Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

A geographical introduction to how humans shape our world, with attention also given to how it shapes us. Themes may include: culture, economic activities, environmental change, globalization, politics, population, resources, and urbanization. Breadth-Humanities/Social Sciences.

COURSE DETAILS:

Delivery Mode: Online, Asynchronous.  This course is fully remote with no in-person requirement.

Calendar Description

A geographical introduction to how humans shape our world, with attention also given to how it shapes us. Themes may include: culture, economic activities, environmental change, globalization, politics, population, resources, and urbanization. Breadth-Social Sciences.

Course Description

This breadth-social science course introduces students to the field of human geography.  The Greek roots of the term geo (earth) and graphy (writing) signal the field’s focus on describing and inscribing the relationship between humans and the world around us.  Human geographers use concepts like space, place, scale, mobility, and relationality to pursue questions like: How do places acquire meaning for different people?  How does location impact how we understand the world, and the possibilities presented to us?  How are places related, and how can this knowledge help us address pressing social, political, ecological, and economic challenges?

In this course, students can expect to develop a framework for understanding what it means to ‘think geographically’.  Special attention will be paid in this course offering to the problematic aspects of the field’s history; exploring the ways that the biophysical, built, and social world shape who we are; and, finally, how we shape and re-shape the world around us (whether intentionally or unintentionally).  As you progress through the course, it is hoped that you will see the value of thinking geographically as a means of being engaged and remaining curious about how our environments shape us, and how we, in turn, shape the world around us.

Assignments:

• All instructional content will be made available to students asynchronously in the form of short recorded lectures, online modules, reading, and course engagement activities. Students have the option of attending weekly, synchronous Q&A sessions, but attendance at these sessions is not mandatory.  Accessibility will be prioritized.  These optional sessions will be spaces to connect, interact, and share challenges and successes.
• Asynchronous class preparation quizzes. Most weeks, students will complete a class preparation quiz in advance of the lecture being released.  These quizzes ensure that students have completed the weekly readings and assigned material, have a basic comprehension of core concepts leading into the lecture, and are feeling confident as the week begins.
• Asynchronous class engagement activities. Most weeks, students will complete a class engagement assignment that will be available as part of the learning module.  These mini-assignments invite you to think more deeply about the week’s required material through observation, reflection, application, and experience. 
• Self-Reflection and Self-Assessment will be prioritized. Through storytelling, examples from your work and and more creative formats, you will be asked throughout the course to reflect on your learning.  Where it happens and how, your struggles, your triumphs, goal setting, and how it is showing up and/or impacting your everyday life.
• Peer Learning and Support. You are expected to engage with your classmates throughout the course in community-building.  This includes providing feedback to one another, sharing stories about your learning, and participating in community-building activities.
• StoryMaps Project: In thematic groups, over the course of the semester students will create an ArcGIS StoryMap on a topic of their choosing. Students will submit three small assignments that will help them plan, design, and create their StoryMaps. A final submission will take place in a group setting as a StoryMap Showcase, where students will view each other’s StoryMaps and engage one another through a Q&A round.
• Optional ‘Extending’ Assignments (for students wanting to earn a grade higher than ‘B’): PechaKucha, Group Storymap Evaluation, StoryMap Dissemination Plan

Assessment:

This course will use a blend of labour-based grading and qualitative assessment.  There is flexibility for late or missing assignments built in.  Class prep assignments, engagement activities, reflections, and StoryMap prep assignments will use labour-based grading.  The Class Preparation Quizzes and final StoryMap assignment will implement qualitative or standards-based grading.  The full details about this system, including a grading contract, will be outlined in the course syllabus and introductory Canvas module.

This approach to assessment is informed by an ethic of care, and is meant to account for and capture your learning experience, as well as the complexities of your failures, struggles, and successes.  This approach centres mutual respect, transformative values, building inclusive learning communities, and responsiveness.  For more information on the rationale behind this approach to assessment, please visit: https://www.sfu.ca/istld/faculty/grant-programs/projects/fenv/G0443.html

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

By the end of the semester, students should be able to:

• Understand and use key human geography concepts (e.g. space, place, scale, mobility, spatial imaginaries)
• Interpret relations between power and knowledge, appreciating how diverse experiences influence the way people perceive places
• Using spatial reasoning in order to identify how places are connected across space and time
• Understand how social, political, and economic structures take place in our surroundings
• Learn to critically assess the validity of geographic data and images as they are presented in the public square and media
• Have sufficiently developed early undergraduate-level research, communication, and citation skills

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

RECOMMENDED READING:

REQUIRED READING NOTES: