This class meets entirely online.
Course Alignment
General Education Outcomes are the knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes, and behaviors that students are expected to develop as a result of their overall experiences with any aspect of the college, including courses, programs, and student services, both inside and outside of the classroom. The General Education Outcomes specifically learned in this course are:
- Critical Thinking
- Responsibility
Faculty Contact Information
Office Hours:
- Mondays: 8:50-9:20 am, 12:30-1:30 pm
- Tuesdays: 10:50-11:20 am, 1:45-2:15 pm
- Wednesdays: 8:50-9:20 am, 10:50-11:20 am
- Thursdays: 1:45-2:15 pm
I am also available for in-person, telephone, or video conferences by appointment.
I attempt to respond to emails received Monday through Friday within 24 hours. I try to check my e-mail at least once on Saturday, but do not check it on Sundays.
Course Information
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Know the reasons geographers divide the world into regions for study
- Be able to divide the world into regions of various kinds with examples that include the political, the economic, the cultural, and the physical
- Be able to use spatial analysis of traditional and digital maps to assess how regions evolve, interact, and change over time
- Know the dominant physical ad cultural traits of each major world region
- Be able to describe how the dominant physical characteristics of each major region influence settlement and cultural patterns (i.e. human-environmental interaction)
- Be able to explain the uneven distribution of human activity using analytical and critical thinking skills
- Be able to demonstrate knowledge of your own society and how it differs from the cultures of the other major world regions
- Introduction: Global Connections
- A World of Difference: Why Geography Matters; How Regions are Defined; Geographer’s Toolbox; Mapping People; Cultural Coherence and Diversity; The Geography of Wealth and Power; A Systems Thinking Model; The World as Space-Time: The Geography of World Time Zones
- Global Context: Geology as a Base; Current Geopolitical Framework; Globalization; Water: Scarcity, Privatization and Gender Issues
- Central America and the Caribbean: Cocaine Capitalism, the Narco Economy, and the Narco State; The Real Pirates of the Caribbean; The Plantation System and Monocropping
- South America: Coffee; The Galapagos; Issues for Indigenous Peoples; The Amazon: Water and Deforestation Issues
- Europe: The EU; the East-West Divide and the North-South Divide; Can Fertility Rates be Increased?; The Impact of Refugees on Europe; Brexit; Rivers and Canals
- Russia and Its Neighbors: Chernobyl; Cultural Conflict and Survival; Exclaves in the Post-Soviet World
- East Asia: Population and Pollution; Okinawa
- Southeast Asia: Smoked: Deforestation; Exports: Seafood, Opium and Female Workers; Heritage Tourism; Informal Economy and Slums
- South Asia: Movements: Conservation, Yoga, Peace; Bollywood; Monsoon; again, Informal Economy and Slums
- The Middle East and North Africa: Water vs Oil; Refugee Highways; Dubai’s Race Against Time
- Sub-Saharan Africa: Deforestation: Palm Oil, Cacao, Coffee and Fuel; Health Issues; Colonial Legacies; Single-Export Economies
- Australasia and Oceania: Pacific Island Challenges; Obesity in South Pacific Islands; Indigenous Issues
- North America: Engineering Rivers; Oil, tar sands, fracking, and pipelines; hurricanes
- Investigating Geography through Film, Literature, and Participation
Main textbook: Finlayson, World Regional Geography, Pressbooks, 2019. This is an open educational resource, which you can find here: https://pressbooks.pub/worldgeo/.
We will be using these books in Perusall, and you can purchase access codes at the KCC bookstore:
- Demick, Barbara. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Published in 2022 with a new afterword.
- Gelvin, James. The New Middle East, 2nd edition. Published in 2023.
Check Assignments:
- Online Learning: 4 points
- Perusall assignments: 239 points total
- seven 7-point lessons
- nineteen 10-point lessons
- Regional Check Assignments: 330 points (11 assignments, 30 points each)
- Geographic Thinking Paper check assignments:
- Geographic Thinking Paper: what are you learning?: 10 points
- Progress on Geographic Thinking Paper: 10 points
- Geographic Thinking Paper: final check-in: 5 points
Essential Assignments
- Syllabus Quiz: 8 points
- Academic Honesty and Artificial Intelligence: 5 points
- Geographic Thinking Papers: 300 points (3 assignments, 100 points each)
- Reflections: 60 points (2 assignments, 30 points each)
Grading Scale:
- To get a C, you need to pass each of the Essential Assignments with 70% or more either the first time or improving your score in a revision or retake. The Essential Assignments must be turned in and passed by the dates specified in the Course Policies section below.
- To get a B, you need to meet the requirements for a C and earn 80-89% of the total points in the class. The Essential Assignments must be turned in and passed by the dates specified in the Course Policies section below.
- To get an A, you need to meet the requirements for a C and earn 90-100% of the total points in the class. The Essential Assignments must be turned in and passed by the dates specified in the Course Policies section below.
Liberal Arts & Sciences
Dean, Jennifer Huggins; 815-802-8484; R310; jhuggins@kcc.edu; Division Office- W102; 815-802-8700
When do the Essential Assignments need to be turned in if you want to pass the class?
Students must pass all Essential Assignments to pass the class. Students who do not pass the first time are able to revise their work to pass them. Mr. Kistler is glad to help with the revising process.
To keep students on track to pass the class and prevent a rush to turn in Essential Assignments at the end of the term, these are the deadlines:
- By 11:59 pm on Thursday, March 19, Geographic Thinking Paper 1 must be turned in. Students not meeting this requirement will receive an F for the class. Please note, students who do not pass an Essential Assignment the first time are able to revise their assignments to get a passing grade. Mr. Kistler is glad to help you pass!
- By 11:59 pm on Monday, May 11, all Essential Assignments must be turned in. Students not meeting this requirement will receive an F for the class. Please note, students who do not pass an Essential Assignment the first time are able to revise their assignments to get a passing grade. Mr. Kistler is glad to help you pass!
- If you want to avoid getting an Incomplete grade for the class, all revisions of Essential Assignments must be turned in by noon on Thursday, May 14.
Any exceptions to these deadlines must be requested by the student and approved by Mr. Kistler. Documentation may be required.
Late Work Policy
- For the assignments on Perusall, the amount of credit you can get declines gradually after the due date until 1 week after the due date, when you can no longer get credit for comments posted.
- Assignments of 30 points or more: There is an automatic 1-day grace period. After that:
- Up to 1 week late: 10% of points taken off
- Up to 2 weeks late: 20% of points taken off
- And so on, for each additional week late
Academic Honesty
Plagiarism is defined in Code of Conduct in the KCC Catalog as "taking, reproducing, and/or using as one’s own, without proper attribution, the ideas, writings, paraphrases, data, reports, graphic designs, or computer codes of published or unpublished work of another person in completing an academic assignment. Prohibited conduct may also include the unauthorized submission for credit of academic work that has been submitted for credit in another course." All instances of intentional plagiarism on any assignment for this course will lead to the failure of the assignment. The instance of plagiarism will be reported to the Dean of Student Development. If the student has a second instance of plagiarism reported to the Dean of Student Development, the student may be suspended from the institution.
Cheating (including using artificial intelligence tools on assignments in ways not allowed by the instructor), fabrication, intellectual property dishonesty, and facilitation of academic dishonesty are also violations of the Code of Conduct and have the same consequence as plagiarism. You can find the KCC catalog here: https://kcc.smartcatalogiq.com/current/Academic-Catalog. Search for the section on "Academic Misconduct."
Penalties for plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, or the inappropriate use of artificial intelligence tools on Region Checks or Essential Assignments:
- First instance during the semester: student receives a zero but can revise the assignment
- Second instance during the semester: student can receive a maximum grade of C in the course; if it’s an Essential Assignment, the student still must revise it to pass
- Third instance during the semester: student fails the course
Credit Hours and Coursework
This course earns those who complete it 3 credit hours. This means that you would expect to spend about 9 hours per week on work for this course (3 hours that you would normally spend in class and about 6 hours outside of class). It also may vary depending on your specific abilities relating to the class. I did not make up this ratio; it is the standard way of calculating out-of-class work in college-level classes. It's your responsibility to figure out if you have enough time to succeed in this course while also fulfilling your other responsibilities.
Make-Up Policy
If you miss a deadline due to an emergency and need more time to complete the work, you must have documentation and contact me beforehand, if possible, or as soon as possible after the deadline. Those not meeting these requirements will receive a late penalty of one grade or more at the discretion of the instructor.
Questions about Grades
If you have a question about a grade on an assignment or exam, follow the “1 day, 1 paragraph, 1 week” policy: wait one day before you contact the instructor, write one paragraph explaining why your grade should be changed, and contact the instructor within one week of the date on which you received your grade. The instructor will then consider your explanation and get back to you as soon as possible.
Incompletes
Incompletes are designed to help a student who is successfully completing a course deal with a personal emergency that arises at the end of the semester. A grade of Incomplete will only be assigned in the case of emergencies such as a death in the immediate family or an illness that requires hospitalization. The student must currently have a passing grade and must still meet the attendance requirements of the course. Official documentation will be required to verify the validity of the student's need for an incomplete.
Incompletes will NOT be given in the case of vacation plans, job conflicts, apartment lease problems, social engagements, missing too many deadlines, or forgetting to take exams. If you need an incomplete, you must speak with me and provide the necessary documentation so that I can make the decision.
Students and instructor are expected to follow the above policies and interact with each other respectfully.
See Canvas.
College Policies, Resources and Supports
For information related to the Student Code of Conduct Policy, Withdrawal Policy, Email Policy, and Non- Attendance/Non-Participation Policy, please review the college’s Code of Campus Affairs and Regulations webpage, which can be found at catalog.kcc.edu under the Academic Regulations & Conduct Guide.
KCC offers various academic and personal resources for all students. Many services are offered virtually, as well as in person. Please visit Student Resources - Kankakee Community College to access student resources services such as:
- Clubs and organizations
- Counseling and referral services
- Office of disability services
- Student complaint policy
- Transfer services
- Tutoring services, etc.
The materials on this course are only for the use of students enrolled in this course for purposes associated with this course. Further information regarding KCC's copyright policy is available at https://kcc.libguides.com/copyright.
|Course syllabus/calendar is subject to change.