Geography 340

Economic Geography - Syllabus - Fall 2012

Instructor: Steve Graves
Class Number:
Meeting Times/Room: Tuesday and Thursday 3:30 to 4:45 in Sierra Hall 107
Office Hours in Sierra Hall 130 D: 9:30 AM to 11:30 or by appointment, or when my door is open.
Dr. Graves' Calendar (opens in new window)
Dr. Graves' email: steve.graves@csun.edu
Webpage: www.csun.edu/~sg4002/
Office Phone: 677-3517 Department Phone: 677-3532

Course Description

340. Economic Geography (3) (Normally offered every semester) Prerequisite: A lower division course in Geography or Econ. 160 or 300. Principles governing spatial organization of society. Theoretical and empirical approaches to location of urban and rural settlement and economic activities. Spatial structures, their interrelationship, and changes in organization.

The student will be introduced to the various conceptual and practical concerns that figure prominently in Economic Geography. Approaches to industrial, service and retail site location will figure prominently among the topics. Spatial aspects of marketing geography, including the role of landscapes in advertising as well as market demographics and market targeting will be addressed. Other topics, such as logistics, agricultural economics and tourism may be covered according to student interest.

Students will also be introduced to spatial analytical and statistical tools used by economic geographers as well as some GIS techniques. Ideally, the course will be conducted in both lecture and lab settings.

Required Materials

Class readings, posted on-line via MOODLE.

Learning Modules

This course will feature a series on-line or in class learning modules or labs. These labs are designed to introduce the student to various conceptual issues, methods and practices commonly used by economic geographers. The purpose is to expose students to some tools of economic geography. Ideally, these modules will be introduced in class/lab; allowing time for students to begin or even complete the work.

Quizzes

During the semester, a number of quizzes may be administered on-line or in class. They may or may not be announced. These quizzes are intended to assess student comprehension of assigned texts, maps or other information. Quizzes are also designed to keep the student progressing in a timely fashion through the learning modules and ensure regular interaction with the material. Quizzes may also be a component of the semester evaluation. In the case that no semester quizzes are assigned, the points (percentages) will be reassigned to the exam grade.

Project

This course normally features a project due at the end of the semester that is designed to allow you to demonstrate that you have mastered, or at least gained competency with the skills, techniques and tools used in Economic Geography.

Attendance and Classroom Obligations

Participation in classroom discussions will count toward the calculation of your final grade. If you cannot attend regularly, you will not earn a high participation grade. If your attendance is regular, but you do not participate in the class discussions, you will not earn a high participation grade.

Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities must register with the Center on Disabilities and complete a services agreement each semester. Staff within the Center will verify the existence of a disability based on the documentation provided and approve accommodations. Students who are approved for testing taking accommodations must provide a proctor form to their faculty member signed by a counselor in the Center on Disabilities prior to making testing arrangements. The Center on Disabilities is located in Bayramian Hall, room 110. Staff can be reached at (818) 677-2684.

If you have a disability, please make Dr. Graves aware of it at the beginning of the semester. I am eager to help make arrangements to accommodate any student with differential learning needs.

Other campus-wide disclosures are available at: http://www.csun.edu/a&r/disclosures/disclosures.html

Course Schedule

The course schedule is posted on line via Moodle. It is subject to occasional, student approved updates and changes.

There are specific university deadlines for students wishing to add or drop courses

Course announcements will be made in class and via Moodle when appropriate.

Attendance

Attendance is a key component of good grades. I expect students to attend all classes and to complete each assignment on time. You owe it to yourself, to whomever is paying for your education and the taxpayers who support your education. Students who fail to maintain regular attendance and study habits should not take this course.

If you have medical or personal issues that demand your absence, please contact Dr. Graves immediately. If a student must miss an extended period of time, he/she should arrange to drop the course or make special arrangements with Dr. Graves. Do not expect leniency in matters of attendance if you fail to notify me of problems late in the semester.

Other Obligations

There is a mandatory un-graded course contract that constitutes the first assignment of the course.

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated by a variety of evaluation tools, including multiple choice quizzes, writing assignments, on-line exercises, etc. Students will be evaluated on their ability to demonstrate basic knowledge/comprehension of the subject matter as well as the ability to apply critical thinking skills to the subject matter, by evaluating issues, applying knowledge acquired in novel situations, synthesizing multiple points, issues and knowledge. Listed on the following pages are the intended learning outcomes for this course and the evaluation and assessment tools used in the class to determine your success

Intended Outcomes

In accordance with best teaching practices, intended outcomes for this course are made transparent to students at the beginning of the semester. Students should be able to demonstrate at least basic competency with knowledge and skill sets listed below in order to earn a passing grade in this course. The assessment and evaluation tools used during the semester, designed to measure your success in acquiring these knowledge and skill sets are listed below each learning outcome below.

Goal A: Building a Knowledge Base

Students in this course will identify and define basic vocabulary and concepts in economic, business and marketing geography.

Students will be able to define and explain key terms such as: bulk gaining/reducing, just-in-time production, break of bulk, land rent, footloose industries, site, and situation.

Assessment/Evaluation tool: On-line Quizzes, short expository assignments.

Goal B: Acquiring Knowledge

Students will develop skills for acquiring new knowledge in order to grow their knowledge base as they take steps toward becoming life-long learners.

Students will demonstrate their ability to find and interpret primary data available from government and/or business sources.

Assessment/Evaluation tool: On-line quizzes, On-line Learning Modules.

Students will demonstrate their ability to formulate a research question, a hypothesis regarding the research questions and a method of testing the hypothesis.