Course Description
Instructor: Steve Graves
Meeting Times: 2:30 to 3:15 P.M. Monday and Wednesdays in Sierra Hall 108
Office Hours: 11:00 AM in Sierra Hall 130 D and by appointment.
Office Phone: 818-677-3517
Dr. Graves' email: steve.graves@csun.edu
Course web site: www.csun.edu/~sg4002/courses/487/487_home.html
Course Description: Geography of Popular Culture (3) Examines the patterns and processes of American popular culture. Topics include the geography of sports, music, television, movies and popular architecture.
This class is designed to introduce students to spatial thinking via popular culture. Although the class may address "fun" topics such as rap music or stock car racing, this course approaches these subjects with all due academic seriousness. The ability to understand and analyze various components of our everyday culture is an important skill, one critical to your success in other courses and outside the university. The primary objective of this course is to provide you with a variety of conceptual tools unique to geography that will help you better understand the world around you.
PREREQUISITES: One course in human geography.
Required Materials: On line reading packet via Moodle
Classroom Activities: Classroom time will be devoted to lecture and discussion. If students are prepared to discuss and debate course content, then there will be less lecture and more discussion. We may also watch videos, welcome guest lecturers, engage in on-line G.I.S.or other computer-oriented exercises. Students are also encouraged to suggest learning tools, strategies, or exercises. I really welcome student input.
Course Schedule: The course schedule is posted on line via Moodle. It is subject to occasional updates and changes. Any updates or changes will be approved by the class (when possible) and announced via Moodle / email.
Attendance: Attendance is a key component of good grades. I expect students to attend every class. You owe it to yourself, or to whomever pays for your education as well as to the taxpayers who support your education. Students with poor attendance habits should not take this course. If you have medical or personal issues that demand your absence, please contact Dr. Graves before or immediately after the class or assignment you miss. In certain circumstances, a student must miss an extended period of time, you should arrange to drop the course or make special arrangements with Dr. Graves.
Evaluation: Students may be evaluated by a variety of evaluation tools, including multiple choice exams, writing assignments, quizzes, on-line exercises, etc. Students will be evaluated on their ability to demonstrate basic knowledge and comprehension of the subject matter as well as the ability to apply spatially analytical thinking to the subject matter. You will be asked to evaluate issues, apply knowledge acquired in novel situations and synthesize multiple points. Listed below are the intended learning outcomes for this course as well as the evaluation and assessment tools used to determine your success.
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 any condition that I need to know about, let me know very early in the semester. I am happy to make accommodations to help you.
Other campus-wide disclosures are available at: http://www.csun.edu/a&r/disclosures/disclosures.html
Intended Outcomes: In accordance with best teaching practices, intended outcomes for this course are made transparent to students at the beginning of the semester. These outcomes represent the knowledge and skill set that you will be expected to demonstrate your competence with during the semester. Assessment and evaluation tools used during the quarter will be designed to determine your success in acquiring these knowledge and skill sets.
Goal A: Building a Knowledge Base : Students in this course will identify and define key terms and concepts central to understanding their everyday cultural phenomena examined in this course.
Students will be able to define and explain key terms such as culture, landscape, diffusion artifacts, mentifacts, identity, etc.
- Assessment/Evaluation tool: Discussion, and writing assignments.
Students will be able to recognize, list and describe key ideas, facts and spatial conditions in the following categories: popular music, film, television, landscape, fashion, etc..
- Assessment/Evaluation tool: discussion and writing assignments
Goal B: Acquiring Knowledge:Students will develop skills for acquiring new knowledge.
Students will recall information presented to them textually, cartographically and through numeric or graphic communication.
- Assessment/Evaluation tool: discussion and writing assignments.
Students will gather data and demonstrate independent learning.
- Assessment/Evaluation tool: data and literature reviews and writing assignments.
Goal C: Problem Solving Skills: Students will demonstrate their problem solving skills.
Students will analyze non-textual messages in the landscape and from maps, graphics, etc.
- Assessment/Evaluation tool: discussion and writing assignments, particularly the analysis and discussion sections of the final paper.
Students will apply abstract concepts, such as identity, place, spectacle and liminality to real-world locations.
- Assessment/Evaluation tool: discussion, writing assignments.
Students will explain one or more current social, cultural, political or economic issue by using spatially informed logic.
- Assessment/Evaluation tool: discussion, writing assignments
Goal D: Communicating Knowledge: Students in this course will be able to communicate ideas by using words, numbers, maps and other graphic devices.
Students will effectively communicate ideas and opinions using textual communication.
- Assessment/Evaluation tool: writing assignments
Students will effectively communicate facts, ideas and statistics using maps, numbers and graphic devices.
- Assessment/Evaluation tool: graphics and maps in the writing assignments
Tentative Grading Regime
Participation - 10 percent of total grade
Quizzes - 20 percent of total grade
Research Proposal - 10 percent of total grade
Literature Review - 10 percent of total grade
Data preview - 10 percent of total grade
Final project - 40 percent of grade
This grading regime is subject to class approved changes.
Tentative Grade Scale: A = (90-100%); B = (80-89%); C = (70-79%); D = (60-69%); F = (59% or less)
