![[ Earth (Gibraltar), NASA ]](http://www.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/gifs/gibraltar.gif)
|
|
Geography 140-03 (Ticket #13696)Introduction to Physical GeographyOnline Edition, Fall 2001 |
Would you like to take care of 3 units of your General Education science requirement (in category G.B3) from the comfort of your own home and computer? Well, Geography 140-03 could be the class for you! You can read the lectures, view the illustrations, participate in class discussions, and work through the labs on a schedule that works for you! Imagine the advantage of actually getting a copy of the instructor's own dog-eared notes!!! (Legally!)
So, what is physical geography? Geography is a discipline that covers both the natural sciences and the social sciences (kind of like anthropology and psychology do), and physical geography is the natural science part of the discipline. Some of the subjects the class covers:
- the earth in space (what causes seasons? how can you figure out latitude and longitude if you are seriously lost? why the earth isn't really round exactly...)
- weather and climate (will it rain today? why is California dry in the summer when Florida is wet? what causes tornadoes and hurricanes? what's the ozone hole? what evidence is there for global warming? why does it take less time to fly from here to New York than from New York to LA-X?)
- the patterns made by living things as they interact with their environments (why are redwoods found nowhere else on Earth but California and China? why are there so many species in the tropical rainforests compared with the forests of Canada, and why are the rainforests so fragile? why do you always find deserts on the west coasts of landmasses around 30° north or south of the equator but forests and woodlands on the east coasts of the continents?)
- the forces building up and wearing down the surface of the earth and moving the continents around the earth (why are earthquakes concentrated in California and the rest of the Pacific Rim? why does South America fit right into Africa? how do streams, glaciers, and winds sculpt the landscape and how do beaches form ... and disappear?)
- map interpretation (why doesn't my car's onboard compass say north when I know I'm driving north on Bellflower Blvd.? how can you use those brown lines on a USGS map to figure out terrain when you go hiking? why is there no such thing as a perfect map?)
So, if you would like to learn about things like this, get G.B3 credit, and do all this at home, sign up for Geography 140-03 (# 13696) and then show up for the organizational meeting on the first Friday of the semester (August 31st) at 11 a.m. in LH-151.
Please make sure you have a working e-mail account by the first day of class!!! so the instructor can build the class listserver fast. By the way, you are entitled to a free e-mail and web account at CSULB, but other accounts are okay if you already have them.
There will also be four other meetings in the course of the semester to take care of exams. These real-world meetings will be on Fridays in the 11 am to 2 pm time slot (though they won't generally need the full three hours, and other arrangements can be made by prior agreement).
Your professor will be Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue. She is a highly- rated instructor and very proficient at this sort of thing. She has been Internetting her classes since 1994 and serves as the Department's webmaster, so you can expect a smooth experience (especially since this will be the third time she's done this particular class completely online).
You can have a look at Dr. Rodrigue's Geography 140 class syllabus. You can learn more about the instructor from her web page and by e-mailing her. To learn more about geography, you can surf the department's web page (especially all those internships and scholarships). If you think you might like to major in geography but aren't sure what you would do with a degree in geography, you can check out the jobs possibilities here.