GEOG 200
Geography Project Plan Instructions
The Geography Project Plan is a research paper and a capstone assignment whereby you will apply geographic and research skills toward solving a real problem.
Choose a service project at an accessible location where you have an interest and passion for making a difference. The project must be feasible in scale and scope for a student’s time and budget. Choose a specific location rather than a grand scale project like ending world hunger. Your plan must be 1,000–1,250 words, use Times New Roman 12-point font with 1-inch margins, include a cover page, the required sections (shown below), a reference page, a map, and a realistic budget. Cite at least five scholarly sources (other than Scripture, the textbook, and Wikipedia) in current APA format.
The project can have an environmental focus, e.g., access to clean drinking water; preserving natural habitats; reducing air and water pollution; or dealing with the aftermath of natural disasters like floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes. Many students choose humanitarian projects focused on health, education, and financial needs, e.g., educating illiterate populations; helping start businesses; feeding the malnourished; or resourcing underserved schools, health clinics, hospitals, or orphanages. Your project may be as simple as building a wheelchair ramp for your neighbor or building a new playground at your church. The project may expand upon an existing service, but you must identify what services currently exist and how the services may be expanded based on your contribution. You must include realisitic materials, transportation, labor, and other associated costs. For example, is there a need for additional homeless shelters? If shelters exist, where are they located and what populations do they serve? Is there a need for shelters to safely house families, or just women and children? How much would it cost to erect and operate a homeless shelter for the number of clients that you are proposing?
· Step 1: State the objective (what will be accomplished) and location of the project, e.g., “I will provide clean drinking water to the rural population in Nimba, Liberia by digging three wells.” Then give a brief explanation based on your initial research for why this project is needed.
· Step 2: Research, analyze, and describe the problem through a geographic lens. Consider the terms and concepts in the textbook and the five main themes of geography.
· Step 3: Describe a feasible course of action to solve the problem. The paper must explain the who, what, why, and where of this project. In the end, this paper is about the proposed solution, or Project Plan.
· Step 4: List and describe the detailed costs of the project (i.e. materials, transportation, labor, etc.)
· Step 5: Utilize and bold highlight at least five geographic terms from the text.
· Step 6: Incorporate the five main themes of geography into their required section headings.
Use the following 10 required main sections when writing your paper. You may include subheadings as needed.
I. Introduction
II. General Overview and Rationale
III. Region Relevance
IV. Location Relevance
V. Place Relevance
VI. Movement Relevance
VII. Human-Environmental Interaction Relevance
VIII Budget
IX. Summary
X. References
The Geography Project Plan is due via Safe Assign by 11:59 pm (EST) on Monday of Module/Week 6.
HINT: The CIA World Factbook is a helpful place to begin when studying another country.
Start by describing and analyzing the significance of location. Is the problem unique to a specific location or region? Why or why not? Describing the location of a low income rural town relative to regions of industry or agriculture can be revealing. Is the location a conurbation, technopole, forward capital, or primate city?
Follow with a regional analysis that might include physiography (climate, terrain, bodies of water, flora and fauna), culture, population data (demographics), the economy, political geography, urban development, industrialization, and agriculture. How would you characterize the people, i.e., their culture, lifestyle and beliefs? How do language, gender, religion, and cultural traditions and values affect the project? Are the people part of a shatterbelt? Think about the sectors of the economy and development. Is the area you are addressing a periphery, semi-periphery, or core state, and how does that help or hinder the solution to the problem? Are the people subsistence farmers? Describe the population. Analyze the population distribution and density. Is it a floating population? Look at demographics like the birth rate, infant mortality rate, overall longevity, ratio of physicians to population, per capita income, average years of education or illiteracy, and the dependency ratio. What do those statistics indicate regarding the problem to be solved?
Movement, or connectivity, is often a key component in any geographic analysis. Will you move people, goods, or information? How will you do that? What are the challenges of movement? Can you hand out brochures or a Bible if the people receiving them are illiterate? Do they have access to the internet? Is there adequate transportation infrastructure to move people and goods? Are roads improved or unimproved? Is there access to public transportation? Analyze physiography as it relates to movement. Think about transferability of goods, distance decay, or the movement of people through immigration or emigration.
