Research Project

GEOG 101 Project: Designing a Trip Exploring People and the Land Overview Design a plan for a trip to explore another part of the world. Create a PowerPoint presentation including text and images to show your plan according to the guidelines below. The trip has four key stops that you will travel to, like “connect the dots.” Most of the work of the project is 1) first doing the research to come up with the stops 2) then going further into researching information about the stops. This is a research project and takes time—there is no way around it. However, it can be fun as you explore around for stops and then dig deeper to get more information, especially if you start early. It is your trip; you can design it any way you want as long as it fits in the guidelines below.

What’s due May 30, 2014 (final week of class): Design a PowerPoint presentation of exactly seventeen slides to show your trip plan as follows: 1. Title slide (one slide) 2. Brief explanation of your personal reasons for choosing these places (one slide, min one paragraph) 3. Trip map showing four stops clearly labeled (one slide) 4. For each of the four stops: three slides each which address the questions below -Each slide with 20-40 well-chosen words maximum per slide as well as images and maps (3 slides per stop, 12 slides total for all stops) 5. When to go and considerations (one slide) 6. Bibliography with at least 10 sources (one slide)

Basic trip guidelines Identify four stops for your trip Plan your trip to include the following four stops in any order—you can shuffle them around in any order you want: 1. Capital - a national capital city 2. Border issue - a place on a border where a major transnational issue exists (see examples below) 3. Culture region - a local (not national) culture region where the culture is active today (not just in the past) 4. Landform – a landform where major Human-Environment Interaction is going on today  See information below for more guidelines about choosing stops. Any reason is fine for choosing a stop. “I knew nothing about it and wanted to know more” is a good reason. Additional rules for the trip 1. Trip cannot be to the US or Canada or anywhere you have lived before. Pick someplace new. 2. Trip can cover anywhere from 1 up to 3 countries which are adjacent (next to each other). No more than three countries. 3. Island countries are OK but cannot be more than 500 miles from the next country on the trip. 4. For all maps, get your base map from the Internet – do not attempt to draw base maps. You can draw on the map using PowerPoint drawing tools to put arrows, dots, and lines on your map or by hand.

Note about plagiarism and overuse of quotes Plagiarized projects will receive a grade of zero and be returned immediately with one opportunity to revise the project and return with no plagiarism. At the end of a semester, this is not fun. See APUS Plagiarism policy. The project will be run through Turnitin.com Also, your project should not be a long string of pasted-in quotes—even if you cited them. That’s like turning in a Shakespeare sonnet with a citation when you are asked to write your own sonnet and saying “but I cited it.” The central narrative should be yours. Anything that is open, public knowledge does not need to be quoted or referenced. Quotes are great when used selectively and correctly: to add spice, give an author’s special perspective, or as a basis to then discuss the language in the quote itself, as in literature classes. But quotes too often become just a shortcut for figuring out what to say yourself. This is your paper, your trip. See UNC Writing Center for when to use quotes: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/quotations/

Trip map guidelines Example -Keep it simple and clear. -Include a legend that identifies the stops. This map acts as a sort of index for the slides about stops that follow. Where to find a base map (underlying map that you draw on): -Find a base map on the internet. Do not attempt to draw the base map. One good source is the “Reference Maps” found in the UTexas Map Library http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ But a Google image search also produces lots of additional maps. -Use copy or “PrintScreen” (if a PDF) key to copy the image. -Use “Paste” in PowerPoint to then paste the image into PowerPoint. -Use the “crop” tool to reduce the map to just the area you need for your trip. Drawing map features: -You can easily make the dots shown in the map by using PowerPoint: Insert>Shapes and choose the circle or any other shape you want to label the stops. Then you can click inside it to “edit text” which allows you to enter numbers. Optionally, you can print the map and draw on it by hand then scan it, but PowerPoint is a lot simpler.

Choosing stops: guidelines and examples *These stops can be arranged in any order on your trip* Capital – Any national capital is fine. For this stop you will research the geography of the city so make sure there is plenty of information available about the city. Local culture region Examples of local culture regions: Tribal areas (as in many African countries), ethnic neighborhoods in cities, native homelands and reservations, autonomous ethnic regions (as in China and Russia), indigenous language regions, rural folk cultures, etc. -“Culture” includes just about anything related to how humans live: religion, music, food, sports, clothing, dance, arts, language, etc. -Must be local culture not national culture. Cannot be “French culture” or “Chinese culture”, these are generic and not local; Sichuan or Cantonese culture within China is local  -The local culture must be in action today, not just historical -Must name the culture and give a basic description of where it is found Border with transnational issue Examples: disputed borders, illegal border migrations, refugee migrations, militarized borders, animal smuggling/drug trade/human trafficking, terrorism, wartime borders, cooperative border security, etc. -The place should be on or close to a border and affected by a transnational issue -A “transnational issue” is one that involves multiple countries i.e. crosses borders and often requires cooperation of several countries. Landform with major Human-Environment Interaction today -Choose one specfic landform that has very strong Human-Environment Interaction(s) going on today. -Landform is a general word for any natural feature of earth’s surface. Landforms are not built by people, they are created by nature; however, then can be altered by people. -Human –Environment Interaction means how humans adapt to, modify, and depend on the environment. Examples of types of landforms you can choose from:

Rivers, waterfalls, deltas Lakes, valleys, canyons Plains, plateaus, mountains Hills Tectonic plate boundary Ocean trench, mid-ocean ridge Wetlands, swamp, marsh

volcanoes (tectonic or hotspots) geysers, hot springs, calderas thermal baths Desert dunes, erg (sand sea) reg, hamada, oasis Glacier, ice shelf , fjord, U-shaped valleys, Cirque, tarn Kettle, kettle lake

basin and range, dome, fault Karst caves, caverns, sinkhole Coral reef, Beaches, sea caves, arches, cliffs, bay, sound, barrier islands Strait, isthmus

Creating slides: What to cover on the slides *Include three slides for each stop* -Each slide should include picture(s). -The stops slides should have 20-40 words. Choose the best words and phrases. -There is no need to overload slides. Stick to main points. Capital city – three slides -Give a quick overview of the city: population, elevation, overall climate (can use a climate graph image) -Describe the site of the city – the physical setting in which it is built (see textbook definition and examples of site) i.e. at the foot of mountains, at a river junction, on a coastline, etc. -What are some major economic activities that go on in the city? -Show images of some of the city’s key sights ex. Buildings, parks, streets, etc. -What makes this city unique? -Include a map of the city from an image from the internet or a book Culture region – three slides Use at least three slides with pictures and text to show: -Where is the culture region? Can include a map image from the internet -What are some of the key traits and practices of the culture? -What makes this culture unique? Border issue – three slides Use three slides with pictures and text to show: -Where is the border issue? Can include a map image from the internet -What exactly is the border issue? What is at stake in the issue? -What countries are involved in this transnational issue? -What are some key people/groups involved? -What is the current status of the issue? What is being done about it? Landform – three slides -Show a picture(s) of the landform -What exactly is the landform? -What are the landform’s key physical characteristics? (depends on what type of landform it is) -What major Human-Environment Interaction(s) (HEI) is going on with the landform today? In other words, how are people adapting to, modifying, and depending on it? Be as specific as possible. -Who are the people/companies/governments involved in this HEI? -If available, show image(s) of the HEI in action When to go and considerations – one slide Include any information you have gathered about: -Based on what you have found, what would be a good time of year to do this trip? -What additional comments or considerations do you have in planning this trip? Examples: food, clothes, health hazards, etc. -What further research would you like to do before leaving for the trip? Bibliography – at least 10 sources. Use any standard academic format – one slide -See examples http://www2.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citmla.htm

Suggested sources

Browse around a library and/or a big bookstore like Barnes & Noble. There are dozens of books there about all regions of the world. Travel guides are a good place to start and have a lot of advantages:

-Designed for travelers (like you) planning to move from place to place

-Lots of maps

-Present smaller and lesser-known places that are off the beaten path

-Give you specific transportation information

Several publishers have big chunks of travel books online as well ex. Lonely Planet.

Travel guide examples: Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, the Blue Guides, Moon Travel Guides

-These are published for countries and also for regions like Central America, East Asia, etc.

Individual tour operator websites (you can email them and they will respond) Books that profile individual countries, cultures, industries, activities Wikitravel.com and other travel websites Textbook chapters and slides for explaining earth processes

Travel and geographic magazines ex. National Geographic, Earth, Afar

University or research websites about projects overseas and the professors/students that are doing them Environmental groups websites like the Nature Conservancy or Greenpeace for information about Human-Environment Interactions with specific landforms they may be involved with

World Wildlife Federation (for endangered species and their habitats)

Biographies or profiles of field specialists i.e. geographers, environmentalists, ecologists, geologists, earth scientists, business/political/community leaders, etc.