There are two issue about GEOGRAPHY, about 1000 words per paper
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issue_7.wpsPART 2 of 2 parts - WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT - Contemporary Social & Cultural Geography Issues in Oceania (120 Points)
You should do the Oceania BEFORE you do This Assignment
However, this assignment is now ready, so if you do this assignment before you take the quiz, you should not yet submit it. Instead, wait until you have finished the quiz and then take another look at this assignment before submitting it (or take it back and edit it after you have submitted it) before the due date.
STEP 1 : Look at some of the articles posted on the WRGeographyh.com website:
Oceania articles ( http://www.wrgeography.com/oceania.html
Note: You may need to refresh or reload your browser to get the stories to appear in the News Feed (RSS) side of the screen.
The purpose of this step is to give you an idea of some of the contemporary issues in these regions, to supplement the material in the textbook.
STEP 2 : For this assignment you will Adopt
One Country / State
from Each of the following major subregions of the Oceania:
One (1) State in Australia or One Island (North or South) in New Zealand
One (1) Country in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia (Do Not Select Hawaii or New Zealand)
One (1) Additional State in Australia or Country in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia (Do Not Select Hawaii or New Zealand)
After you get a feel for the Oceania region through the textbook and the news links above, you should then select the three states/countries that you find most interesting.
STEP 3 : Find One Interesting News Story for Each Country/State/Island from the Four Month Period prior to the Due Date for this Assignment.
Use any of these sources to find your articles: World Newspapers - use any one of these three links
OnlineNewspapers.com (I like this one the best)
Access World News (NewsBank, NAU Cline Library)
Click on your countries to get a list of online English news sources published there.
Click on different papers to find one that is in English.
If you cannot find any news sources in English, then you will need to select a different country, or you need to try elsewhere on the web
Once you have found an English newspaper in each country, then you will be ready to continue to the next step.
Citizen News Blogs
These are citizen news websites, consisting of blogs and news stories posted from around the world. On GlobalVoices, the blogs are selected to provide local insight on current events in different countries, and are translated into English when necessary. On Demotix, members of the site act as "street journalists" for the places where they live.
Simply click on the region or countries on the main website's drop-down menu to get a listing of the latest topics.
Some countries are not well represented in the blogosphere, but most should have some stories that meet the guidelines in the next step.
Each news source is different. Most have several categories that you can click on and search in, so be sure to check the site out thoroughly before throwing up your hands because you cannot find something. Look for Headline news, Business news, Feature stories and Editorials/Opinions
Focus on items about Local and National events, activities, people and places
International News that directly relates your country to other countries is OK
DO NOT include news items that are not directly related to your country. Try to find articles that were written by local reporters (not international reporters, such as those from AP and Reuters)
Only select news items that Relate Directly to the SOCIAL & CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY (note that this includes popular culture (especially architecture and landscapes), ethnic relations, political geography/relationships, and standards of living.)
Longer stories will give you more material to work with in answering the questions below. Shorter stories will probably result in fewer points on this assignment.
If you are familiar with other websites that are similar to World Newspapers and Global Voices, please let me know. If I agree, I will add them to the list above.
STEP 4 : Describe and Discuss Your Stories (81 points)
Write your NAME at the top of your paper, then for Each of your Three News Stories, you are to discuss the following:
At the top of the story, list:
SUBREGION - from Step 2 above, where the story is located
LOCATION - place that the story is about: city (if any) and country
STORY TITLE - you can use either the original title of the news story or create your own
Make the title clear so other students can avoid duplicating your story
DATE - of the story, as indicated on the website source
SOURCE - publication or website name
Full & Working URL (http://...)
You must include the URL so other students, the Instructor and the Teaching Assistant can find the original stories.
You can shorten the URL using sites like http://tinyurl.com , http://snipr.com or http://is.gd - You MUST do this for very long URLs.
Summarize and describe the story - do so enough so that readers who know nothing about the story or the place it occurs will understand it.
Why did you, personally, select this story?
How does the story relate to the Social & Cultural Geography of the specific place or country in which it takes place?
Cite specific examples from the textbook readings and, if relevant, the videos, above.
STEP 5 : Reflections on your results (19 points)
Answer this question using your Textbook and the information you collected in selecting and discussing your three stories:
How do the three stories that you selected demonstrate the diversity of issues in Oceania's geography?
What insights do the three stories overall provide for the Oceania region?
How do the three stories overall relate to and expand upon the material in the textbook?
Add this below your three stories.
Clearly indicate references to the Textbook in answering these questions.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS: At this point in the class, you should be developing a new level of critical thinking related to the geographical issues raised in this class. Therefore, you are now expected to incorporate a higher level of critical thinking and assessment in Steps 4 and 5, above, and in Step 6, below.
STEP 6 : Reflections on the class (20 points)
At the bottom of your paper, and in a separate section, you are to reflect upon what you have learned in this class. Answer these questions (one to two paragraphs are expected for each question):
What have you learned about the diversity of the world's physical geography in the regions that we covered in this class?
What was the single most interesting aspect of physical geography that you learned about the regions covered in this class? and Why?
What have you learned about the diversity of the human geography in the regions that we covered in this class?
What was the single most interesting aspect of human geography that you learned about the regions covered in this class? and Why?
Optional: Any other comments on what you know now that you did not know or understand at the start of the term?
STEP 7 : FORMATTING and Submitting Your Written Assignment
Do this assignment in a Word Processor and Save a Copy on your computer.Put your NAME at the Top Left of the paper.
Put a TITLE under your name that identifies this assignment.
Find the WORD COUNT and put it under the title.
Clearly indicate when you are changing topics, such as using headings to transition from one section to another, so that your paper can be more easily read for grading.
Please spell and grammar check your paper before submitting it.
Submit your assignment in MS WORD, .RTF or ASCII .TXT format through the SafeAssign link on the Learning Module menu. Go to the Learning Module for the First Half of the Class.
Look for a link at the top that says SafeAssign Assignments Submission link.
Click and submit to the correct Module number.
This submission uses SafeAssign, which will check your paper to make sure that you have answered the questions in your own words (and not copied from another source). You can put a draft paper in SafeAssign to check how well you did on this, before you submit your final paper.
You are expected to do your own work for this assignment. You may quote other sources, but do so sparingly -- the majority of text should be in your own words.
All copied text must be quoted (in quotation marks) and fully referenced in your paper, using any standard reference formats ( if unsure, use this format ). References to the Textbook may be less formal, just write "(Textbook: zz)" where zz is the page number.
Please note that it can take up to 24 hours (though it can also be instantaneous) before the SafeAssign provides you with an originality score.
Click Here if you get an Error Message when trying to access SafeAssign.
Please do not put any information that is requested in the Module papers into the "Header" (or "Footer") of your papers created using MS Word -- such as your name and the word count. This information will not appear in the "text" version that we use for grading in SafeAssign.
Verify that the paper was properly submitted.
If you have problems submitting your paper, contact the NAU HELP DESK Immediately: Flagstaff: 523-9294; Toll free: 1-888-520-7215
10% to 50% of your points will be deducted for assignments that are NOT PROPERLY FORMATTED or are DIFFICULT TO READ or DECIPHER -- the harder it is to read, the more points will be deducted.
EVALUATION
You will be evaluated on:
How well you follow the directions above, based on the rubric below.
How well you select articles that relate to the social geography of the place.
How well you relate the articles to the information provided in the textbook, based on the rubric below.
How well you reflect on and comment on the writings of other students.
How much apparent effort and thought you put into each part of the assignment.
Clarity and grammatical accuracy of your writing. You will be marked down if your grammar is so bad that it is difficult to understand your point of view, and shows evidence that you did not put much effort into the assignment.
Degree of critical thinking and assessment of the issues and in the discussion forum.
GRADING RUBRIC for the Written Assignment
Part 2 [120 points]
Steps 2+3 : One News Story for each of these regions - from past 4 months
1 - Australia or One Island (North or South) in New Zealand
2 - Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia (Do Not Select Hawaii or New Zealand)
3 - A State in Australia or Country in Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia (Do Not Select Hawaii or New Zealand)
There will be a 50% point loss per story if you do not select your places properly, as above.
Step 4 : Describe and discuss the stories [27 points x 3 stories = 81 points]
1 : List (4 points) - Subregion & Location (1 pt) - Story title & Date (1 pt) - Source (1 pt) - Working URL (1 pt)
2 : Describe the story: Where, Who, What, Why? (8 points)
3 : Why did you pick the story? (3 points)
4 : Relation to the Social Geography (6 points) & Cultural Geography (6 points) - (total 12 points)
Must Demonstrate Critical Analysis in Question 4
Step 5 : Reflections [19 points]
1 : How stories demonstrate the diversity of issues in Oceania? (7 points)
2 : New insights on the Oceania region? (6 points)
3 : How stories expand on the textbook? (6 points)
Must Demonstrate Critical Analysis in Step 5 question.
Step 6 : Class Reflections [20 points]
1 : What have you learned about the diversity of the world's physical geography in the regions that we covered in this class? (4 to 5 points)
2 : What was the single most interesting aspect of physical geography that you learned about the regions covered in this class? and Why? (4 to 5 points)
3 : What have you learned about the diversity of the human geography in the regions that we covered in this class? (4 to 5 points)
4 : What was the single most interesting aspect of human geography that you learned about the regions covered in this class? and Why? (4 to 5 points)
5 : Optional: Any other comments on what you know now that you did not know or understand at the start of the term? (0 to 5 points)
Very strong answers in one question may offset a weaker answer in another question. Must Demonstrate Critical Analysis in Step 6 questions.
