ChabotCollegeFall 2005

Course Outline for Geography 5

WORLD REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY

Catalog Description:

5 – World Regional Geography 3 units

Regions of the world and the way humans live within those regions. Includes physical and cultural characteristics of world regions, how they are similar and how they are different, economic patterns, agriculture, industrial development and population dynamics. Emphasis on contemporary major issues and their geographic impact. 3 hours.

[Typical contact hours: 52.5]

Prerequisite Skills:

None.

Expected Outcomes for Students:

Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  1. demonstrate an awareness of the major regions of the world, and significant places and patterns within those regions
  2. identify absolute and relative locations of significant places;
  3. identify major current trends in the region’s political economy, cultural evolution, and environmental issues;
  4. compare and contrast regions based on their physical, political, economic, and social characteristics as evidenced in their cultural landscapes;
  5. identify regions and major sub-regions on thematic maps and interpret information from them about the spatial distribution of phenomena;
  6. identify major map types and the appropriateness of their use in presenting geographic information.
  7. demonstrate knowledge of major geographic issues and trends in the contemporary world
  8. identify on maps major physiographic divisions of the continents;
  9. distinguish developed and developing regions and nations based on economic, political, and social indicators;
  10. identify types of globalization trends and processes operating on the global scale using spatial indicators;
  11. compare and contrast population distributions and growth/implosion trends among regions and major representative countries;
  12. recognize the forces of diversity and ethnic identity at work in regions that counter globalization trends and cause devolution;
  13. compare the status of indigenous peoples, women, and minority populations in regional cultural context;
  14. articulate the attributes of culture that commonly distinguish cultural regions: language, religion, ethnicity, traditions, and social relations;

Chabot CollegePage 2

Course Outline for Geography 5

Fall 2005

  1. identify global environmental change concerns and trends in the inter-regional context of the strongly interconnected Earth system: global warming, land degradation, air and water quality, and natural hazards;
  2. evaluate different approaches to regional study and methods of geographic observation.

Course Content:

  1. The Regional Concept and Types of Regions
  2. Regional approaches in geographic study
  3. Formal and functional regions
  4. Physical elements in regional definitions
  5. Cultural components in regional definitions
  6. Contributing personalities in the history of regional geography
  7. Themes in Regional Geography
  8. Basics of space, place, and location
  9. Scale concepts and map utilization
  10. The natural environment: climate, landforms, and biota
  11. The cultural landscape
  12. Globalization and devolution
  13. Geopolitics
  14. Elements in Studying Regions
  15. Physiography and physiographic units
  16. Population distributions and change
  17. Levels and indicators of development
  18. Regional disparities
  19. Impacts of colonialism, migration, and spatial diffusion
  20. Cultural coherence and diversity: language, religion, ethnicity, social organization
  21. Political economy and trade relationships
  22. Survey of Major World Regions
  23. Europe
  24. Russia
  25. North America
  26. Middle America
  27. South America
  28. North Africa/Southwest Asia
  29. Subsaharan Africa
  30. South Asia
  31. East Asia: China, Japan, Korea
  32. Southeast Asia
  33. Australia
  34. Oceania: New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia

Methods of Presentation:

  1. Lecture
  2. Maps, slides, transparencies, videotapes, webpages, and online links
  3. Class discussions and student presentations

Assignments and Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:

  1. Typical Assignments
  2. map and label the principal sub-regions, physical features, cultural regions, and urban centers on a regional basemap
  3. prepare an in-class oral presentation or online presentation about a region, which may include:
  4. audio/visual components
  5. maps, charts, and diagrams
  6. computer-based learning resources (e.g. Internet links, tutorial modules)
  7. write an essay on researched regional environmental or cultural issues
  8. write a review of a supplemental reading selection from newspapers, the periodical literature, or Internet sites
  9. Methods of Evaluating Student Progress
  10. performance-based evaluation structured around regional units and principal geographic concepts
  11. examinations and quizzes, in-class or online
  12. map quizzes, in-class or online
  13. instructor may elect to evaluate student in-class oral or online visual/audio presentation(s) to assess student understanding of regional approaches to geographic knowledge and ability to clearly organize and express key information on the attributes of regions
  14. participation in classroom activities and discussions, or online discussions
  15. Email feedback about student presentations and discussions
  16. final exam

Textbook(s) (Typical):

Globalization and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World, Rowntree, L., Lewis, M., Price, M., and Wyckoff, W., Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2005, or latest edition.

Diversity Amid Globalization: World Regions, Environment, Development, Rowntree, L., Lewis, M., Price, M., and Wyckoff, W., Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2000, or latest edition.

Essentials of World Regional Geography, ed., Salter, C. L., Hobbs, J. J., Wheeler, Jr., J. H., and Kostbade, J. T., Saunders College Publishing, 2000, or latest edition.

Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, de Blij, H. J. and Muller, P. O., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002, or latest edition.

World Regional Geography, Pulsipher, L. M., W. H. Freeman and Company, 1999, or latest edition.

World Regional Geography: The New Global Order, Bradshaw, M., McGraw-Hill, 2001, or latest edition.

Special Student Materials:

None.

tf: Geog. 5

Revised: 11-5-04