Syllabus
Geog 212 Geography of North America3 cr.
South Dakota State University-Brookings
Fall2015
Course Meeting Time and Location/Instructional methods:
This is an online Course: Syllabus, brief lecture notes, weekly exercises are posted online. Students are expected to login to D2L weekly to access exercises and to post to discussion forums. Exercises and discussion forums require research using online library databases and other resources. Discussion Forumsin discuss in D2L are asynchronous (not live) to allow students maximum flexibility for the timing of work completion. Exercisesare submitted to the drop box within D2L. Midterm and final exam are accessed through D2L Quizzes. Midterm and Final exams have an availability window during which they must be completed. See deadlines in course calendar below.
Instructor:
Elizabeth Keeler, PhD
Contact me through the D2L internal email from the classlist as I check it most frequently. Contact me anytime you have difficulty making a deadline, have access problems, or have any questions. After access to the course ends, use the mail. It may take 48 hours to get a response to a question by email.
My interest in geography stems from my curiosity about how places came to be the way they are. I like to approach each learning opportunity as an exploration of discovery.
Course description
A regional and topical analysis of of the geographic patterns of the United States and Canada. Focus is upon theinteraction of groups of people with the natural environment to produceregional differentiation. Geographic aspects of the physical geography, population, culture groups, economy, settlement systems, land division, and use of natural resources.
This course is designed for self-motivated learners who are comfortable using Internet resources and tools. Coursework is completed on a weekly basis and requires an overall time commitment equivalent to classroom-based courses. In addition to weekly reading assignments from the textbook, there will be 4 exercises, a weekly posting to the discussion forum, a midterm exam, and a final exam. Students are required to set up access to the library online journal databases and use those journals where possible as part of their resources for exercises and the paper.
Course Requirements
Textbook required:The Geography of North America: Environment, Culture and Economyby Susan Wiley Hardwick, Fred Shelley, and Donald G. Holtgrieve Pearson: Boston Second Edition 2013 ISBN 978-0-321-76967-1 or 978-0-13-009727-9. Either hardcover or softcover is acceptable. We will not be using Chapters 13, 16, 17, 18 and 19.
For technical assistance, see the contact information under SDSU resources and in the Student Guides area.
Additional resources recommended:
You can also use atlases in the library but will probably not be able to check them out and take them home. Possible online sources include some home computers have trouble accessing sites with large graphic files so you may want to try this site on the computers in the library first.
Course goals and learning outcomes
This course meets SD Board of Regents General Education Goal 3
BOR System Goal 3: Students will understand the organization, potential and diversity of the human community through study of the social sciences
Student Learning Outcome 1
Identify and explain basic concepts, terminology, and theories of the selected social science discipline from different spatial, temporal, cultural and or institutional contexts.
Course Objectives:
Students will define basic concepts and themes in geography such as the human-environment interaction. Learn how to use maps and other geographic representations to acquire process and report information. Examine the physical and human characteristics of North America. Analyze the spatial organization of people, places and environments in North America as we consider geomorphic processes and landforms; patterns and processes that influence weather and climate, soil types and vegetation biomes; contrast the different settlement patterns of indigenous peoples and identify the long term impacts of these people on North American culture, identify and compare the settlement patterns of various European and other immigrant settlement groups; examine characteristics, distribution and migration of these human populations; land subdivision systems; transportation systems; location patterns and environmental and economic challenges faced by all levels of economic production; political systems; and human impact on the environment and the changes that occur in the meaning , use, distribution and importance of resources. Students will learn geographers identify regions to interpret the Earth’s complexity. A distinctive sense of place and unique cultural landscapes can be seen in each region. Students demonstrate knowledge and comprehension in written exercises and exams.
Student Learning Outcome 2
Apply selected social science concepts and theories to contemporary issues
Course Objectives:
Students will learn how climatic patterns relate to natural hazards that strike an area and how human actions modify the physical environment. Economic disparity from place to place is considered as we look at primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary types of economic production.
Student post contemporary issuesweekly in discussion forums named places in the news and have the option of examining an environmental issue in a written exercise. Students examine a downtown or suburban shopping area in the urban field exercise.
Student Learning Outcome 3
Identify and explain the social or aesthetic values of different cultures.
Course Objectives:
The cultural diversity of North America is examined as we consider the characteristics, distributions and complexity of cultural mosaics in places. Students demonstrate knowledge in exams.
Student Learning Outcome 4
The origin and evolution of human institutions
Course objectives: Students learn how forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of the Earth’s surface as we develop political systems and establish governments.
Students demonstrate learning in exams.
Student Learning Outcome 5
The allocation of human or natural resources within societies
Course Objectives: Students will learn the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources. Students apply this understanding in the analysis of both the physical and cultural resources of North America they choose to write about in exercises and in exams.
Student Learning Outcome 6
The impact of diverse philosophical, ethical or religious views
We attempt to identify the long term impacts of indigenous peoples, European and other immigrant settlement groups on North American culture as reflected in current landscapes and regional patterns. Student demonstrate knowledge in exams and written exercises.
Evaluation Procedures
Students earn points for discussion forums, and exercises based on the content and quality of presentation of data discovered while pursuing research using scholarly resources to the extent possible in an online environment. The exercises and discussion forum statements must include citations for sources. Students are expected to login weekly to keep up with the work load. Midterm and final exams are multiple-choice. It may take two weeks for grades for exercises and discussions to appear.
Points Breakdown 200 total points for class
Exercises-4 exercises ( 3 exercises at 20 points and 1 for 14 points) = 74 points
Weekly discussion sections -13 discussions for 2 points each=26 points
Midterm = 50 points
Final = 50 points
Total = 200 points
A=90-100%
B=80-89%
C=70-79%
D=60-69%
F= below 60%
Evaluation of exercises and discussion entries considers content, writing, spelling and grammar and quality of analysis. Factual statements receive more credit than general statements. For example, a statement like “according to map 43 entitled Primary school enrollment in Allen and Sutton (p 57), more than 96% of children of primary school age in the United States attend school” is better than “most children in the United States attend primary school.”
Cite the sources of your information including page numbers or you will lose points. For the discussion forums and exercises be certain to cite the sources for information. See the Endnotes information on the SDSU library page or the following source for style guides: Material not of your own creation that does carry a complete citation including page numbers from a printed source or paragraph numbers from a website will lose points. Plagerized material is 0 credits. Please retain copies of your exercises
Exercises (See course calendar near end of syllabus for due dates)
There are 4 exercises. Exercise 1 is worth 14 points and exercises 2, 3 and 4 are worth 20 points each. Each student follows the instructions in each exercise. Use the SDSU library website at Use data found in local, county, state or provincegovernment or other official websites suggested by the instructor (see the urls listed below)or government websites or other official websites, for example libraries, historical societies found by the student, or in online journals in SDSU library databases, or in hardcopy atlases, journals or books available to the student. Exercises will specify the minimum number of sources. Quotes should be set off with quotation marks. To receive full credit, sources of information must be complete. Citations must be complete enough so others could duplicate your research if they were interested in the same topic. While material not of your own creation that does not carry a complete citation will be given 0 credit, check with me because a zero can also mean the assignment has not been graded yet. Plagiarized material is also 0 credits. Please include your map sources in your bibliography.
You may use any style guide of your choice. Use a recent edition so that you can cite internet sources correctly. Those most commonly used are Chicago Manual of Style, Turabian, APA or MLA. See information about endnotes on the SDSU library website.
There may be times that you must report negative research results if a particular website does not have any data so be certain you track the websites you visited and links chosen as you progress through the website so you can get credit for the work done even if you search in vain. If you have negative research results more than twice, please contact the instructor so we can determine better sources for you to try.
Please keep a copy of your exercises in hard copy
Sources to get you started
For this class you can go to USA.gov and or Canada.gov. at On the USA website, I find it most helpful to go to the A-Z index of United States government to find specific government agencies like bureau of the census under census or dept. of agriculture under agriculture. You may also search under the names of states in your search engine. For example if I enter South Dakota in Google, the sd.gov site comes up and I can search that site for population statistics or other information. Let me know if you need help as we go through the course.
Library of congress
American center for Folklife
Center for Disease Control
National Institute of Health
For printable maps.
Go to to find maps and print them for reference. You may encounter other maps you think are better in the course of your research which you may use instead. This is a handy source that will allow you to copy and paste so I thought I’d suggest it.
Exams: see course calendar for dates of exams
Midterm Exam (50points)
Final Exam (50 points)
Exams are open textbook so be certain to familiarize yourself enough with your textbook so you can find the answers quickly. Exams have a set open and close date as well as having a time limit. When the timer stops you, you are finished so be sure to keep track of your time as you take the exam.Contact the instructor if you miss an exam.
Discussion forums( See course calendar for due dates of discussion postings) 2points for each week
The purpose of the postings in the discussion forums is to make yourself aware of the world around you. In the discussion forum for the first week you will go in and introduce yourself. Go to the D2L discussion forum for week 1. Introduce yourself with your name, major and year in school. Write a sentence describing where in the United States or Canada you would like to visit or live.
For the remainder of the semester, in discussionforumspost information for the weeks indicated about a place in the news. The purpose of the postings in the discussion forums is to make you aware of what is going on in the United States and Canada. For the remainder of the semester, in discussion forums post information for the weeks indicated about a place in the news. The focus of the news item should be the place and what it tells you about some aspect of the place. Examples include population, migration, birth and /or death rates, language, religion, ethnic geography, immigration, water quality or availability, aspects of material (e.g. food or costumes) or non-material culture (e.g., world view or belief or practice); aspects of the cultural landscape (e.g. house types), land use, landforms, vegetation, soil, plate tectonics, disease, urban growth or other aspects of urbanization, transportation, economic patterns, agriculture or other ways of making a living, employment, trade, energy consumption, political geography, or human impact on the environment. Post the link to the news item and include a summary of 90 words or more of the news item and what it tells you about that place. Collect information from 1) a travel show on PBS 2) local news either online or on TV or an article in your local newspaper 3) or or Time magazine or Newsweek or one of the online news sources. The library of congress now has a places in the news link at but the recent item of interest is at the bottom of the posting so may not be immediately obvious.
You must post new material in each forum. Try to relate your entry to the textbook entry of the week if you can but it may not always be possible and is not required. To receive full credit for discussion entries, you must post complete sentences with correct spelling and include complete sources of information. Do not write ditto or similar expressions if someone posted something similar to what you were going to post. Your online behavior should be professional and scholarly at all times. Discussion forums are asynchronous (not live) to allow you to work at your convenience but they do have due dates to keep you on track.
ADA Statement
Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact Nancy Hartenoff-Crooks, Coordinator of Disability Services (605-688-4504 or Fax, 605-688-4987) to privately discuss your specific needs. The Office of Disability Services is located in room 125, the Wintrode Student Success Center
Attendance policy
Student attendance and participation is governed by the South Dakota State University Attendance policy. I expect students to login weekly to submit to discussion forums, complete exercises and exams according to the course calendar which is part of this syllabus. Absences due to personal reasons due to verified medical reasons, death of a family members or significant other, or verified extenuating circumstances judged acceptable by the instructor or the Office of Academic Affairs, will be honored. If a student has an accident, falls ill, or suffers some other emergency over which he/she has no control, the student needs to gather whatever documentation is available (e.g., copies of repair or towing bills, accident reports or statements from health care provider) to show the instructor. Such exceptions must be communicated and negotiated between the student and faculty member prior to the absence whenever possible. Absences for vacations or breaks, personal interviews do not constitute a valid reason for absence.
Absences due to approved University sponsored recognized trips
Requests for excused absences must be submitted one week prior to the trip or event. Students must present the completed approved trip absence card to me prior to the trip or event to have an official excused absence. I am not required to honor incomplete or late cards.
Academic Honesty policy
In written papers and other class projects (electronic format, hard copy or otherwise) it is unethical and unprofessional to present the work done by others in a manner that indicates that the students is presenting the material as his/her original ideas or work. Cheating, assisting others, or plagiarizing on tests, quizzes, problems, research papers, or other assignments will result in written notification to the student involved, the academic advisor, the department that offers the course, the appropriate College or Administrative Dean, and parent/guardian (when the students is a dependent for financial aid purposes). Plagiarizing is submitting uncited materials as your own work, which was in fact produced by others. Examples include uncited work from journals, books, work of others or electronic sources.*
In addition, the penalty for academic dishonesty may be one or more of the following, at the discretion of the instructor and based on the seriousness of the situation