GEOG 101I: Physical Geography GE Area B1: Physical Universe Meeting time: MW 8:00-8:50 AM (Lecture); W 9:00-10:50 AM (Lab/Activity) Classroom: Butte Hall 503 Instructor: Nori Sato e-mail: nsato2@csuchico.edu Office: Butte Hall 535 Phone: 898-6219 Office hours: Mon, 9:00-10:00 AM; Tue/Thurs 1:30-3:30 PM; or by appointment Lab instructor: Jeremy Miller Required textbook: Christopherson, Robert W. Geosystems: An Introduction to Physical Geography. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2012. Course description: Physical geography addresses how physical, chemical and biological principles shape human landscape patterns and, in turn, how humans affect their physical world within a global to local context. Students will learn how the spatial diversity of agriculture, cities, transportation, and other aspects of the human landscape are linked to physical processes and geographic patterns of weather and climate, water, soils, landforms, natural disasters, vegetation, and animals. The course provides a survey of the basic processes that determine energy flows through the atmosphere, and examines the subsequent interactions among water, rock, soil, vegetation, and landforms that create and modify the Earth s surface. Students will be introduced to how major transformations in our physical environment such as climate change, species loss, and water distribution can be traced to human activities. GE student learning outcomes: GEOG 101I will address three of the GE student learning outcomes: Written Communication: Develop effective written communication skills in scientific report writing through laboratory assignments. Critical Thinking: Learn to think critically about the geographic environment by examining the implications of associations among physical phenomena at the local, regional, and global scales. Active Inquiry: Develop an understanding of Earth s physical landforms, and the processes controlling variations in weather and climate, soils, and plant communities using the scientific method. Pathway associations: Diversity Studies Food Studies Global Development Studies International Studies Science, Technology and Values Sustainability Diversity Studies: Natural diversity is examined in conjunction with physical processes that are taking place over different landscapes and have taken place to shape the current
landscape. Chico s environmental conditions, for example, may be very similar to or very different from other regions of the world. The course assists students to learn what physical processes lead to unique landscapes where we live. Food Studies: Physical environmental conditions in various regions determine what vegetation can grow there. Fundamental knowledge in regions and their associated climate, soil, and water conditions, for example, is essential to what food crops can be grown in a given location. Global Development Studies: Changes in physical conditions due to climate change as well as natural disasters alter the world where we live. Environmental stewardship, or lack of it, has impacts on physical conditions beyond political borders. Students will develop in-depth understanding of vulnerability that different physical landscapes may regularly face. Understanding such vulnerability prepares students to possess unbiased views of the world. International Studies: Different from political borders, physical landscape typically changes gradually from country to country. Different physical landscapes and environmental conditions make given regions unique. Students will learn to appreciate different landscapes and the physical environment, within which we live and develop unique ways of life. Science, Technology and Values: We are increasingly aware of our physical environment that surrounds us and how it impacts our lives. The course helps students to think with scientific method, use scientific notations, and read critically with physical processes in related fields of study. Sustainability: Our everyday lives are closely related to the physical environment within which we reside. Through our everyday lives, we are active players involved in changes in physical landscapes and we experience feedback from the natural environment that we have modified. Through the course, students will learn fundamentals of physical processes on physical landscapes so that they will be aware of the impacts that their actions may lead to. Writing intensive: Students will take field notes while collecting data through on- and offcampus field trips. When they conduct in-class experiments, they carefully observe and take notes about processes and outcomes. These notes are summarized and they become part of the laboratory reports. Students typically state the purpose of an experiment and a hypothesis, followed by a discussion of data, methodology of the experiment, result, analysis, evaluation of the hypothesis, and conclusion during a typical laboratory activity. An effective use of figures and tables in scientific report writing is introduced. Students are expected to improve their scientific report writing skills through the completion of the laboratory writing assignments. The laboratory instructor will read and return your writing assignments with feedback. Writing is a very important component of this course. Organization: The course is based on four parts: energy-atmosphere system; water, weather, and climate systems; soils, ecosystems and biomes; and Earth surface-atmosphere interface. These parts will introduce students to fundamentals (energy and matter), processes, interactions, scientific analysis methods and spatial patterns within the physical geographic environment, which are associated with the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere.
Requirements: Students are responsible for all course materials and should be prepared for lectures by reading the assigned textbook chapters before each class and laboratory exercises by reviewing and printing the laboratory assignment available on Blackboard: Learn before each laboratory section. Grading policies: Your final grade will be determined as follows*: Attendance/participation Exam 1 Exam 2 Exam 3 Exam 4 Reading quizzes Online lab quizzes (11) Lab assignments (10) Writing assignments (3) Applied analysis paper Total * Point system is subject to change 110 points 40 points 800 points Laboratory assignments: The laboratory instructor will give you instructions and specifics on this matter. Each laboratory assignment is evaluated by the laboratory instructor and also is an important resource for you to take an online lab quiz. Your understanding of the laboratory materials will be evaluated through a series of online quizzes. It is your responsibility to take an online quiz during the time period specified. A make-up quiz will only be given in the case of a verifiable excuse. Remember that this is a writing intensive course. In addition to the on-line quizzes, there are three short writing assignments during the semester. Toward the end of the semester, you will synthesize your knowledge of the laboratory and course materials in the applied analysis paper. Attendance: Regular attendance is taken (part of your attendance/participation grade). There is information presented in lecture and laboratory that is not necessarily covered directly in the text. Consistent non-attendance during the first four weeks of the semester will result in the student being withdrawn from the course by the instructor without the student being notified. The responsibility of formally withdrawing from the course after the first four weeks is the student s. Chronic non-attendance after the first four weeks will cause a reduction in the letter grade that was earned or a grade of WU will be awarded. Come to the classroom on time. I will make announcements at the beginning of the class period and will not repeat those announcements. Also, any explanations for an assignment will only be given when it is introduced. If you are late for more than 15 minutes, you will be considered absent for that particular class even if you attend for the rest of the class (this applies to the number of absences during the first four-week period). It is your responsibility to ask your classmates regarding what you may have missed when you are late to come to a class. When you are sick, PLEASE e-mail me or leave me a voice-mail message before a class begins. My contact information is listed elsewhere in this syllabus. I will NOT accept any explanation/reasoning of I was sick that day unless you were really sick to be admitted to an emergency room. Any material not picked up in lecture/lab will be retained for one semester, and then discarded.
Accessibility Resource Center: If you have a documented disability that may require reasonable accommodations, please contact me privately to discuss your specific needs and also contact Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) for coordination of your academic accommodations. ARC is located across from the Meriam Library in the Student Services Center building (Student Services Center 170; 898-5959; http://www.csuchico.edu/arc/). Statement of academic honesty: Academic misconduct (as defined in the current California State University, Chico catalogue) will not be tolerated. Students are encouraged to discuss course materials inside and outside the classroom. However, all written materials/works submitted by the students must be their own work exclusively. No answers to questions must be copied from other students works, other classes, or the Internet. You need to cite sources when you use someone else s ideas, data, findings, etc. The highest standards of honesty are expected. If you have any questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty, or the consequences of academic misconduct, consult the current university catalogue, the Office of Student Judicial Affairs (Student Services Center 190; 898-6897; http://www.csuchico.edu/sjd/), or ask me. Studying tips: If you are having difficulties with any aspect of the course, you should come and see me immediately. My office hours are listed in this syllabus. If you are unavailable to see me during my office hours, you may set up an appointment by e-mailing me (nsato2@csuchico.edu). General classroom policy: Absolutely NO smart phone use during the class period.
Outline: The class schedule and midterm exam date are subject to change. Timeline** Week Date Subjects Chapters Lab Physical geography and the scientific method; 01 motions Aug 25 energy/matter Aug 27 Geographic grid: latitude, longitude, time and Earth 1, 2 1 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 Sept 1 Sept 3 Sept 8 Sept 10 Sept 15 Sept 17 Sept 22 Sept 24 Sept 29 Oct 1 Oct 6 Oct 8 Oct 13 Oct 15 Oct 20 Oct 22 Earth-sun relationships, latitudinal effects, seasons Earth s atmosphere Energy balance and energy budgets, solar radiation principles Planetary and local temperature patterns First Exam Atmospheric pressure and moisture Wind systems, ocean currents Heat properties of water, humidity, adiabatic processes, clouds/fog What is weather? Air masses and fronts, lifting mechanisms, storm systems Global climate systems, climate change Hydrological cycle, California water resources Internal earth energy radioactive decay, earth materials, rock cycle Second Exam Tectonic processes in the Earth s crust, earthquakes, volcanoes Soils development and classification Weathering processes, mass transport mechanisms 3, 4 No LAB 4, 5 2 6 3 7 4 8, 10 5 9, 11 6 12 7 18, 13 8 10 Oct 27 Oct 29 Fluvial processes, watersheds Stream erosion, flooding 14 9 11 Nov 3 Nov 5 The biosphere: ecosystem processes and patterns Biomes, organism distribution and patterns: biogeography 19, 20 10 (BCCER) 12 Nov 10 Nov 12 Ecosystems, habitat, succession, climate change No LAB 13 Nov 17 Nov 19 Third Exam Arid land processes: wind action 15 Paper 14 Nov 24 Nov 26 Thanksgiving Break 15 Dec 1 Dec 3 Arid land processes: wind action Ocean processes: wind and wave 16 Paper 16 Dec 8 Dec 10 Ocean processes: coastal landscapes Human and Environment Interaction; review 17 Paper 17 Fourth Exam go to the Portal to find out the schedule ** Subject to change by instructor with no notice provided.