to Orion
• The New Yorker: NewYorker.com
• The New America Foundation
• http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/
• http://www.quepasa.com/
• http://www.coha.org/

• Digital Map Sites
• Rand McNally - Download Maps
• K12online.com
• Geography Home Page

• 6 billion Human Beings
• Welcome to Earth: Population 6 billion
• Malthus' Essay on Population
• IDB Population Pyramids
• IDB Summary Demographic Data
• Demographic Transition
• Declining World Mortality Rates Map
• World Population Information

Week 1  (August 27-31) Introduction to course, region and regional geography

Readings:

Week 2 (Sept. 3-7) Physical Setting

Labor Day September 3. No class

Readings:
The reading for this week is found on JSTOR which is a database that we get through the university's library.  You can access the article at the link below. 

Sanders, E. 1921. The Natural Regions of Mexico. Geographical Review 11: 213-226.

Map.  Print out a bunch of these and bring them to class.

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.

http://www.wsu.edu/%7Edee/CIVAMRCA/TIMELINE.HTM

Readings:

Read all of the sections of the book chapter that you will find at the link below.

Required Online Reading:

"Letter From Mexico " 
"When the Air was Clear"

Readings:

Readings:

Vachon, M. 1993. Onchocerciasis in Chiapas, Mexico. Geographical Review 83: 141-149. http://www.jstor.org/

Week 16 (Dec. 5-9) Immigration and Mexamerica

Readings:
Go North, Young Man
http://www.basis.wisc.edu/rfc/documents/slides/cs_15a_slides.pdf

Bowe, J.  “Nobodies” The New Yorker, April 21-28, 2003: 106-133.