What’s New

 

Thur., Dec. 14: Last Class:

A few more sample questions have been added to the final exam study guide, and the last lectures, including today’s review notes, have been posted.

 

Fri., Dec. 8:

 

This week’s notes are now posted, and a “Study Guide and Sample Final Exam Questions” is also now posted on the main web page.  We’ll discuss Kates reading on “Sustainable Development” on Tuesday Dec. 12, do some review, then review more on Thursday, Dec. 14, our last class. Final exam is Monday, Dec. 18 at 1:30 pm in the regular classroom, with an alternative spot for those who requested it TBA.

 

Wed., Dec. 6:

 

Lecture notes from last week (11/30) are now posted. The first study suggestions and sample questions for the last (3rd) exam, will be posted before class tomorrow.

 

Wed. Nov. 29:

 

This week we are applying concepts from earlier themes, especially “Natural Resources and Natural Hazards”, to the question of how society might respond to global warming (or any similar climate change). Be sure to read the two e-Reserve readings, and see on the syllabus the three short sections of “Vulnerability to Climate Change” for which you are responsible (it is long!). The second reading, Yaminetal et al. “Perspectives on Dangerous Anthropogenic Interference” is only 12 pages, but obviously read for the themes we’re discussion in class.

 

Monday, Nov. 20: FALL BREAK! Have a good break and Thanksgiving.

 

TAs and some students wanted more details on the grading of the essay, so we have added guidelines for the distribution of the 20 points within the three major categories of elements of the grading rubric (the distribution has not changed), which is downloaded along with instructions from the Recitations Exercises page of this website to be attached to your hard copies.

 

Be sure to be ready to offer a brief, 2-4 minute description of you essay topic in recitations after fall break!.

 

 

Friday. Nov. 10:

 

Notes from Thursday, Nov. 9, are now here (no notes for Tuesday, exam day). We’ll still need a few minutes to finish Natural Hazards on Tuesday, Nov. 14, but then go on to Global Warming, so check out the website and e-Reserve for next week.

 

Also next week the instructions for the final recitation exercise (#6), a capstone essay, will be introduced in recitation sessions. You can find the instructions and grading rubric on the Recitations page of this web site, and a hard copy will be handed out in recitation.

 

 

Thursday, Nov. 2:

 

Today’s lecture slides, the last before next Tuesday’s Exam, are now posted.

To get ready for the exam, check out the “Sample Exam 2 Questions” on this web site (it includes a reminder of the reading material and sample questions), and use the lecture notes (your’s and mine) to guide you to the material.

 

I’ll make a point of being in the office 9-10:30 on Monday morning (extra office hours), as well as regular office hours 9:30-11 before the exam on Tuesday. I’ll also try to answer e-mail questions promptly.

 

 

Fri. Oct. 27:

 

Lecture notes from this week are now posted. I will be adding more sample questions for exam 2 over the next few days. Keep an eye out. We’ll briefly review for the exam next Thursday, and the exam is Nov. 7.

 

In recitation next week you’ll take up the second part of Ex. 5: Managing Boulder’s Water Resources System. The worksheet will be posted on this site before Monday, and you’ll get a hard copy handed out in recitation. Be sure to bring your work from part 1 of the exercise, which you started this week.

 

I still have not found and posted a worthwhile source reading for our discussion of Environment as Natural Hazard next week, but have links to two thoughtful essays about Hurricane Katrina that I recommend you read.

 

 

Fri. Oct. 20:

 

The next exercise (#5) begins next week and comes in two parts over two weeks of recitations. For the first part you will be given a worksheet to track down facts about Boulder’s water resources system. You can download this first part on the website now. As you’ll learn in Recitations next week you can simply handwrite answers to the questions. The goal is for you to show up at Recitation the following week (starting Oct. 30) with sufficient information to play an active part in a water planning exercise in class.

 

A few more small changes were made in the Syllabus for next week. No major changes in schedule (The second quiz/exam will still occur Nov. 7), but we did get behind and will be considering Renewable Natural Resources, like water, in coordination with Exercise 5, all next week.

 

 

Thur, Oct. 19;

 

Lecture notes are now up to date, through 10/12 and the wrap up of our look at the Millennial Ecosystem Assessment. I introduced Theme 3 “Resources and Hazards”, on Tuesday, and will get into resource management principles today. See the new e-Reserve on natural resources.

 

There have been some updates to the syllabus for this week, and up-dates for next week are coming later today or Friday (for Exercise 5), so check it out before the weekend.

 

Fri. Oct. 13:

 

You should have received your first exam results in recitation this week. See me (Travis) if you have questions—I am in the office for extra hours 10-3 today, Oct. 13.

 

There is no new exercise for recitation next week; turn in Ex. 4 on species, and take part in the in-recitation discussion on species value.

 

Fri. Oct. 6:

 

Yesterday’s notes are now posted, and Exercise 4 is also posted, it will be introduced in recitations next week.

 

We will continue to examine Chap. 3 and 4 of the UN’s Millennial Ecosystem Assessment next week, see the syllabus for the pdf’s of the chapters and what sections to read.

 

Exam results will be returned to you in recitations next week. Travis will miss office hours Tuesday due to family reasons, so if you have questions on the exam, or anything, else, try e-mail, or please wait until Thursday.

 

 

Thurs. Sept. 28: last notes before the exam, today’s material on the carbon cycle, have been posted. A couple of obvious questions about main storages and fluxes, and human interventions, in the C cycle will be on the first exam, next Tuesday.  For those who wanted them, Power Points of previous lectures have now been posted along with the PDFs already posted.  I’ll be out of town Friday, but if you’d like to drop by before the exam, I’ll be in available my office all afternoon Monday, say after 1 pm, and also 9-11 am Tuesday before the exam.

 

Tues, Sept. 26:

 

Today’s notes are on the web, and a few more sample questions have been added to the sample sheet for exam 1.

 

Monday, Sept. 25:

 

The PPT and PDF of last Thursday’s lecture slides are now on.  On Thursday I introduced Theme 2: Human Transformations of Earth, and this material will be important to Exercise 2, which you begin this week. The worksheet for Exercise 2 is on the site in DOC and HTML versions.

 

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

 

Sample questions are now posted for the first exam. I’ll add questions as we go along.

 

Friday Sept. 15:

 

Lecture notes from yesterday (9/14) are now posted. We did not finish them due to technical difficulties with the LCD projector, so will pick up on the last few slides on Tuesday, and then move on to the Leiserrowitz et al reading.

 

 

Wed. Sept. 13:

 

Yesterday’s lecture notes (9/12) are now posted. Sample questions for the first exam are coming in the next day.

 

Sunday, Sept. 10:

 

I added a file of the ecological paradigm survey items to the recitation page for use with Exercise 1 (I also added the items to the Exercise 1 worksheet). You’ll need these original survey items to answer the exercise questions. You can also see them written out with results in the Dunlap reading.

 

Last Thursday’s lecture slides are now on the Lecture Notes page.

 

Friday, Sept. 9, 6 pm:

 

Finally! I got the Exercise one data sheet (in Excel and as an HTML file), and the worksheet (as a Word Doc and as an HTML) ready for download from the Recitations Exercises page on this website and this exercise will be introduced in Recitations next week.

 

BTW: the sept. 7 lecture notes are not up yet.

 

 

Tue., Sept. 5:

 

I introduced the class themes today, then started on the substance of Theme 1; the lecture slides are now on this site.

 

Start recitations this week. You start working on the first written recitation exercise next week (Week 3). I’ll have the exe4rcises posted by Thursday and very briefly go over them in lecture.

 

 

Saturday, Sept. 2:

 

I’ve received several questions about E-reserves: you get them via the CU library website at: http://libraries.colorado.edu/screens/coursereserves.html

To make this a bit easier, I added a link to this site with each eReserve noted on the syllabus.

 

Simply type in GEOG 2412, then choose the reading and it will ask for your Identikey password.

 

We’ll mostly discuss the first reading (Lowenthal) next Thursday, but I’ll point you to his main points on Tue.

 

A few other small changes were made in the syllabus schedule, e.g., making the last exercise due the second-to-last week of classes (instead of the last week) to comply with University guidelines of avoiding exams and exercises in the last week of class.

 

 

Thur.  Aug. 31

Geography 2412: Environment and Culture

As announced in class today, I have just now (Thur, 3:30 pm) replaced the lectures notes for the first week available on this website. I put the first ones (a word doc and a pdf of the Powerpoint) as examples, but realize that I should stick to the routine---notes go up after they have been given in lecture or are at least certainly not going to be modified before or in lecture!

 

Old stuff:

 

PLEASE NOTE: Recitations do not meet the first week of class, so come only to the two lectures this week (next one is Thur, Aug. 31, 11-11:50 am, MUEN E050). MONDAY RECITATIONS WILL NOT MEET NEXT WEEK DUE TO LABOR DAY, NOTHING IS DUE SO YOU CAN SIMPLY WAIT FOR MONDAY, SEPT. 11 TO MEET YOUR FIRST RECITATION, OR SIMPLY GO TO ANY OTHER RECITATION IN THE COURSE LISTING (THERE ARE 20 TOTAL) TO TAKE PART IN THE DISCUSSION.

Use this website, not WebCT, for all course material, exercises, etc. The recitation assignments, office hrs, and e-mails of TAs are now on this site. Lecture notes for this week are on this site, both a Word doc and pdf’s of the two Powerpoints. The first few exercises should be on before class on Thursday.

Please use the web syllabus, it allows you to open readings from the web, but if you want a hard copy I’ll bring a few to class.