Course Syllabus:

GEOG 102: Principles of Human Geography, Summer 2014 (Online)

Course Instructor: Austin Charron
Email: austincharron@gmail.com
Office: Lindley 117, KU Lawrence Campus
Required Textbook: Human Geography, by J. Malinowski and D. Kaplan. McGraw-Hill, 2012.
Course Objectives:
GEOG 102: Principles of Human Geography is an examination of the relationships between humans and their environments.
The course introduces students to basic concepts in human geography relating to among other things economic
activities, landscapes, languages, migrations, nations, regions, and religions. This course serves as the foundation for further
course work in cultural, economic, political, population, and urban geography.
Disabilities:
Any students with a disability that may impair performance in the course should contact me as soon as possible to discuss
accommodations necessary to ensure full participation and facilitate the education process. Students with further questions
should contact the Academic Achievement and Access Center (785-864-4064).
Format and Structure of Course:
This course is conducted completely online through KUs Blackboard site. Within the courses Blackboard page you will
be able to access all necessary course materials, including quizzes, exams, assignment instructions, discussion boards,
instructional material, etc. Learning in this course is largely self-directed, and students will be able to study the material and
complete assignments at their own pace. However, each assignment does have a due date, and students will be responsible
for completing all assignments by the time that they are due.
Quizzes:
For each chapter of the book that we cover, there will be a short quiz (approximately 8 questions) over the material that was
covered in class. There will also be a shorter quiz over each of the two documentaries that students will be required to
watch (see below). Quizzes will consist of multiple choice questions, and will cover topics and issues both from the
textbook and from power point slides for each chapter.
Quizzes will be made available in two batches: the first batch will be for those chapters covered by the midterm exam
(chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 13/14, and 16/17, plus the King Corn quiz), and the second batch will be for those chapters covered by
the final exam (chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, plus the Detropia quiz). The first batch will be available beginning at 8:00
AM on the first day of the course (June 3), and all must be completed by 5:00 PM on Friday of the fourth week of class
(June 27), the same time that the midterm exam is due (see below). The second batch of quizzes will be made available at
8:00 AM on Monday of the fifth week of class (June 30), and all must be completed by 5:00 PM on Friday of the eighth
and final week of class (July 25), the same time that the final exam is due (see below). For each batch, students will be able
to complete each quiz at any time before the due date, but any quizzes that are not completed or attempted before the due
date will receive a 0. Quizzes are not timed, and students may begin and return to them later for completion. Students will
be allowed to take each quiz two times, with the highest score of the two counting towards the final grade.
Midterm and Final Exams:
In addition to quizzes, this course features two longer exams. The midterm will be over all topics covered in the first half of
the semester, and the final will only cover those topics covered after the midterm. In other words, the final is noncumulative. Both exams will feature material covered both in the textbook and in power point slides. Many of the questions
will be multiple choice, but both exams will also include a variety of fill-in-the-blank, matching, and short response
questions. Study guides for both the midterm and final exams are available in the Course Documents section of the
Blackboard site.
Students will have a five-day window to complete each of these exams. The midterm will be made available beginning at
8:00 AM on the Monday of the fourth week of the course (June 23), and must be completed by 5:00 PM on the Friday of
the same week (June 27). The final will be made available at 8:00 AM on the Monday of the eighth and final week of class
(July 21), and must be completed by 5:00 PM on the Friday of the same week (July 25, or the final day of the course).
Unlike quizzes, the midterm and final exams are both timed at 90 minutes each, and once begun they must be completed in

a single sitting. In other words, students may take the midterm and the final at any time during their respective five-day
windows, but once begun they must be completed in 90 minutes.
Response Papers:
Students will be required to view two different documentaries, King Corn (2007) and Detropia (2012). After viewing each
film students will write a short (2-3 page, double-spaced, size 12 font) response based on a series of provided questions.
More information about these assignments is available in the Course Documents section of the Blackboard site, and they
must be submitted in the Assignment Submission section. Students may watch these films at their leisure, although both
response papers have a definitive due date, after which they will not be accepted. The King Corn response paper is due at
5:00 PM on Friday, June 20, and the Detropia response paper is due at 5:00 PM on Friday, July 18.
Students are responsible for accessing and viewing these films on their own. Unfortunately, neither film is officially
available online for free or without a subscription. Detropia is available on Netflix, but King Corn is not. Both films can be
rented for around $3 from online video outlets such as YouTube, Google Play, and iTunes.
Current Events Discussion:
Students must also participate in an online discussion forum throughout the semester related to current event news articles.
Each student is responsible for contributing a total of five posts to the discussion board during the semester; three of them
must include links to original articles (published within the past three months), and two must be responses to articles that
other students have posted. When posting an original article, students must also include a paragraph that includes a
summary of the article, a personal response to the article, and an explanation of how the news story is related to any
geographic theme(s) that are covered in the course. For posts responding to articles that other students have posted,
students must also write a paragraph that includes a personal reaction to the article and any additional discussion of
how the article relates to any geographic theme(s) from the course. Each original article and response is worth 12 points,
and each response to others articles is worth 7 points (for a total of 50), so be sure to be thorough in your article
discussions and responses to earn full credit for each post.
All posts should be made in the Current Event Discussion Board section of the Blackboard site. There you will find
threads for each of the chapters/sections that we will be discussing in class. Please post original articles within the
appropriate thread based on the content of the article. Students may post an article and/or response to another article within
any thread at any point during the semester, and students should browse through the threads frequently to search for posts
to which they would like to respond. Please pay attention to which articles have already been posted, as each of your three
article posts must be original, i.e., another student must not have already posted them. All five postings must be completed
by 5:00 pm on Friday, July 25, the final day of the course.
A note on news sources: Please seek out news outlets that offer in-depth and critical coverage of current events and not the
kind of brief news tidbits and watered-down coverage offered by many popular news outlets (CNN, Fox News, Huffington
Post, Yahoo News, etc.). Examples of good sources include the New York Times, NPR, BBC, Al-Jazeera, The Guardian,
The Christian Science Monitor, and Slate.com. If you are unclear about whether or not a particular news source may be
considered appropriate, please feel free to check with me.
Extra Credit
Students may notice that we will not be covering all chapters of the textbook due to time constraints. Therefore, I will be
offering extra credit to students who are willing to go beyond the requirements of the course by reading some of the
chapters that we will be skipping. In order to receive extra credit, students must read one or two of these chapters (choosing
only from chapters 4, 12, 15, and 18) and write a two-page summary (double-spaced, size 12 font) of the main points
covered for each chapter that they read. Students are allowed to submit summaries of a maximum of 2 chapters for
extra credit. Each summary will be worth one percentage point (1%) added to a students final grade. All extra credit work
must be submitted by 5:00 PM on Friday, July 25, the final day of the course.
Grade Breakdown:
Grades will be determined according to the following distribution of points (total = 350 points):
Quizzes = 100 points (approx. 28.6% of the final grade)
King Corn Response Paper = 50 points (approx. 14.3% of the final grade)
Detropia Response Paper = 50 points (approx. 14.3% of the final grade)
Current Events Discussion Participation = 50 points (approx. 14.3% of the final grade)
Midterm = 50 points (approx. 14.3% of the final grade)

 Final = 50 points (approx. 14.3% of the final grade)

Letter grades will be given according to the following breakdown:
B+ = 87 89.9%
C+ = 77 79.9%
D+ = 67 69.9%
F = < 59.9%

A = 93 100%
B = 83 86.9%
C = 73 76.9%
D = 63 66.9%

A- = 90 92.9%
B- = 80 82.9%
C- = 70 72.9%
D- = 60 62.9%

Course Schedule and Due Dates:

Please refer to the following schedule of due dates to stay on top of all assignments. All due dates are final, and students
will receive a 0 on any assignment not submitted by the due date and time.

Week 1 (June 3 8):

(Monday, June 3, 8:00 AM: First batch of quizzes available)
NO DUE DATES
Week 2 (June 9 15):
NO DUE DATES
Week 3 (June 16 22):
Friday, June 20, 5:00 PM:
King Corn Response Paper due.
Week 4 (June 23 29):
(Monday, June 23, 8:00 AM: Midterm Exam available)
Friday, June 27, 5:00 PM:
All quizzes from first batch due (chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 13/14, and 16/17)
Midterm Exam due
Week 5 (June 30 July 6):
(Monday, June 30, 8:00 AM: Second batch of quizzes available)
NO DUE DATES
Week 6 (July 7 13):
NO DUE DATES
Week 7 (July 14 20):
Friday, July 18, 5:00 PM:
Detropia Response Paper due
Week 8 (July 21 25):
(Monday, July 21, 8:00 AM: Final Exam available)
Friday, July 25, 5:00 PM:
All quizzes from second batch due (chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11)
Final Exam due
All Current Events posts and responses due
All chapter summaries for extra credit due (optional)