Text and Photographs copyright © 2002 Peter J. & Shirley F. Robinson

 COURSE SCHEDULE

Carolina Bays

Instructors:

Peter J Robinson                                            John W. Florin

Office                     222 Saunders Hall                                            225 Saunders Hall

E-mail                    pjr@email.unc.edu                                            jflorin@email.unc.edu

Telephone               962-3875                                                         962-3879

Office Hours           11:00 - 12:00 Tue; 2:00-3:30 Thu                            2:00 - 3:30 Wed; after any class

Course Objectives:

                The objective of the course is to help you to understand and appreciate the various landscapes of North Carolina - both to increase your enjoyment as you travel across the state and to increase your ability to make wise decisions about the use of those landscapes now and in the future.

                We can think of this course as having three portions: (1) a description of the appearance of our state as we see it when we walk or drive around; (2) a set of discussions of the individual "components" of the landscape we observe - how processes seen and unseen act to create them, why they vary from place to place, and how they change with time; and (3) an amalgamation of these components, examining how they interact to create the diverse regions of our state, and how they and we may influence the future directions of these regions.

    The "components" of the landscape are all the features that we actually see as we look around - the streets and houses, churches and stores, crops and farms, hills and valleys, fields and forests, rain and sunshine.  We shall be talking about those in class, and there are more details, and lots of photographic examples, on the home page.  

    However, there is another aspect of the landscape which we can call the "invisible" portion.  This involves the "meaning' of the landscape, sometimes called the "sense of place".  Any area where we have lived a long time - especially an area where we grew up - takes on special meanings, sometimes highly personal, sometimes common to everyone growing up in that area, and sometimes seemingly universal.  You will all take turns leading our learning about this - all participants will give a 5-10 minute presentation concerning  "My home town", talking about your local landscape and its meaning.  We will start by talking about our home towns - and the meanings of the places where we grew up - in the second class, and then we will do a couple each class thereafter.

Course Requirements:

Presentation (5%): The required in-class presentation "Geographical aspects of my home town", not to exceed 10 minutes in length.  The 5% will be awarded automatically.

Mid term quizzes: (2 @ 20% = 40%): These will be given during the scheduled class period, and will involve a series of short essay questions. Bring a blue book and pen to class.

Term paper (25%): This follows the in-class presentation with a formal paper "Geographical aspects of my home town"  The paper is expected to be about 20 pages in length (including maps, photographs etc).

Final exam (30%): Similar to the mid-term quizzes, but emphasizing a synthesis of all aspects of the geography, and involving more questions (about 10 out of 15).

Text:

    Orr & Stuart, eds.  The North Carolina Atlas, UNC Press, 2000 

    "The North Carolina Atlas Revisited": http://ncatlasrevisited.org/