HOMEWORK: A09 - Atlas for a Utah School Project – Due April 1.

Next to Final Draft - PART 1 of your Atlas for a Utah School Project.

(NOTE: PART 2 of your Atlas for a Utah School Project is the human geography part. We'll explore social and behavioral sciences from the perspective of Utah for the rest of the semester. Your Part 2 - Atlas for a Utah School Project consists mostly of two relatively large assignments (A10 - Community profile; and A11 - Human geography) plus appendices) and a final chapter of emerging issues and conclusions. LINKs to assignments are (not active yet. At the very end of the semester you turn the memory stick - Atlas in, one last time, and off it goes. So, you still have opportunities to tinker with Part 1... but it's basically done when you turn it in April 4.

 

  A09 - Atlas for a Utah School Project. Transmittal letter and Introductory sections to Geography of (Your School) __________, __________ City, _________ County, Utah. TWO parts to this assignment (a) and (b)... (NOTE: I’ll be writing a transmission email as well as the one you write).

 

(a) A letter of transmission A00-TransmissionLetter.doc

This letter is from you to the school principal or to the students of your school. It explains the purpose for your atlas and how you hope it will be used. If I were writing this letter it would have some of the following thoughts:

  • The atlas was a project of GEOG3600-Geography of Utah, spring 2010 of UofU.
  • Done by an undergraduate majoring in ____________ as an exercise to gain as sense of place of Utah, on the assumption that the more one knows about where one lives the more one knows about one’s self.
  • That the project was successful, or not successful in that regard.
  • That you chose their school and their county because…
  • That you’re aware that your Atlas has strengths and weaknesses:
  • Strengths:
  • Weaknesses
  • That you hope it might be useful to __________

 

 

(b) Introductory section

NEW FOLDER – A00-IntroductorySections

For an example, go to Marriott Library and examine

Atlas of Utah, 1981, a project of Weber State University; Deon Greer, editor; BYU Press, publisher.

Or – look at almost any other atlas

*= mandatory section; @ = optional

   

*Title Page – A00a-TitlePage

@ - Dedication- A00b-Dedication (optional)

*Table of Contents – A00c-TableOfContents

*Preface – A00d-Preface.

 (Why you did this project … can be similar to your letter of transmission (above))

*Introduction – A00e-Introduction

(Overview of the physical geography of your school, its county, and the state of Utah; and; briefly, how and why the physical geography makes a difference)

*Resources – A00f-ReferencesGeneral

(General discussion of resources. Please acknowledge your general sources. For example, some of you are taking History of Utah and it would be totally appropriate to acknowledge that some of your ideas for your atlas were reinforced by materials and discussion of that course.

Likewise, acknowledge that UofU GEOG3600: Geography of Utah course materials were used liberally including lecture discussions; postings of course materials; and coachings of your friendly instructor, Genevieve Atwood, Ph.D., Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, University of Utah.

That course notes and other Atlas for Utah Schools Projects are posted at http://www.earthscienceeducation.org

 

NOTE: I will prepare a section to cut and paste that acknowledges main sources of images used on the course website. It will read something like this DRAFT language:

“Images, maps, files, references come from several sources including:

Atlas of Utah, a hard copy atlas, a project of Weber State University of the 1980s:

 

William Bowen’s remarkable compendium of images draped across topography:

 

Ray Sterner / Fermi Laboratory’s digital elevation map of Utah:

 

Kenneth Hamblin’s explanations and panorama images of Utah’s scenery:

 

As well as various federal, state, and local government sources of which the US Census, the US Geological Survey, the Utah Division of Water Resources, the Utah Geological Survey, the Utah Bureau of Economic Research, …

 

Web resources included Google Earth and Google Maps. ”

 

NOTE: I’ll provide the general section (DRAFT, above)… and I encourage you to acknowledge other sources you used. I don’t expect a “references cited” section… a weakness of this project, because some of your atlases are terrific about acknowledging source materials; others are well intentioned, others imaginative, and some, indeed, are sloppy. That is the nature of this type of project. What matters in this section is that you give an honest, upfront, appraisal of your general approach and sources. I’ve checked with Marriott Library and others to make sure the use of images on the web site are within the use for educational sources and with time all images on the course web site will have metadata directing readers to original source materials. Be open. Be generous.