Geography 120: Our Physical Environment

Section 201 – Online

Instructor: Dr. Kimberly DeBiasse

Online Office Hours: Wednesday 9:30-10:30am

Friday: 1-2 pm

Email: *

Phone: (414) 229-4866

Email:

– the best way to reach me for private matters. For non-private matters, post your questions on d2l-Discussions. Your emails will be responded to normally within 48 hours. I may not respond to emails that are supposed to be posted on d2l.

Course Description and Objectives:

GEOG 120 Our Physical Environment is an introductory physical geography course that covers the essentials of Earth’s physical processes occurring in the four spheres that make up the Earth system (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere). The processes occurring in each of these interconnected spheres are important because the form the physical environment in which we live. We will discuss Earth-sun relationships, severe weather, global climates, plate tectonics, geomorphic landforms, soils and ecosystems. The course is a 3-credit natural science General Education Requirements <GER> course with a lab equivalent. Upon successful completion of this course you will have gained a basic understanding of our physical environment, the physical processes that relate to each other and human life and skills that are useful for studying the Earth from a geographical perspective.

Study Materials and Resources:

Required textbook:Exploring Physical Geography, Reyonds, Rohli, Johnson, Waylen, Francek, 2nd edition. An account at McGraw-Hill including Connect access for The weekly text readings and module activities will be completed through Connect. You must purchase this access for the course. There is a two-week grace period for the product. You do not need a hard copy of the text. Your Connect access with give you access to an electronic version of the text. You are also able to purchase a loose leaf copy of the text for a reduced price through McGraw-Hill. Weekly quizzes will take place through Connect.

d2l Course Website: go to d2l.uwm.edu, log in with your panther account and select Our Physical Environment Fall 2017. In this course, d2l will be used mainly for keeping track of weekly tasks, discussion board posts, assignmentsdropbox, and your grades. Please post any questions or comment about course content on d2l- Discussions. Check d2l often for your success in the course. You are encouraged to respond to other students’ post. You will see a discussion board for each week for generalized comments and the weekly board for required posts.

Panther Academic Support Service: tutoring center for undergraduates ( However, do not hesitate to contract your instructor first for any questions you may have about lectures or assignments.

Course Requirements:

Learning Modules: The course consists of sixteen learning modules (one for each week). Each learning module has its own topic, learning objectives, textbook chapters and activities (reading, quiz and graded activity). I will provide instruction for all the modules at the beginning of the course. Make sure to refer to the instruction for each module frequently. You must finish the reading, quiz and assignment of each module by each module’s due date shown in the timetable. Each module ends at 23:59 (11:59pm) of the due date. Each module ends at 23:59 (11:59pm) of the due date. Each module will be available for three weeks. They will open one week before the week of the module (module 2 will open during week 1) and close one week after the module week (this is the one week grace period allowed). If at any point you need to work ahead please email me and we discuss adjusting due dates as necessary.

  • Readings: You need to read eachassigned textbook chapter for the given week. I will post key learning objectives you are expected to understand in each module prior to the beginning of the module on d2l. The key learning objectives are the most important objectives; not all the terms you will need to know.
  • Quizzes: After reading textbook chapters, you will take a quiz that will be graded based on the number of correct answers. The lowest quiz score will be dropped from calculating the final grade. There is a total of sixteen (16) quizzes, one each week. Each quiz question is allowed one (1) attempts and a 30-minute time limit, except for the 3 practice quizzes which will be allotted 45 minutes. If you run into a computer issue while taking your quiz please email me and I will reset you quiz. Late quiz attempts will result in a 3% decrease in grade per day up to 7 days from the due date (1 week). Quizzes attempted after the one week grace period will result in a zero (0) score.These module quizzes will be found on Connect and are due each Thursday night at 23:59.Please note there is no late period for the last quiz (week 16).
  • Assignments: There will be an assignment each week.The lowest assignment score will be dropped from calculating the final grade. They will consist of either a worksheet covering material from that week’s readings. Worksheets will be submitted only on d2ldropbox folders as digital files (from scanning, digital camera, saving as a PDF or WORD, etc.)* Each assignment should be posted/saved as lastname_firstinitial_assignmentnumber (ex: DeBiasse_K_1). The assignment will be available two weeks before the due date. Each week an assignment is not uploaded with the correct file name you will lose 0.1 points toward your grade, this will increase each week.Late assignment attempts will result in a 3% decrease in grade per day up to 7 days from the due date (1 week). Assignments attempted after the one week grace period will result in a zero (0) score. These are due each Saturday at 23:59. Please there is no late period for the last assignment (week 16). Please note there are assignment/worksheet during exam weeks (week 6, week 11, week 16).

*Do not save your work as an open office document or a pages document. I will not be able

to read them.

  • Discussion:
  • Course-related questions must be posted on d2l-Discussions unless they are private. Students are strongly encouraged to respond to other students’ post. I will monitor the comments and respond if/when necessary. Please be as specific as possible, the more clear the post the more clear the answer will be.

Exams: Exams are non-cumulative and will cover the chapters as indicated by the instructor. Exams will be open for a 72-hour time period (Thursday to Saturday). Exams will take an hour and 15 minutes or less available from 0:00 (12 am) to 23:59 (11:59 pm) of the exam window. You must start the exam no later than 22:44 (10:44pm) of the last exam day (Saturday) to have a full hour and 15 minutes. This means you have 75 minutes to complete the exams.

Grading:

Your final grade is based on (i) three exams, (ii) fifteen module quizzes and (iii) 12worksheets. Grades will be based on the total points accumulated from the course requirements throughout the term. The weighting of grades is as follows:

Exam 1: 16.5%

Exam 2: 18.5%

Exam 3: 20%

Module quizzes: 22.5%

Assignments: 22.5%

Final grade breakdowns are as follows:

A: 92.5-100%A-: 89.5-92.4%B+: 87.5-89.4%

B: 82.5-87.4%B-: 79.5-82.4%C+:77.5-79.4%

C: 72.5-77.4%C-: 69.5-72.4%D+: 67.5-69.4%

D: 62.5-67.4%D-: 59.5-62.4%F: 0-59.4%

Note: Grades posted on d2l may be slightly different than those in the master gradebook. d2l does not allow for precise rounding of numbers past one place after the decimal. For example, it will show that each module quiz is 1.7% of your final grade. d2l has rounded up this number from 1.667%. Additionally, all module quiz scores will be shown in your d2l grades including your lowest score which will be dropped from your final grade calculation.

Extra Credit:

Extra credit opportunities will be provided on each exam and through surveys and feedback opportunities throughout the semester. Check the news feed often to find out about these opportunities

Make-up exams, modules, and assignments:

Late submissions will result in a grade reduction of 20%off the total points for that item unless otherwise specified for each item. No late submissions will be accepted later than a week (7 days) from the deadline without prearrangement. Additionally not late work will be accepted for the last week of the class due to grade submission. No technical problems can be used as an excuse for a late submission. No work will be accepted after Exam 3. Make-ups will be allowed at the discretion of the instructor with pre-approval or in case of emergency with written proof. Other unspecified matter will be handled according to the University policies listed on

Additional Assistance and Important Information:

Special Accommodation: The instructor is willing to make any reasonable accommodations for students with limitations to disability, including learning disabilities. If you need special accommodations to meet any requirements of this course, please contact the instructor as soon as possible. The student notification will be kept confidential.

Academic Integrity: Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this class and students involved will receive a zero grade for the pertinent exam, quiz or assignment. Severer cases will be submitted t eh University for further scrutiny. The scope and disciplines of student academic misconducts are specified in Chapter UWS 14 and UWM implementation provisions (Faculty Document 1686) and UWM Disciplinary Guidelines can be found in the Office of the Dean of Students Mellencamp Hall, Room 118. If should be noted that I will determined whether academic miscount has occurred at my discretion and will not accept complaints from students. Student who do not agree with my judgement should take the case directly to a relevant Colle of University office.

Finality of Grade: All grades, once released on d2l or PAWS are final except in cases of clerical error.

Suggested email format: Have the subject start with GEOG 306, use your name and give specific information.

Connect Information:

Connect sign-up: To register for the course you need to create a Connect account with McGraw-Hill. You will do this by going to the following link:

If you have a Connect account from a previous course, please be sure to log out before following the link above. It will prompt you to enter your email. When doing so if you have a prior account it will ask you to provide a password, if you do not have an account this is where you will create your profile. Please be sure to register with your name as it is found on d2l and within the UWM system. From this screen you can then either enter a Connect code if you have already purchased one (or if one came with a hard copy of the text), purchase access or begin your two week grace period.

Uploaded Assignments:

Assignments can be completed on the original worksheet or written out on notebook paper if you do not have access to a printer. They will however need to be turned in digitally. If you do not have access to a scanner there are many apps available to turn photos into pdf files available for both android and iphones.

Android: CamScanner, TinyScanner

iPhone: Evernote Scannable

I have personally used Tinyscanner in the past and have found it is easy to use. If you have used or recommend another app, please let me know.

Discussion Board Posts:

When adding to the discussion board for general information I will be looking for quality posts. The best way to get assistance from your peers or myself is to be as specific as possible with your question or concerns. Examples are below

Unsatisfactory posts:

  • Post: “I did not understand earthquakes at all!”
  • Response: “I’m right there with you.”

Satisfactory posts:

  • Post: “After reading through the earthquake chapter I’m still confused on divergent plate boundaries. If two plates aren’t actually moving past each other why would we care about earthquakes.”
  • Response: “It is a little confusing. Even though two plates aren’t moving past each other or fighting for position there is still stress on those plates as they are pulling apart. The movement releasing some of that energy is what we can feel as earthquakes.”

Excellent posts:

  • Post: “Can someone help clear up the different between a transform and a strike-slip boundary. They have the same type of stress, ‘sheer’, stress and both involve mostly horizontal movement so how are the different?”
  • Response: “I was confused as well, but if you look at the diagram in the chapter you will see that transform faults are a specific type of horizontal movement associated with sea-floor spreading. The rate of spreading of plates is not always consistent so you have different rates of movement causing the plates to slide past one another as they are pulling apart. “

Notice the difference in the posts. In general, the more specific you can be on your post, especially if you are questioning the material/worksheet, the better answer you are going to receive in response from either me or your fellow students.

Where to find information on d2l

Most information available on d2l can be found in two locations. Below will outline where all needed information can be found.

Folder / Document(s)
Important Information / Syllabus
Guidelines for Assignments
Guidelines for Exams
Advice video
Schedule / Schedule
Module Guides / Module Guides/Requirements for each week
Modules / Weekly checklist
Module Guide
Select Powerpoint slides
Weekly video
Weekly assignment/worksheet
Weekly dropbox link
Weekly discussion link
Select Concept Powerpoints / Weekly Powerpoint slides
Assignments/Worksheet / Guide for Assignments
Weekly assignments
Discussion boards / Weekly discussion boards for general questions
Dropbox / Weekly assignment dropbox folders
Checklists / Weekly checklist

Please note this document has the potential to change without warning, though students will be given notice through the news board on d2l.