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Essay Instructions: The final exam is a take-home essay. The assigned topic is to relate concepts of human geography to Daniel Mengara's novel "Mema," the CD "Music of the Bibayak Pygmies / Gabon," and the movie, "Coup de Torchon." You are expected to research bacground information about Gabon, West Africa. Check out Daniel Mengara's website (chss.montclair.edu/~mengara/personal/) The essay must have at least 5-10 pages of text and be fully annotated. Read the novel, read the album liner notes, watch the movie, and then go through the chapters of James Rubenstein's textbook "Human Geography" (eighth edition) From this you should be able to discuss how the author, musicians, and director employ aspects of human geography.

Essay Instructions: Essay Question: Have we underestimated the importance of water to human geography?

Hints: Looking at the textbook, I see lots of discussion about the importance of resources, and the way that the environment acts as a life support system. In the population chapter, we think about the challenge of human numbers, which is often presented to us as a people vs food supply issue. In the farming & food chapter, we look at how we feed people. There is lots of talk of land and food, and resources, but less of water. Water is a crucial resource which gets less emphasis. There is talk (plenty on the internet and the in the media) of water being the new oil, in the sense of a resource which will be in short supply soon. In one sense, the conflicts in the Middle East are linked to oil, but in another sense, they are linked to water. We will need you to do some research here, do some digging on the critical importance of water resources. And we also need you to take a critical look at what the textbook (perhaps) leaves out. Bearing water in mind, would we want to change the way that (say) the population chapter is written?

One of the best ways to do this is to focus on a region where water resources and access to water are in a critical state. Parts of the US west and south west are in this situation: rapid urban and agricultural demand meets a 20-year drought. Several US states (Texas to South Dakota) depend on the so-called Ogallala aquifer, whose water levels are dropping. The Israel-Palestine conflict takes place against the backdrop of water shortage. People need water as well as land. If you pick a region where water is a stressed resource, you start to see exactly how important it is to human geography, and it becomes possible to write about it.

Textbook: Human Geography: Places and Regions in Global Context, Second Canadian Edition, by Paul L. Knox, Sallie A. Marston, and Alan E. Nash

Essay Instructions: (Referance Material) http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/contents.html


(1). Outline the major themes and ideas in Physical Geography before and after 1950.

(2). How does Physical Geography differ from Human Geography?

(3). Define Physical Geography.

(4). What are some of the sub-fields of Physical Geography? What do they study?

(5). What are some of the important future academic trends in Physical Geography?

(6). What is uniformitarianism? What theory did it oppose?

(7). How does Physical Geography relate to study environmental issues and science?

(8). Describe Pattison's four traditions of Geography.

Essay Instructions: > I need an overview/review of a few readings
> The first is from the book RJ Johnstons Geography and
> Geographers, 5th ed. I need a three page overview that
> covers pages 1-220 only.
> Then I need a one page overview from D.N.
> Livingstone's The Geograhical tradition,
> Oxford:Blackwell 1992 on the chapter "should the
> history of geography be rated X pages 1-31 only.
> Then lastly I need a one page overview from the book
> D. Massey's Human Geography Today (1999)the article
> "Issues and debates" pages 3-21.
> Tha makes a total of 5 pages, no bib. or citations are needed.