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GEOG 495                     Senior Seminar in Geography                       Spring 2012

Instructor:         Dr. Joy Wolf                                    
Class time:      T:  2:00 – 4:00                                      
Email:                wolf@uwp.edu

Course Goals.  This is the capstone course for majors who have finished all of the required courses in Geography.  The goals of this course are:  1. conducting and presenting research in geography, 2. career exploration, and 3. a comprehensive examination in Geography. 

During the semester, you will develop the components of a sound research project, learn the aspects of peer-reviewed articles, justify your research topic and creating a literature review, choose the appropriate methodology and data analysis, and interpret the results.  As the semester unfolds, you will be applying critical thinking tools to your projects, and share your progress with the class.  The final grade is substantially dependent upon specific portions of your research project including the quality of the research, the design of the methodology, depth of the literature review, collection and analysis of your data, and the effectiveness of a written, oral and graphic presentation to a panel of faculty and the public.

The course is designed to help you understand each step in creating a good research project.  It is your responsibility to ask questions and seek solutions.  Each component is graded and due on certain dates in the schedule to keep you on track of the research.  Take note that we may not meet formally every week, so attendance on scheduled days is required (10% lower for each scheduled class missed).  You will be responsible for doing outside assignments during the weeks that we don’t meet.   A low score will be given to any assignment that is late.

I will refer and use the following textbooks. 
Research Design:  Qualitative, Quantitative, an Mixed Methods Approaches, John W. Creswell, 2^nd  Edition, Sage Publications, 2003.

Writing a Thesis: Substance and Style, R.K. van Wagner, Prentice Hall Publishing, 1991.

Grading:
Summary of Articles                                                           10  %
Advisor Reports (2 % each)                                                10  %
Interview Summary                                                            10  %  
Research Topic, Problem Statement, Outline                    15  %
Literature Review, Methods, Data Analysis                        15  %
Progress Presentation (extra credit)                              5   %
Final Presentation, Final Paper                                            20  %
Comprehensive Exam                                                         20  %
Attendance and Participation                                                                         

Length of Research Paper:              16-18 pages of written text (not including maps, tables and figures)

Length of Oral Presentation:           15-20 minutes (plus 5 minutes for questions).

PRACTICE     PRACTICE     PRACTICE   your presentation, so that you do not go over time.  

You will be stopped in the middle of your presentation if you are not done by 20 minutes (and lose points).

Research Project
As a finishing geography student, you will illustrate your knowledge to undertake a significant research project.  It is anticipated that in the process of conducting this research you will draw on the different areas of geography that you have studied.   You are REQUIRED to meet with a faculty with expertise in your choice of research at least five times during the semester, and to hand in Advisor Reports after each scheduled meeting.    Choose a geographical topic that is interesting and useful to you.   Because your project will be based in large part on data collection and analysis, you should meet with the instructor and another faculty EARLY for approval.     You will have several dates throughout the semester in which you will hand in components of the project.  Read the course schedule carefully!     Note that your research topic, research statement, and outline are all due within the first four to five weeks to help you start formulating ideas early on.      The Literature Review will help you identify references, and the Methods and Data Analysis will describe how you will collect and use the data.    By April 10, you should be prepared to analyze your data, and organize the project enough to give a PowerPoint presentation for class critique.   You will have one week to correct any problems before the Final Presentation day.   The final paper will be due the week following the presentation. 
 

Comprehensive Exam

      •    You will receive the study guide in the first week to help you identify your weak spots early on and sit in certain geography courses during the semester and refresh your knowledge of the subject matter. 

      •    The last couple weeks will focus on studying for the Comprehensive Exam.

Plagiarism.  Research and understand the concept of Plagiarism.  If you plagiarize, your work will result in a zero for that portion of your grade.