February 1, 2010                 FEEDBACK TO:

FEEDBACK Geog3600 – Geography of Utah –

HW A01 – Atlas for a Utah School – Chapter 1 – Location, Location, Location.

 

COMMENTS TO EVERYONE:

Logistics… here’s what I looked for

Cover sheet and map files:

Complete; Not quite; Troubles

File access and logic

Files make sense … they’re easy to access, the logic is clear.

Files were a bit difficult for me to negotiate

Files didn’t open for me, or some other trouble… let’s work this out

REMINDER: Office hours are for you. Thursdays 2 – 4 PM and by appointment.

 

LOCATION. The cover page of your chapter was the most important file for demonstrating an understanding of the importance of location and Utah’s physical and human geographies and  your school’s physical and human geographies.

 

EXPECTATIONS for this assignment…

Information… facts / observations…

Is it clear where your school is located?

If someone asked “where is that school?” would your cover page material make it abundantly clear, very clear, clear, could be clearer, not really clear.

(for example… good thinking to add what county the school is in, or its school district… )

 

By week #2 you’ll expand into geographic thoughts / observations…

Location can be absolute… as with a geographic grid (latitude, longitude; UTM, or other grid)

Location is multidimensional… north-south; east-west; elevation above sea level

Location can be relative… the University of Utah is located on Salt Lake City’s East Bench; west of the Wasatch Range, east of the Great Salt Lake.

Location with respect to continentality matters (continent versus ocean, and proximity to oceans).

Location can be visualized on maps and on images different ways to show different concepts.

 

From week #3 to then end of the course you’ll explore geographic connections … the web of relationships among Utah’s people, places, and environments.

Why does location matter? – in many ways but especially to

  • weather, climate, seasonality, water cycle, air pollution, growing season, economics, heating bills, vulnerability to isolation, joys of isolation,
  • distance relative to other places,
  • elevation affects weather, climate, quality of life, scenery, … and topography is elevation related
  • how to find the school on a map or if you were driving there,
  • size. Utah is 5 degrees by 5 degrees, pretty big so many resources, and many contrasts. Where is the school in Utah, or with respect to some other way of locating it

Three huge concepts vis a vis physical geography and  location are: latitude, continentality, and elevation because they affect climate, vegetation, the hydrologic cycle, and geosystem processes such as erosion.

The big concepts vis a vis human geography in Utah are probably city, county, and state. These affect politics, culture, social institutions, economics, even psychology.

 

FEEDBACK specific to you.

Your Name:

ASSIGNMENT A01:

Logistics… files etc: Troubles; Just fine; Worked great;  So easy to follow.

 

Map files: Not quite; Just fine; Look good; Terrific

 

Cover page discussion: Troubles; Just fine; Thoughtful; Insightful; Awesome.

 

 

Extra credit for observations and analysis.

 

In SUMMARY… with respect to LOCATION – Atlas for a Utah school – Chapter 1, its display of understanding of the importance of LOCATION and your personalizing it for your school …

(a) Understood the big concepts of location as a theme of Utah’s geography?

AND

(b) That you believed it for your school and had personalized it for the teachers of the school?

Assessment… OUT OF A TOTAL OF 20 points…

5 – 15              Not quite

15-20               It’s all there, resource materials for teachers

20.                   Good work, presented information, displayed location on maps, used Google Earth and other map sources.

+1                    Total, connected the dots for the teachers, role-modeled geographic thinking

+2                    Awesome… inspired curiosity, translated a sense of place

 

____ of 20