This syllabus is "dynamic", it will change throughout the term. Though the basic structure of the course (e.g., weighting of evaluation components) will not change, topics and readings may need adjusting along the way. Please return to this section for important updates.

2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour, half course, Fall term

Prerequisite

none (but Geog 2153, and Geog 3250 are assets)

Always refresh this page each visit to ensure you are seeing up-to-date information.

News

April 7/14
Looking for a Spring course in Geography? - Your TA, Tor Oiamo is teaching Geog 2153 - Environment Economy and Society this spring!  Details here: http://geography.uwo.ca/undergrad/courses/Summer2014.html

Mar. 25/14
Assignment 2 due date extension - As I suggested in class last week I am extending the due date for assignment to Monday April 7, 10am at my office SSC 1407 (slide it under there door if there is no box).  I am looking forward to seeing everybody's mark go up - do a good job!  If you have questions about the assignment see Tor (will grade the papers), Emmanuel or myself.

Mar. 19/14
Make-up exam slots - This is a message from the Geography Dept. "I just wanted to let you know that I organized three makeups for this term as follows:
1. Thu Apr 17, 9:00 am, SSC 1059
2. Thu Apr 24, 9:00 am, SSC 1059
3. Thu May 1st, 9:00 am, SSC 1059
If you have students who missed the final and got a special exam form from their counselors they can write on any of these dates."  If you need to write a make-up get permission and please notify me as well by email.

Feb. 11/14
Turnitin - The Turnitin student enrollment information is in the table below

Jan. 1/14
Welcome - The class appears to be full at 50 students. The first class will provide overview to help you determine if the class indeed fits your needs.
No Tutorial in week 1 - they will start in week 2.  See the schedule below.
Owl Sakai - Owl will be used to post grades and readings. For news come here (the course syllabus page).  That is,  I will use this news section (the one you are looking at now, right here) to post important information. So come back to this page often.

Description

Contact Information

Timetable and Turnitin Information

Evaluation

Midterm

Weight: 20%
Duration: 1.5 hours
Date:
Location:
Possible Format: mixed, all answers on exam paper.

1. Multiple choice and true/false - 20
   MC usually 1 of 5 choices (a - e)
   NOT scantron, circle on exam paper
   no "correction factor" (i.e., NO subtraction of incorrect answers from correct answers)


2. Definitions


3. Short Answer

Material Covered:
All lectures and readings up until the end of the class immediately prior to the midterm date. The focus will be on lectures, but the readings typically overlap the lectures considerably. Generally speaking you do not have to know specifics like who said what in what year for the multiple choice, but it could not hurt to know some of the more important figures mentioned in class to round out your definitions and short answer.

Final Exam

Weight: 35%
Duration: 3 hours
Date:
Location:
Format: mixed, all answers on exam paper. (100 marks)

1. Multiple choice and true/false - (15 marks)
   - MC usually 1 of 5 choices (a - e)
   - NOT scantron, circle on exam paper
   - no "correction factor" (i.e., NO subtraction of incorrect answers from correct answers)



2. Definitions
(25 marks)
- 5 marks ea.
- choice - you will choose 5 from at least 7
- identify what the thing is, why it is important, how it relates to other things in environment and health research and provide an example(s)
- I have been told by students that I, "expect a lot in a definition". I agree.
- only those definitions that include an example will receive full marks
- space - use only the space provided - approximately 1/5 of a page


3. Short Answer
(30 marks)
- 10 marks ea.
- choice - you will choose 3 from at least 5
- address the question directly and include at least one example
- examples- only those short answers that include at least one example will receive full marks
space - use only the space provided - approximately 1/3 of a page


4. Essay
(30 marks)
- choice - you will choose 1 from 2
- address the question directly and include examples
- space - use only the space provided - approximately 2 1/2 pages
- outline - though there are no marks explicitly awarded for this, sketch an outline on the extra sheet of paper provided (back of last page)

Material Covered:
All lectures and readings since the midterm date. You are also responsible for material you might use in an essay answer. That is, the essay question will be quite general and will allow you to draw on material from the entire course. The focus will be on lectures, but the readings typically overlap the lectures considerably. Generally speaking you do not have to know specifics like who said what in what year for the multiple choice, but it could not hurt to know some of the more important figures mentioned in class to round out your definitions and short answer.

Readings

Course Text:

Moeller , D. (2011) Environmental Health (Fourth Edition) Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press.

Other readings will be made available via the links in the schedule and/or WebCT Owl

Lecture Schedule

Tutorial Format Schedule

And now some messages from our lawyers (same as on assignments page)...

Plagiarism
The Department of Geography has a zero tolerance policy towards plagiarism. If a student commits plagiarism, the instructor will assign a grade of zero to the assignment. A second instance of plagiarism is regarded as a scholastic offense and will be dealt with according to The University of Western Ontario policy for Scholastic offenses - more on our policy on plagiarism via this link.  The most common offense is failing to cite properly - if you quote directly, cite the author!  You do not get the benefit of the doubt (you are not presumed innocent until proven guilty) when such offenses are committed.  That is, the burden of proof is reversed.  Can you prove "it was an accident" (this is a rhetorical question)?  The following is an excerpt from the university secretariat:

“Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site:
http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/appeals/scholoff.pdf.
For a full set of regulations please visit this website: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/exam/crsout.pdf"

See next...

Turnitin.com
Unfortunately turnitin has "caught" several offenders in my classes, please do not be the next one - it is awkward for everyone involved.  If you do original work and write and cite properly you have nothing to worry about.  The univerisity has provided this mandatory wording: "All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection of plagiarism. All papers submitted will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between The University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com"