Proposal Table of Contents
Proposal Introduction
Biographies
GEOG 101 Proposal Overview
Proposed Syllabus
Timeline:
Maps and Graphics
Updates
Lesson Outline
Funding
Written materials justification
Maps and Graphics Justification
Future Course Materials Update
Appendix A: Committee Member’s Background & Experience
Appendix B: Committee Member’s Writing Samples
Proposal Introduction
The purpose of this proposal is to present an alternative to the current textbook materials for GEOG101 Introduction to Geography. The proposed materials will provide a technologically current and accessible learning environment in order to produce a geographically informed person who sees meaning in the arrangement of things in space and applies a spatial perspective to life situations.
It is the intent of the Contributors to create and maintain an accreditation worthy introductory geography course. To that end the course is designed to provide insight into how the world's major regions are knit together into a spatial framework. It introduces perspectives from physical, political, environmental, population, economic, and cultural geography.
The Contributor’s reviewed the current textbook and other textbooks in use in World Regional Geography. All were found to have a similar structure in terms of page count, graphics and the amount of material devoted to each world realm. Therefore all budget calculations were conducted from the perspective of at minimum replacing the current textbook. Future fund allocation for updating the materials are significantly less than if the University continued the current practice of purchasing the textbook.
Following this introduction is information pertaining to the Contributors in the form of short biographies. More detailed information related to the background and experience of each Contributor is provided at the end of the document immediately following the proposal information. After an initial overview the proposal is presented in three sections: the written material submission, maps and graphics and a proposal for updating the course. The proposed project budget is included for each section with justifications.
The GEOG101 course proposal team includes:
Ivan B. Welch, Geog 101 - Course lead
Emily A. Fogarty, Ph.D. - Project coordinator/contact person
Karen Faith, M.A. - Contributor
Amy L. Filipiak, M.B.S., M.P.A. - Contributor
Robert McDowell, M.S., EdD - Contributor
David Pepper, Ph.D. - Contributor
Jason J. Ross, M.A. - Contributor
Stephen Butcher, Ph.D. - Contributor
If the Reviewers have any specific questions related to the information within this proposal, please contact the project coordinator, Emily A. Fogarty at .
Biographies
Ivan B. Welch - Course Lead
Professor Ivan B. Welch has extensive academic and professional expertise in applied geography. He recently returned from two years in South West Asia working as an Institutional Training Expert with MPRI, Inc. He is also president of Omni Intelligence, Inc which provides services in international business facilitation, corporate education, and mediation. He served some 27 years in the United States Army as a noncommissioned and commissioned officer, where he participated in peacekeeping operations, ground combat, coalition warfare, and joint military policy planning. He recently contributed several articles to the FactsOnFile Encyclopedia of World Geography.
Emily A. Fogarty, Ph.D. - Project Coordinator/Contributor
Professor Fogarty has PhD in Geography with minor in statistics and urban/regional planning from Florida State University. She has several years of experience teaching undergraduate geography courses including spatial data analysis and world regional geography. She has been an adjunct professor at Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College. She currently is an instructor at SUNY Stony Brook and Suffolk County Community College, NY. She is also employed by the Peconic Estuary Program as the Environmental Analyst and has worked on various projects related to climate change, sea level rise, green infrastructure, coastal resiliency, agricultural inputs into drinking water, water quality related to public health, and issues surrounding valuation of ecosystem services. Her past research focused on spatial and temporal variation in tropical cyclone activity related to large scale climate variability, and she published a book chapter entitled “Network Analysis of U.S. Hurricanes”, in Hurricanes and Climate Change (Elsner & Jagger 2009). She is currently pursuing research related to using GIS to investigate human-environment relationships.
Karen Faith, M.A. - Contributor
Karen Faith is a geographer with twenty years of experience in education and geographical research, administration and mapping. In her most recent positions she created maps using Arc/GIS, maintained databases/web sites, incorporated air photos, quad sheets, plats and GPS files into GIS. Additional responsibilities have included facilitating research programs and administrative functions, assisting students and faculty with issues related to online instruction, and overseeing school administration.
Karen has been Adjunct Instructor of Geography at a dozen different universities and colleges where she taught numerous courses in her field. Karen first developed a World Regional Geography course in 1989 and has taught this course in the classroom and online in a variety of structures and formats. In her position as Adjunct Faculty, Karen has been involved in accreditation efforts, student advisement, textbook selection, course material development and revision.
Karen has a Master of Arts in Geography specializing in Land Use Analysis from Arizona State University in Tempe and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Regional Planning and Economic Development from the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Amy L. Filipiak, M.B.S., M.P.A. - Contributor
Amy Filipiak has been a geographer for over twenty years. She earned a B.A. from the University of Colorado, double-majoring in Geography and Environmental Studies and Philosophy. Through her undergraduate coursework, she was involved with a number of local issues and internships relating to land use and policy. Amy continued her studies within the CU system, earning an M.B.S. in Geography, and most recently, an M.P.A. (Masters of Public Administration) with an emphasis in environmental management, law, and policy. She has worked within the private sector as a GIS Analyst for military master planning firms and as a sustainability planner and educator for a local army base. Amy continues to be involved in transportation and land use planning issues and volunteers her time on a number of government boards. She has traveled extensively, visiting and studying in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Middle America. Amy currently serves as a Regional Coordinator for a Federally-funded transportation grant program.
Amy resides in Colorado Springs with her husband, daughter, and three step-children. In her free time, she enjoys restoring her century-old home, running, and traveling.
Robert McDowell, M.S., EdD- Contributor
Joined APUS Aug 2007.Marine enlisted 6 years.Navy Oceanographic and Diving Officer. Worked for the Naval Research Lab Marine Geosciences Division.Research Internship Los Alamos National Laboratory, Radionuclied Medications Research Internship National Institute of Health, Molecular Immunology Commercial Diver, Shell Oil Company.
David Pepper, Ph.D. - Contributor
David Pepper has been an adjunct professor at APUS since 2010, and a lecturer in the Geography Department at California State University Long Beach since 2008. He served as a lecturer in the Department of Geography at the University of Southern California between 2001-2007. David holds a Ph.D. in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences from Louisiana State University (2000), and both an M.A. in Geography (1996) and a B.A. in Geography and Resource Management (1994) from the University of Windsor, Canada.
David specializes in physical and environmental geography, with an emphasis on weather and climate, geomorphology, and coastal and marine systems. He has taught courses on a wide variety of topics at the undergraduate and graduate levels, including physical geography, climatology, human-environment interaction, field methods, quantitative analysis, geographic thought, and world regional geography.
David has published research papers in numerous professional journals including Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, Geo-Marine Letters, the Journal of Coastal Research, and Marine Geology. He has also written numerous chapters and sections to contribute to a series of materials prepared to help educate visually-impaired students in world geography. In addition, he has served as a textbook reviewer for Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Routledge Ltd. His current research addresses two geographically diverse topics. The first, for which a manuscript is currently under review, is a collaborative project involving the use of historical weather data to design optimal schedules for seasonal homeless shelters in Los Angeles County. The second involves monitoring of beach erosion and sedimentation in Southern California during El Niño and La Niña years. He presented preliminary results at the meeting of the California Geographical Society in 2010, and is continuing further data collection and analysis, and is presently preparing a manuscript for future publication.
Jason Ross, M.A. - Contributor
Major Jason J. Ross has been in the Air Force for over 20 years and has been assigned to numerous fighter aircraft maintenance positions while pursuing his academic career. In 1991, Major Ross enlisted in the Air Force after graduating High School from Jefferson City High School, Jefferson City Missouri and became an F-15 Aircraft Avionics Technician. In 1996, he received a ROTC scholarship and attended Arizona State University and subsequently graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in Education, Social Studies Secondary Education. After receiving his commission, he spent his next tour working on A-10 aircraft at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina and was assigned with the famed 23rd Flying Tigers. While there, he participated in Operations SOUTHERN WATCH, ENDURING FREEDOM, and IRAQI FREEDOM. His next assignment took him to Phoenix Arizona where he was stationed at Luke Air Force base and began working on F-16 aircraft. While at Luke Air Force Base, he applied for and was selected to a position teaching Geography at the Air Force Academy. Prior to teaching, he attended Arizona State University where he obtained a Master of Arts in Geography and a Geographic Information Systems Certificate in 2006. After graduation, he taught and course directed the GeoPolitics, Introductory to GIS, and Advanced GIS courses at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 2009, he was reassigned to Aviano Airbase, Italy where he once again worked on F-16 aircraft and also participated in Operation ODYSSEY DAWN. In 2011, he moved once again to work on F-16s, but this time to Hill Air Force Base, Utah where he currently commands the 388th Maintenance Operations Squadron. Major Ross is married to his high school sweetheart, Becky, and has two children who live in Colorado Springs and a stepson who plays baseball for a college in Alabama.
Major Ross’ Geographic interests lie with Geographic Spatial Data Analysis, GeoPolitics, Landscape Analysis, Cartography, Historical Geography, and in the broadest sense Cultural Geography.
Stephen Butcher, Ph.D. - Contributor
Dr. Stephen R. Butcher received his PhD in Geography from Kent State University in 2010. He has an extensive teaching record. His courses taught range in topic and region, including courses from Cultural to Physical Geography and from the Geography of South Asia to Spatial Analysis and Location Theory. He has experience teaching traditional, online, and blended courses. He has several professional certificates for online pedagogic development. He currently teaches GEOG101 at APUS and is a member of the Curriculum Development Committee for that course.
Stephen’s research interests include Cognitive/Behavioral Geography, Geography of Religion, and US military legacies, of which he has done field research in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Stephen, also has a deep interest in the region of South Asia. His field study in the area focused on religious rituals, environmental degradation, and public health.
GEOG 101 Proposal Overview
Goal: Provide a technologically current and accessible learning environment in order to produce a geographically informed person who sees meaning in the arrangement of things in space and applies a spatial perspective to life situations.
This course has two main objectives. First, it introduces the field of geography, a discipline that links human societies to their natural environments. Second, the course investigates the geographic regions of the modern world and examines their human and physical characteristics, assets and liabilities, connections and barriers, and potential and prospects for the future.
The course is designed to provide insight into how the world's major regions are knit together into a spatial framework. It introduces perspectives from physical, political, environmental, population, economic, and cultural geography. The following are just a few of the questions that are raised when considering these different regions:
●What are the physical and human patterns that can be found?
●How and why are myriad phenomena -- people, vegetation, climates, mountains, cities -- arranged in particular ways on the earth's surface?
●What factors are involved in creating or changing particular regions, places, environments, or landscapes?
●How do the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth's surface?
In order to meet and exceed the existing course materials, this proposal is presented in three sections: the written material submission, maps and graphics and a proposal for updating the course. Additionally there will be major modifications to the Learning Objectives in the course syllabus.
Proposed Course Learning Objectives: Based on the Six Essential Elements for Geography and then to be expanded out to incorporate the eighteen National Geography Standards.
CO1: The world in spatial terms
The purpose of the first essential element of geography is to study the relationships between people, places, and environments by mapping information about them into a spatial context.
CO2: Places and regions
The purpose of the second essential element of geography is to show how identities and lives of individuals and peoples are rooted in particular places and in those human constructs called regions
CO3. Physical systems
The purpose of the third essential element of geography is to identify how physical processes shape the Earth’s surface and how they interact with plant and animal life to create, sustain, and modify ecosystems.
CO4: Human systems
The purpose of the fourth essential element of geography is to show how people are central to geography in that human activities help shape the Earth’s surface, human settlements and structures.
CO5: Environment and society
The purpose of the fifth essential element of geography is to show how the the physical environment is modified by human activities, largely as a consequence of the ways in which human societies value and use Earth’s natural resources.
CO6: The uses of geography
The purpose of the sixth essential element of geography is to show how the knowledge of geography enables people to develop an understanding of the relationships between people, places, and environments over time -- that is, of Earth as it was, is, and might be.
Proposed Syllabus
Week / Topic(s) / Learning Objective(s) / Reading(s) / Assignment(s)1 / Introductions and World Regional Geography Overview / CO1
CO2
CO3
CO4
CO5
CO6 / Chapter 1 / -Discussion Board
-Assignment
- Week 1 Quiz
2 / Europe & Russia / CO1
CO2
CO3
CO4
CO5
CO6 / Chapter 2
Chapter 3 / -Discussion Board
-Assignment
- Week 2 Quiz
3 / North America, Middle America and South America / CO1
CO2
CO3
CO4
CO5
CO6 / Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6 / -Discussion Board
-Assignment
- Week 3 Quiz
4 / Sub-Saharan Africa / CO1
CO2
CO3
CO4
CO5
CO6 / Chapter 6 / -Discussion Board
-Assignment
- Midterm Assessment/Assignment
5 / North Africa/SW Asia / CO1
CO2
CO3
CO4
CO5
CO6 / Chapter 7 / -Discussion Board
-Assignment
- Week 5 Quiz
6 / South Asia and East Asia / CO1
CO2
CO3
CO4
CO5
CO6 / Chapter 8
Chapter 9 / -Discussion Board
-Assignment
- Week 6 Quiz
7 / SE Asia / CO1
CO2
CO3
CO4
CO5
CO6 / Chapter 10 / -Discussion Board
-Assignment
- Research Project Due
8 / Austral Realm, and Pacific Realm and Polar Futures / CO1
CO2
CO3
CO4
CO5
CO6 / Chapter 11
Chapter 12 / -Discussion Board
-Final Assessment
This proposal is suggesting that the material of the course be laid out within the “Lessons” feature of Sakai. This will ensure the material will easily transfer with the course and fully exploit the utility of Sakai within the classrooms.
Timeline:
Project start date: March 1, 2012
Project end date: September 30, 2012
Payments will be made to all personnel on the first University pay date after September 30, 2012.
Written material submission
Written materials will be submitted to the University as proposed in the enclosed outline including weekly lesson materials, a glossary and assessments. Multiple choice questions will need to be developed for the course as the present questions come with the textbook. Individuals writing each section will provide questions relevant to their section. Our overall goal is to establish a test bank of easy, medium and difficult multiple choice questions for use in the course. Additionally, we propose to develop short-answer and/or essay questions for the midterm and final assessments.
All materials will be reviewed internally by the proposal committee. Additionally, all materials will be reviewed by two external individuals with terminal degrees who teach World Regional Geography at the university level.
Payment for written materials will be made to each individual author on the first University pay date after material submission. Each author is individually liable for his/her content.
Contact person: Dr. Emily A. Fogarty
Committee members:
Karen Faith, M.A.
Amy L. Filipiak, M.B.S., M.P.A.
Emily A. Fogarty, Ph.D.
Robert McDowell, M.S., EdD
David Pepper, Ph.D.
Jason J. Ross, M.A.
Stephen Butcher, Ph.D.
Ivan Welch, Geog 101 course lead
Maps and Graphics
A committee consisting of Geography faculty proficient in geographical techniques will work with support from the Sakai team and the multimedia team to develop visually stimulating and technologically advanced materials for the course addressing both the need for technologically current materials and the need to address varying learning styles. This team will work together to insure the functionality of the digital materials within the classroom.
Specific materials will be determined by the committee. Examples of materials suggested in this phase will include maps, graphs and charts, interactive maps and games, videos, Powerpoint presentations, newsfeeds, podcasts and video lectures. The committee has been in contact with APUS librarians and has been provided a list of open source resources. The committee will use as many free and open sources as possible but the University may need to provide funds to purchase or create some materials.