GPHY 121 SP 2012 Activities
Day One: Your Geographic Experience
 Where from?
 Where traveled?
 A region you would you like to get to know geographically?
 Level of current knowledge about it?
Activity One: Visualizing and Mapping Your Region
 Missoula Google Earth Example
 Select your region & place
 Activate Scale Legend
 Size Region
 Use Ruler to measure Scale Legend, compute RF and take screen shot (or use Copy Image in Edit pull down
menu).
 Use Options under Tools to change coordinate systems – determine geographic coordinates in DMS and Decimal
Degrees, and in UTM for a selected point or feature – record and take screen shots. What do the three sets of
coordinates tell you about your point in relation to other earth characteristics? Draw diagrams to illustrate.
 Date of imagery? Historical available? Source?
Research One: Culture & Identity in Your Place & Region
Make notes re: the themes present in chapters 2, 4. 5, & 6 relevant to your region and place. Can be in form of a list of
terms and examples pertaining to your region and place. Find articles. Begin drafting an overview of culture and
identity in your region & place.
Activity One: Governance in Your Region
Using Google Earth Layers (More, US Gov’t), Atlases, web for districts & boundaries, capture images and summarize
patters of governance in your region.
Research Two: Population & Migration in Your Region
Document demographic info/data for your region
 CIA Factbook
 Eurostat: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home
 Censuses
 Find articles.
Research Three: Development in Your Region
Document development indicators/info/data for your region
 CIA Factbook
 Eurostat: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home
 Censuses
 Find articles.
Research Four: Economic Activity in Your Region
Document structural economic info/data for your region
 CIA Factbook
 Eurostat: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home
 Censuses
 Find articles.
Activity 3: Urban Patterns & Inferred Processes in Your Place & Region
Use Google Earth to identify and delineate urban structures in your place and region using the urban transect across the
most dynamic area(s). Describe the processes that have likely contributed to the development of the pattern(s) that are
presented. Examine the official local government websites for your place and region and summarize and characterize
the level of progressiveness with respect to smart growth policies.
Research Five: Agriculture in Your Region
Use Google Earth to examine the structure and scale of agriculture in your region. Record images and characterize what
you see. Visit the USDA’s Census of Agriculture website (http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/index.asp) and locate the data
for the county(ties) corresponding to your region. What are the dominant crops produced in your region? Search the
web using terms such as “name local foods” and related terms to identify efforts to promote the production and
consumption of local foods in your region, and efforts to preserve agricultural landscapes.
Research Six: Environmental Challenges in Your Place & Region
Using two different search engines, and using Google Scholar, search for information concerning environmental
challenges discussed in the Text and Lecture that pertain to your place and region (Note: some of these might be
addressed by development and social indicators, or other data you have collected, but report them here as well.
Activity 4: Sustainability in Your Place & Region
1. This is the capstone activity for the course.
2. Assemble and integrate the information that you have collected and documented for your place and region into a
report following the prescribed formatting guidelines in the course syllabus.
3. Now, reviewing your information, perform a SWOT assessment (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)
for the prospects of achieving greater sustainability (Environmental, Economic, and Equity) in the near term (one
generation) and in the slightly longer term (two generations) in your place and region. To do this, draft lists of
factors that should be included under each category (i.e., S, W, O, & T) – then refine these into something that looks
like the following.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Low per cap oil
High pop. growth rate
consumption
Strong & diverse culture Women marginalized
economically
Etc.
Etc.
Opportunities
Substantial alt. energy
potential
Strong state support for
education
Etc.
Threats
Energy deficiency
Continued high pop.
growth
Etc.
4. Now write and refine both an introduction (one or more paragraphs) and an overview of the outcome(s) of your
analysis (one paragraph minimum for each category).
Items to include in your Sustainability Report
 Introduction (one or more paragraphs).
 Information (with appropriate headings, tables, and images) from your activities and research.
 SWOT table.
 SWOT outcome overview (one paragraph minimum for each category.