Geography 12 Distinctive Landscape Project
Each student will produce a powerpoint and worksheet with blanks to describe the unique features of
one of the following landscapes: Karst (limestone) landscapes (p266), Arid landscapes (p268),
Continental glacer landscapes (p280), Alpine glacier landscapes (p285), Periglacial landscapes (288),
Coastal landscapes (291-297).
For each project, read the text pages, consult the vocabulary list below pertaining to your landscape,
review the picture sheets supplied and build your Powerpoint presentations around the vocabulary
illustrating each term with a slide that contains a description or definition of the term and provides both
a diagram and an actual photograph of the term being described. Consult the rubric below to help
construct your Powerpoint and to guide your presentation.
Karst Vocabulary
Calcium carbonate, cave, cavern systems, chernozem, cone karst, curtain stalactities, doline, dry valleys,
grikes, joints, karst, limestone, limestone pavement, polje, rills/solution furrows, sink hole, stalactites,
stalagmites, swallow hole, tower karst, uvala,
Arid or Aeolian Vocabulary
Aeolian, alluvial fan, alluvium, arroyo, attrition, badlands, bajada, barchans dune, butte, canyon, cuesta,
deflation, deflation hollows, deposition, desert pavement, desert varnish, desertification, entrainment,
erg, flash flood, gorge, grid dunes, gullies, hamada, loess, longitudinal dunes, mesa, oasis, outwash,
outwash plain, parabolic dune, pedestal rocks, pediments, plateau, playa, reg, rill, scarp, sheet flooding,
seif dune, star dune, stone pavement, transverse dunes, wadi, whaleback dune
Continental Glaciation Vocabulary
Ablation, abrasion, alluvium, basal slippage, bedrock plains, clay plains, continental glacier, crag and tail,
drumlin, erratic, esker, finger lakes, firn, fjord, glacier, glacial plucking, ground moraine, ice sheet,
interglacials, interlobate moraines, kames, kettle, lateral moraines, loch, loess, meltwater, neve,
outwash plains, plastic deformation, post-glacial lake, pro-glacial lake, recessional moraines, ribbon
lakes, roche moutonnee, rock basin lakes, rock knob topography, sand plains, shearing, snout, spillways,
striations, terminal moraine, till, tunnel
Alpine Glaciation Vocabulary
Abrasion, alluvium, alpine glacier, arête, avalanche, braided streams, bridal veil falls, cirque/corrie,
crevasse, crag and tail, esker, exfoliation, firn, frost shattering, glacier, ground moraine, hanging valley,
horn peak, icefield/snowfield, ice-dammed lakes, lateral moraine, medial moraine, meltwater, neve,
paternoster lakes, post-glacial lake, pro-glacial lake, pyramidal peak, quarrying, recessional moraine,
spur, striations, tarn, terminal moraine, till, truncated spur, tunnel, U-shaped valley, valley glacier,
Geography 12 Distinctive Landscape Project
Periglacial Vocabulary
Active layer, cryosol, exfoliation, felsenmeer, frost action, frost creep, frost shattering, gelifluction, ice
wedging, patterned polygon ground, palsa, permafrost, pingo, rock falls, rock glacier, solifluction, stone
circles, thermokarst
Coastal Landscape Vocabulary
Arch, abrasion, attrition, backwash, barrier islands, bay, bayhead beaches, baymouth sand bar,
breaker(s), constructive waves, corrosion, cutbank, destructive waves, groyne, headlands, hydraulic
pressure, lagoons, longshore drift, neap tide, notch, offshore bars, pinnacle, plunging waves, pools, ria
coast, ria, sand spit, spilling waves, sea cave, sea stack, spring tides, storm waves, swash, swell waves,
threshold, tides, tombolo, undercut cliffs, undercutting, wave-cut platform, wave-cut cliff,
Rubric:
Item Assessed
Excellent
Good to Fair
Poor
All vocabulary words are
described in some slide.
10 9
(All or missing one vocab
words)
10 9
All or minus one vocab
illustrated with diagram and
photo
20 19 18
The presentation is clear or
unclear is one place
5 4 3 2 1
(missing many vocab words)
10 9
The presentation contains at
least 5 additional items not
mentioned in the vocab
8 7 6
(Missing more than one
vocab words)
8 7 6
Two to four vocab not
illustrated with either
diagram or photo
17 16 15 14 13 12
There are a few places
where the presentation is
unclear about causes
8 7 6
The presentation contains at
least 2 additional items not
mentioned in the vocab
10
9
8
5
20
19
All vocabulary words are
illustrated with a diagram
and photo
The presentation text and
visuals clearly explains the
causes of this kind of
landscape
The presentation contains
some additional text and
visuals besides the
prescribed vocabulary to
explain the causes of this
kind of landscape
The presentation shows
some creativity either in the
slide design, the transitions
or some other aspect.
A worksheet with blanks to
fill in has been made that
corresponds to the
presentation, for the class
The oral presentation
18
The student makes eye
contact, uses changing voice
modulation and occasionally
adds unscripted elements
10 9
7
6
5 4 3 2 1
5 to 9 vocab not illustrated
with either diagram or
photo
11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
There are many places
where the presentation is
unclear about causes
5 4 3 2 1
The presentation contains
no additional items not
mentioned in the vocab
4
3
2
1
17 16 15 14 13 12
11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
The student makes partial
eye contact, shows little
voice modulation and
virtually no unscripted
comments/anecdotes
8 7 6
The student avoids eye
contact, shows no voice
modulation and reads only
the text of the powerpoint
5
4
3
2
1