Geography Standards and Geographical Reflections

GEOG 111 Exercise #6 - 50 points
Instructor:  P. Kaldjian

This final homework has three parts and, while simple, it requires a thoughtful assessment of your experiences in GEOG 111. First, click here on the National Geography Standards and you will come to a list of 18 sets of ideas and approaches (bottom half of page) that a geographically informed person needs to know and understand. These standards were developed by the National Council on Geographic Education.

The National Geography Standards are organized according to six fundamental groups (essential elements) that constitute what it means to approach the world geographically. While these essential elements are the same for all people, the standards and expectations differ by grade. Elementary school kids(K-4) have different standards than middle school kids (grades 5-8), who have different standards than high school students (grades 9-12). Geographically conscious adults should meet the standards expected of high school graduates.

For this assignment, you are to examine the standards for grades 9-12 and answer the questions below. PLEASE NOTE: EXPLANATIONS OF THE STANDARDS ARE FOUND BY CLICKING ON THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS. FOR EXAMPLE, STANDARDS 1-3 ARE DISCUSSED IN DETAIL UNDER THE WORLD IN SPATIAL TERMS.

1) Which elements did we emphasize in GEOG 111? Discuss with examples.

2) a. Which standards (of the elements you identified above) did you improve in and do you feel confident about? Explain the growth in your understanding or perspective and the difference you expect it to make in your life?
b. Which standards (from the elements we emphasized) do you still feel uncertain about? Why do you think this is?

3) Think of an event, issue, or experience from your life -- something that you have seen, done, observed in the media, studied in your major, or otherwise experienced outside of this class. Describe it and apply as many of the standards as you can to it. How is your understanding enhanced in new or meaningful ways by thinking of the experience or issue geographically?

This short think-piece is not to exceed two pages of text, but can have additional and, hopefully, creative images, maps or graphics. Grammatical, syntactical, organizational and plain silly thinking and writing errors can be avoided with a proper re-write and proof-read.  Make the effort.

The assignment is to be submitted through D2L to me as an MS Word or .PDF document with yourlastnameEX5 as the file name before class begins on the day that it is due. If you do not know how to submit a homework assignment through D2L, the kind people at the computer helpdesk in the Old Library are waiting to help you.