GEOG 735 SYLLABUS: TOP/LAND USE/CLIMATE (Summer 2001)
Instructors:
The HERO Team (Drs. Goodin, J. Harrington, L. Harrington, Kromm, Lu, and
White)
Course: An
examination of land use changes and associated driving forces in southwest
Kansas.
Description:
The seminar will examine the Global Change in Local Places (GCLP) and the
Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) research efforts of K-State
geography researchers.
Readings:
No formal text. A
readings packet will be available for the class.
Class
Participation: This is a seminar.
It is expected that all students will have done the assigned readings
prior to seminar meeting time, that students will come to seminar with at least
one written discussion question about each reading, that students will have
comments about the readings, and that all students will participate in the
seminar discussion of the material.
Research
Paper:
All students in the seminar will prepare a research paper.
Within the first week, select a topic that meets the approval of the
faculty team. The paper should
provide a thorough review of literature on the topic and help place past and
on-going changes in southwest Kansas in a broader context.
It is anticipated that the papers will have between 10 and 15 pages of
text; additional pages are appropriate for supporting illustrations, tables, and
a complete bibliography. The
research papers will be due at 1:00 pm on Wednesday, June 27th.
Class
Presentations: Each student will present an approximately 20
minute summary of their research paper.
Grades:
Final letter grades will be based on your score on the paper (40% each), your
class presentation (30%), and class participation (30%).
Field
Trip:
A class field trip to southwest Kansas will occur during the period Jun
13 - 15. All students are required
to go on the trip to southwest Kansas. Each
student will prepare a Field Notebook, which will be evaluated as a part of the
class participation score.
Course Outline
T
5th
Introduction (All), slide overview (Kromm)
W
6th
Global Change in Local Places (J. Harrington), Sunflower (L. Harrington)
U
7th
Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Goodin), Great Plains Climate (J. Harrington)
F
8th
Human-Environment Regional Observatory and Climate Variations (J.
Harrington)
M
11th
Remote Sensing of Land Cover and Change (Goodin)
T
12th
Land Cover (Goodin), Feedlots (Lu)
W-F
13th -15th
Field Trip
M
18th
Vulnerability (L. Harrington)
T
19th
Perception (L. Harrington)
W
20th
The Ogallala as a Global Warming Analog (Kromm and White)
U
21st
SW Kansas and High Plains Demographics (White and Lu)
F
22nd
no formal class - work on research papers
M
25th
County Level Demographics (Lu and White)
T
26th
no formal class - work on research papers
W
27th
no formal class - work on research papers, Research Papers due at 1:00 pm
U
28th
Student Presentations
F
29th
Student Presentations
Student Research Papers:
Johnny
Coomansingh - "The Dust Bowl of the 1930's"
Hong
Gao - "Population and Race Structure Change in Southwest Kansas—1990
to 2000"
Ryan
Kroemer - "Groundwater Quality Issues in Southwest Kansas"
Tim
Leslie - "Arkansas River Water Wars"
Erin
O’Brien - "Exploring The Sustainability Of The Ogallala Aquifer"
Charlene
R. Rice - "Does the Garden Really Grow?"
Jeff
VanLooy - "Climate Change during the Holocene"
James Wood - "The Relative Stability Of The Southwest Kansas Climate, 1895-2000"