Geography 221: Field Geography, The Local Landscape
CRN: 28231
Spring 2011
Cascade Campus, TEB 227
Office Hours: 11-12pm (F)
Office: SC 211 (call 5538 to enter)
Fr 12:00 - 3:50 p.m.
971-722-7684
[email protected]
Course Text: the GIS 20 essential skills, Gina Clemmer (ISBN: 978-1-58948-256-2)
Course Description and Focus
Mapping can be a powerful tool for communities to manage
their resources, make decisions, plan for the future, capture local
knowledge, raise awareness on environmental and/or social issues, and communicate their findings or concerns to others.
Community mapping is a way to answer questions, solve problems, or address specific community issues. A few examples include - the locations of environmental hazards, walkability of your community, track crime and policing efforts, determine housing affordability, safe routes to schools, or examine how resources are distributed throughout the community. Whatever the issue may be, a community can come together to map relevant information.
In this course we will be working with a community partner, the Housing
Organizations of Color Coalition (HOCC), on a community mapping project centered on the accessibility to affordable and healthy food. Using this project as the basis for the course you will learn field research
methods, community planning, and geographic information systems (GIS)
skills. These skills will be applied to prepare a
cartographic
presentation of the community's needs and resources.
The HOCC is a partnership of three community development organizations - Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, Hacienda CDC, and the Native American Youth & Family Center (NAYA). The coalition is concerned with health disparities that exist within N & NE Portland communities. HOCC would like to find out if families in theses neighborhoods have access to healthy, affordable foods within walking distance from their homes. As our class project, we will look at affordable housing in N & NE Portland and their proximity to supermarkets, food co-ops, farmer's markets, and convenience stores. We will collect field data about these food stores to determine if they offer healthy an/or affordable options. And finally, we will create a suite of maps to represent the data and present our results to the HOCC.
Course Format
GIS Software
Additionally, an education license of the software will be given to all students enrolled in the course for use outside of class on your personal computers.
Assignments and Grading
Reaction Papers (15%): there will be a reaction papers assigned throughout the quarter based on reading assignments posted on the syllabus.
Participation (35%): participation in this class is essential. your participation grade will include a variety assignments ranging from field surveys to research and data entry.
Group Projects (50%): the class will be broken down into 5 groups to work on different aspects of the course project. each group will graded on their specific assignments given by the instructor throughout the quarter.
Final grades will be based on the following scale: A (90-100), B (80-89), C (70-79), D (60-69), and F (below 60).
Group Project Descriptions
Affordability
Accessibility
Community Gardens
Census & Data Collection
Cartography & Design
Course Outline (DRAFT)
**Course schedule is subject to change and will be updated throughout the quarter.
Topics------------------------------------------------------------------ April 8 April 15 April 22 April 29 May 6 May 13 May 20 May 27 June 3 June 10
FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATION ____________________________________________ |
Assignments------------------------------------------------------------------
Food Surveys Chapters 1 - 7 Group Outline & Responsibilities DUE: Grocery Store surveys (complete) ____________________________________________
DUE: 2nd Draft of Maps ____________________________________________
|
'How To' Submit an Assignment
2. Submit a single document in .pdf format
3. Include the question number and question with answer or map
4. Do not submit exported maps as individual files - paste them into your lab document
5. Do not include any of the lab instructions in your doc - only questions and answers, maps, or other outputs
6. The subject line of your email should reflect the assignment name. For example: Lab1
Additional Resources
ArcGIS Desktop Version 10 - Service Pack 1 download
Service Pack 2 download
Attendance
Academic Dishonesty
Plagiarism is “the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work (Dictionary.com).” This is unacceptable. Cheating is also unacceptable. If you have any questions about the college’s academic policy, see pages 9-11 of the Students Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, online at http://www.pcc/edu/about/policy/student-rights/student-rights.pdf.
Students with Disabilities
Students with disabilities wishing services and/or accommodations are required to register with the Office for Students with Disabilities (OSD). Please contact the OSD office as soon as possible so that services can be arranged and provided in a timely manner. The OSD phone # is 503-614-7409.