GEO300 Helpful Hints by Valsala Manaloor

2004-12-16T19:24:00.000-08:00

In General:

NEW!! To practice memorizing countries for the map section of quizzes and exams in a fun way, log onto:
www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/
(Courtesy of your classmate, Rayne Kehler, thanks.)

1. Learn my name. You are going to have to put it on every single assignment, and if ever your work shows up in the wrong box or mixed in with other Recitation group's work, and it doesn't have my name, you get NO points for it!! Helpful hint: think of it as the name of a country you have to memorize for the map portion of your quizzes and exams!

2. Always write YOUR name on anything you turn in. You lose 2 points if I find out who you are eventually, but won't get ANY if I don't! Also, please include your recitation day and time.

3. Always proofread your work. You'll save yourself lots of points if you catch your errors before I do.

4. Read my feedback. The assignments all follow the same format. Knowing what you did wrong the first time can help you to not make the same mistakes again.

5. For any question that has numbered parts or that asks you to list x number of main points - please ENUMERATE your answer e.g. (1), (2) etc.

6. Don't skip recitations. They are usually worth at least 20 points - 10 just for signing in and 10 points often for a short written paragraph. There have been students who did 'A' quality work, but missed a few Recs, and wondered why they got a 'C' in the class.

How to Ace the Map Exercises

Title (4 points)

Do NOT copy the big title at the top of the table from which you got your data. This title applies to ALL the countries in the WORLD, and covers ALL the columns of data given. Your map title should tell me exactly what it is you are mapping. This is usually the same thing as the sub-sub-heading of the column you are using for your data, e.g. "Number of people per sq. km. of arable land". Add the name of the continent or region and year given at the top of the column, and you are done, e.g. "Number of people per sq. km. of arable land in Africa in 2000"

Data Source (1 point)

Write out word for word the source(s) printed below the table you referenced.
The data source is like your bibliography, if you were writing a paper. The atlas is like you, the writer of the paper, so is NOT the source. The source has three parts, i.e. the name of the article, the author or agency responsible for producing that article and the year. You need to write all three down, or it is incomplete.

Key (5 points)

Use the data ranges Dr. Cook provides in the syllabus to form each category in your key.

Assign a color to each category, including a color other than white for "No Data". The "No Data" color is used for a country that is in your area of study (usually a region or continent) but has no data in this particular table.

Use white only for features that show up on your map, but which are not included in the set of countries on your list, e.g. Greenland, Antarctica and tiny Caribbean islands on a map of the Americas or Lake Victoria (a cross-boundary feature) on the African map. Be careful, however, to use the same color for disjointed, non-contiguous parts of the same country, e.g. Hawaii as part of the U.S.; the island of Crete is a part of Greece; a lot of discontinuous islands form the country of Indonesia.

The key also needs a Heading to explain what your data range units are. For e.g., if you have ranges such as 1-5%, 6-10%, 11-15%, but you don't include a specific heading, for all I know it could be about anything from percent of GEO 300 students that get Ds :-) to, percent cows with black spots. For this reason, a key without a heading / title gets ZERO points! (This is Dr. Cook's rule, no matter whose Recitation you are in.)
Finally, before using mathematical symbols, be sure you know what they mean. > is greater than..., < is less than.

Map (5 points)

Most people do not have trouble labeling country names and coloring them by where their values lie according to your key. It is best to use pointers to label really small countries or, for whatever reason, if you can't place the country name right on the country. Computer-labeled maps are unacceptable. Try to use crayon colors that are easily distinguishable. Some blues look just like purples, some oranges look like red.

Questions (2.5 points each)

Read the questions carefully, and make sure you are answering each question specifically as it is asked.
For more information on countries you know nothing about, look up:
*Other maps or tables in your atlas (read the little paragraphs below the maps),
*A current World Almanac, and
*See the bottom of this blog.
You don't have to go into great detail, but you are required to make an educated guess!

Some common mistakes:

* Comparing percents, ratios or rates to actual numbers, e.g.:
Population (actual numbers) vs. Population Density (numbers of people per unit area)
vs. Population Growth Rate (increase in numbers over a time period).

* Assuming similar patterns mean a cause and effect or correlation, e.g.:
Three world maps of women over 40 show the following:
A. 60 % women over 40 in the U.S. dye their hair.
B. 60 % women over 40 in the U.S. wear jeans every day.
C. 60 % women over 40 in the U.S. are blondes (doesn't specify naturally or not).

A and B, or B and C have similar patterns, but are NOT correlated. However, we could speculate (make an educated guess) that A and C are correlated, and perhaps even that A (a cause) could directly have an effect on C.

* Trying to use the same rationalization for different parts of the world and ignoring other overriding factors, e.g.:
Being close to the coast: For Country A is good for trade and tourism, for Country B makes no difference because there is a huge coastal mountain range that allows no easy traffic across it, or that shadows the land from rain, turning most of it into dry, arid desert. Blind guesswork will cost you points!

The official course website is:
http://www.geo.oregonstate.edu/classes/geo300/

E-mail me at: manaloov@geo.oregonstate.edu

Every week before a map exercise is due, I will post some relevant information here about the countries used in the questions, latest by Friday.

Map Ex #3

There seems to still be a lot of confusion about map exercises, so I'm going to try and help you with this next one:

For title, use:
"GDP Per Unit of Energy Use in Europe in 2000"
That will keep you out of trouble.

Legend heading is only the UNITS of your map:
"PPP $ per Kg of Oil Equivalent"

There is a correction for Data Ranges:
The third one should be : "4.6 - 6"

Finally, for "former Soviet Union and its satellites", he's not talking about things that orbit the earth, but rather countries that were formerly part of USSR - see Map 18, p31 for further clarification -countries in pink on the right-hand map.

And don't forget date source, bottom of Table N.

Hopefully this will help, and I won't have to update the blog with stuff for this week.

This and the write up on Environmental Effects of War are due this coming week.
For that, please follow instructions on the syllabus. Make sure to write down your sources, even if they are websites. Here's one that TA Ron Rinehart claims is useful:
www.costofwar.com

GEO300HelpfulHints

GEO300 Helpful Hints by Valsala Manaloor