• Understand the Patterns and Processes of Human Population worldwide
• Understand the history and development of Population Dynamics and Distributions
• Acquire basic skills in describing and analyzing population distributions
• Develop skills in mapping and visualizing demographic data
• Gain knowledge of where to find and how to obtain current population information for areas
• Understand how to access and analyze the United States Census of Population and Housing
• Develop skills in oral and written presentation of research findings

   MIDTERM Examination --30%

   Individual and Team Projects:

• Population and Development (World Scale) -- 10%
• US Population Patterns (State and National) -- 15%
• Migration and Residential Mobility (Various Scales) -- 20%
• Neighborhood Composition and Change (Local) -- 25%

All Reading Assigments will be listed on our Class Web Page.  Weekly Reading Assignments will include chapters from the textbook,  On-Line (WEB) Materials, Library Articles (also On-Line), and Handouts. For readings in Peters and Larkin Population Geography , any recent edition of their book should be sufficient for that purpose, but, of course, you are encouraged to get the latest version (9th) containing the most up-to-date statistics and information.

University Withdrawal Policy:

It is the student's responsibility to withdraw from classes. Instructors have no obligation to withdraw students who do not attend classes and may choose not to do so. Withdrawal from a course after the first two weeks of instruction requires the signature of the instructor and department chair, and is permissible only for serious and compelling reasons. During the final three weeks of instruction, withdrawals are not permitted except in cases such as accident or serious illness where the circumstances causing withdrawal are clearly beyond the student's control and the assignment of an incomplete is not practical. Ordinarily, withdrawals in this category involve total withdrawal from the university. The College of Liberal Arts adheres to this policy strictly, and does NOT sign withdrawal forms in the final three weeks of class for other reasons.

Accessibility:

It is the student's responsibility to let me know at the beginning of the semester if s/he has a disability that will require accommodation. I am personally committed to making my classes accessible and providing accommodations that will help everyone compete on an even keel. I need to know about the issue at the beginning of the semester, though, so that we can work out a mutually reasonable and satisfying accommodation.

Related to accessibility, this course will be set up on BeachBoard to enable convenient contact. You will need to have a CSULB e-mail account to use BeachBoard, however. Announcements and messages from me to the class may come by e-mail. If you do not check your CSULB e-mail account regularly, but use another account instead, please set your CSULB account so that it will forward messages to your other account. The CSULB Technology Help Desk is now available for students, by the way. The URL for the Help Desk is http://helpdesk.csulb.edu. Their telephone number is (562) 985-4959.

Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism:

Written work that you hand in is assumed to be original unless your source material is documented appropriately. Using the ideas or words of another person, even a peer, or a web site, as if it were your own, is plagiarism. Cheating and plagiarism are serious academic offenses. Students should brush up their understanding by consulting the discussion of cheating and plagiarism in the CSULB catalogue. The Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Project student workshops on scientific ethics contain a section on plagiarism that may be a useful review: http://www.csulb.edu/geography/gdep/ethics.html. Furthermore, students should be aware that faculty members have a range of academic actions available to them in cases of cheating and plagiarism, including failing a student on that particular work, failing a student in the course, and referring the case to Judicial Affairs.

That said, I do encourage students to help one another out on the lab projects in this class. You learn best when you try to teach someone else, and it helps to hear the material from someone else besides the professor. If you have any questions about whether collaboration on lab problems is shading into plagiarism or cheating, please talk to me about your concerns. You can also indicate who you worked with on a given lab, just for insurance.

 

© 2009  Frank Gossette, CSULB