GPHY 111, F’13: Climate project
I.
October 15
Assignment.
Choose a physiographic region (a forest, valley, mountain region, etc. within a small country, or a part
of a larger country) somewhere outside of North America and describe its climate, vegetation and
wildlife. Compile this information into a 12- to 15-minute long PowerPoint (or similar) presentation
appropriate for sharing with the class. These projects will be presented orally in class on Monday
and Tuesday, October 28-29 during class and lab. Afterwards, your presentations will be posted
online for the rest of the class—and the rest of the world!—to view and review. This is a visual project
so you must include a quality selection of images, maps, photos, etc. You will be graded on the
inclusion, quality and understanding of the required information (see the evaluation sheet), and Exam
3 will include some of the information gathered by your classmates.
II. Required information.
Include the following information in your presentation. The materials listed below marked with an
asterisk * indicate topics for which you must also cite your information source(s).
1. The formal name of the region. Include the continent and country in which it is found, if
appropriate. Introduce the region with some general encyclopedia-style information about it—
what it is known for (history, culture, language, government, etc.) and why tourists might travel
there, for example. Please keep this section short and focused; please do not merely list facts or
trivia about the place!
2. * A series of at least three maps that progressively zoom in on your area, showing the location
of the region you have chosen relative to important geographic features such as mountains and
streams and political boundaries. At least one map must include latitude and longitude and
distances (scale). Be sure to highlight, on at least one of the maps, the location for which you
have a climograph (see #5).
3. * The areal extent and the latitude and longitude for the location of your climograph data. Also
indicate these on at least one of your maps.
4. * The modified Köppen climate zone that your region/country represents—see Figure 8-3 and
Tables 8-1 and 8-2 of the textbook. (I hope you all choose different climates!) Give a summary
description of this climate zone, and name at least three other areas/regions of the world that
experience it but may have slightly different climate factors (see #6).
5. * A representative climograph for the area, or a city or region within it. If your climograph is
hand-drawn, please use graph paper and a ruler (i.e., be neat!), or do it with graphing software
such as Excel. You should also compare this climograph with at least two others from the
additional locations around the world but showing the same Köppen climate zone (e.g., an
example from the textbook, or locations mentioned in #4).
6. * A thorough discussion of the climate of your region in terms of three of the following factors:
latitude, land-water contrasts, ocean currents, wind patterns, air mass source regions,
topography. Show how your chosen region is unique as well as simply explained by these
factors.
7. * A connection to humans or an example of the cultural geography: Introduce one example
of an ecological or environmental problem that exists in the area directly related to the climate
and weather. Examples include unusual population growth patterns of certain species, the
spread of air or water pollution, recent severe weather (storms), the predicted consequences of
climate change, invasive species such as weeds, diseases or pests, etc. I expect you will have
supporting evidence from a variety of sources (not just newspapers!), and include visual aids
such as photos, maps and figures.
8. Your last slide(s) will be a page of references. (See the following section on how to cite your
references.) Most of these items will require some library work in addition to online research, and
I expect to see a minimum of six reputable sources of information. Cite your sources in your
presentation too—any data, map or image used should be accompanied by an indication of its
source.
This all may seem like a lot, and it is! Start by skimming through Chapter 8 (“Climatic Zones and Types”),
and considering what specific climate, or part of the world, you’d like to learn more about.
III. Timeline.
This project is given in lieu of going through Chapter 8 in detail. Your first assignment is to turn in
items 1- 5 from the list above as homework (at the beginning of class) this Friday, October 25.
Be sure to give me extra copies of your material, and not your single originals! Better yet, email the
information to me. I will make a PowerPoint template file for you to work on (it will be posted on the
class web page), and the final assignment is due on the day you give your presentation. (You will
leave the final copy of the presentation on the classroom computer and on the class K: drive space.)
Also expect to complete peer and self-evaluations for the presentations.
IV. Sources of information. (Please read carefully!)
-
Your textbook. This is where I’d recommend you start. Read up on the climate zone that
applies to your chosen place.
-
National Geographic magazines. A great place to go to help you decide on a place, if you are
still looking. You can’t go wrong here—great photos, detailed maps, and excellent information,
especially in tying together the physical and cultural geography of a place. Take the time to
search for your region here! The FVCC library’s archives go back to 1959, and the geology
department (in RH 130) has some you can borrow. Also available, conveniently, online.
-
Library databases. InfoTrac and Newsbank, in particular, will give you access to lots of current
relevant information. As an FVCC student, you can access these databases off-campus as well,
as long as you have the current passwords. Keep in mind that you can limit your searches to
print sources.
-
The internet. There are several links to climograph databases on the course web page. At the
very least you should be able to find enough data to construct a climograph. Remember to keep
track of your web sources when you are looking for data or maps or other images! A good place
to start is in the government pages—try the agriculture, natural resources, geology, and
environment-related sites first. If you are covering a country, or a significant region of a country,
the CIA pages contain excellent, up-to-date information. You can probably also find sites
maintained by American researchers and graduate students working in the area. As always,
beware of (and generally avoid) personal, commercial and tourism sites!
V. Citing sources of information.
A source of information must be cited whenever you:
 Use another person's words, ideas, opinions or theories;
 Present facts, statistics, graphs and drawings that are not common knowledge;
 Quote someone's written or spoken words; or
 Paraphrase someone's written or spoken words.
In most cases someone’s “words” will be an interpretation or conclusion arrived at through the
scientific process. “Common knowledge” includes material that is appropriate for a textbook; this is
knowledge that is well-accepted by experts in the field, so no citation is necessary.
For visual aids, I will expect a citation for any image you use (many, in fact, are copyrighted!). Plots
of data and maps including specific locations should also be cited, since these are visual aids for
which other people have gathered information. Even if you reproduce an image or map in your own
artistic way (to simplify it by highlighting or only including some information, for example), you should
still include a citation in the caption. For example, if my presentation includes a photo of the rings of
Saturn taken by Cassini on its close flyby in 2005, the caption may read as follows:
Figure 3. Photo of Saturn’s rings taken by Cassini on April 18, 2005. From NASA (2005).
Using the word “from” suggests that I took the image “as is” from the source. If I redrew the image in
crayon because my presentation, for some reason, features all hand-drawn crayon images:
Figure 3. Saturn’s rings as viewed from Cassini on April 18, 2005. After NASA (2005).
Using the word “after” suggests that I have redrawn the image in my own style.
Additional guidelines:
- List only the references that are mentioned in the text, figures, captions, tables or appendices of
your paper or presentation. If a source only provided a photo, or a map, and not any factual
information that you used, leave it off your list.
-
Your page of references should be typed and titled (“References Cited” or “Works Cited”) as a
separate page or PowerPoint slide.
-
List all references alphabetically by the first author’s last name. If there is more than one author,
list alphabetically by the first author and then alphabetically by the second author. If the source
has no author, alphabetize by the first word of the title, excluding "a," "an," and "the."
-
Lines should be single-spaced; indent the second and subsequent lines of the citations.
-
Do not abbreviate journal titles, newspapers or book publishers.
-
For additional references that do not match any of the examples given here, include all
information that would be needed for a reader to locate the reference.
How to cite different sources of information
Newspaper
article
Holden, S., 1998, Frank Sinatra dies at 82: Matchless stylist of pop, The New York
Times, May 16, pp. A1, A22-A23.
Last, F.I., Year, Title of article, Newspaper name, Month and day, Pages.
Twiss, R. J., and Moores, E. M., 1992, Structural geology: New York, W. H. Freeman
and Company, 532 p.
Book
Last, F.I., and Another, F.I., Year, Book title: Where published, Publisher name, Total
number of pages.
Book article
Kane, J. S., and Neuzil, S. G., 1993, Geochemical and analytical implications of
extensive sulfur retention in ash from Indonesian peats, in Cobb, J. C., and Cecil,
C. B., eds., Modern and ancient coal-forming environments: Geology Society of
America Special Paper 286, p. 97-106.
Last, F.I., and Another, F.I., Year, Article title, in Editors’ names (Last, F.I.), eds., Book
title: Where published, Publisher, Page numbers.
Guidebook
Barton, C. C., and Hsieh, P. A., 1989, Physical and hydrologic-flow properties of
fractures, in International Geological Congress, 28th Field Trip Guidebook T385:
Washington, D. C., American Geophysical Union, 36 p.
Last, F.I., and Another, F.I., Year, Article name, Guidebook name: Where published,
Publisher name, Total number of pages.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, “Cassini Completes Closest Titan
Flyby Yet,” Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan, April 18, 2005, URL:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm, viewed October 10, 2012.
Web site
Name (Author or organization/agency), “Title of web page,” Date last updated, URL:
Web address, Date page was viewed.
NOTE: You must find the name of a person or organization/agency to cite as the
author of a web page!
This assignment will be posted on the class web page, along with a PowerPoint template to help you get
started. I hope you will enjoy this assignment—it’s always been fun for me to hear and learn about
different places around the world.