Course credit
3 credit hours
Course description
Reasons for and consequences of variations over surface of the earth of cultural, economic, physical, and other attributes of places.
Delivery
This course is available in a web-based format, utilizing web pages and WebCT, a computer conferencing program. WebCT requires Internet access and a web browser — no additional software is required. Students may need access to someone who can assist with computer set-up.
This course is available in a print-based format. Mail completed assignments to the GIS Office. We will forward them to the instructor for grading.
Prerequisites
none
Instructor
James Fryman, Associate Professor
Dr. Fryman received his B.A. degree from Denison University, his M.A. degree from
Miami University and his Ph.D. degree from the University of North Carolina. He has
also done graduate work in International Relations at the University of Southern California.
Dr. Fryman also served as an Intelligence Officer with the United States Air Force for seven years. During that time period, he functioned as a briefing officer and an aerial photo interpreter. Six of his seven years in the USAF were spent outside the United States in Thailand, England, and Germany.
Dr. Fryman regularly teaches courses in Thematic Cartography, Aerial Photo Interpretation/Remote Sensing and Population Geography, in addition to World Geography. His research interests are mainly in Population Geography with an emphasis on the migration process relative to subgroups of the population such as college students and Black Americans.
He is currently a member of several professional organizations including the American Association of Geographers, North American Cartographic Information Society, the American Photogrammetry Society, and the Population Association of America.
James is married to Jill Wallace, a psychologist, who is also a professor and administrator at the University of Northern Iowa. Together, they live in a big blue barn house with three cats and two dogs. Their daughter, Allie Leigh, currently is attending Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. James enjoys tennis, biking, travel and building “stuff.”
Evaluation
16 assignments, 4 exams
Notes for success
Regional geography texts often get bogged down in description and endless inventories of phenomena. By emphasizing concepts, ideas, and terms, the authors hope to focus on the most important items. Most likely, the most important knowledge a student will take from this course will be the concepts and ideas.
Another very important aspect of each chapter is the box entitled "Major Geographic Qualities of Each Region." This often helps one see the forest in spite of the trees. Knowing the major qualities and characteristics of a region will surely benefit you in test taking and in understanding each region.
A third major part of each chapter is the comparison and contrast between realms, regions, political states, cities, etc. Comparisons will help you remember certain key characteristics, similarities and differences.
Course organization
The course consists of 16 assignments and 4 examinations. The examinations will be given after assignments 4, 8, 12 and 16. You may turn in more than one assignment at a time. Be brief and use your own words. Always give specific examples. There are four map exercises which are designed to give you familiarity with political state names and to explore some important distributional patterns. The examinations will be given only after all the previous assignments have been satisfactorily completed. Test questions will be of the objective type (i.e. True/False and multiple choice). Knowledge of place names and locations are needed in answering many of the questions and in addition, there will be specific map questions on each test.
Grades
The assignments will be returned to you and marked either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Unsatisfactory papers will have to be rewritten as directed and submitted again. Satisfactory assignments will help raise the grade by as much as a notch. For example, a C- would become a C, and a C+ would become a B-.
The four examinations will be marked with letter grades and will form the basis of your final grade. They will be weighed equally. Each test will contain 90 objective questions (i.e. multiple choice and True/False) and 10 map questions. Many questions can be asked in either true-false or multiple choice format. For instance, if we were discussing Primate Cities (those cities within a Political State that are at least twice as large as the next ranked city in population size and the most important city in the country) and Paris was given as the best example of this concept, the following questions could be asked.
The best example of a Primate City in Europe is Paris.
a. True
b. FalseThe best example of a Primate City in Europe is ________.
a. Bonn
b. Bern
c. Munich
d. Paris
Map questions will be taken from the list of states, cities, and physical features that are listed in each Regional Assignment.
Textbook(s)
Harm J. deBlij and Peter O. Muller, Geography: Realms, Regions and Concepts. John Wiley & Sons, Twelfth Edition 2006.
Texts are available from the vendor of your choice or
University Book and Supply
1009 West 23rd Street, Cedar Falls, IA 50613
Phone: 319-266-7581 or 800-728-7581
Fax: 319-277-1266
E-mail: bookstore@panthersupply.com
To enroll
ONLINE
GIS enrollment information
IN PERSON
UNI Continuing Education
2637 Hudson Road (corner of 27th St. and Hudson Rd.)
Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0223
Campus map (Look for Building 31)
For more information
Cindy Klodt, Guided Independent Study
UNI Continuing Education
319-273-2123 or 800-772-1746
ContinuingEd@uni.edu