1. General information

Instructor	Mark Schmeeckle
Office Hours	M,W 8:30-10:30 or by appointment, SCOB 243
Phone	480-727-8199
Email	schmeeckle@asu.edu
Required Text	Geosystems, Christopherson, Fifth Edition
Class Time and Place	Tuesday and Thursday 1:40-2:55 in SCOB 150
Schedule Line Number	69523
Credits	3
Internet Syllabus	http://www.public.asu.edu/~mschmeec/gph411-syllabus.htm

2. Course Overview

Why is Phoenix so hot and still getting hotter? How does the burning of fossil fuels potentially lead to global warming? What produces earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and can they be predicted? How does soil form, and why is soil erosion such a big issue? This course will introduce the major physical, chemical, and biological processes that act to produce the varied environments in which we live. The effect of these processes on humans will be emphasized. Examples include natural hazards caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, and severe weather. Finally, humans are increasingly agents of physical geographic processes, and the course will examine human induced change of climate, ecosystems, air and water quality, soils, and the landscape.

3. Requirements and Grading

Reading: Please have the material read prior to the lecture. It will help you understand the lecture, and the lecture will help you with things that you had a problem with in the reading.

Attendance: I will not take attendance. However, some of the material in lectures will not be in the book. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that you will get a very good grade if you do not attend all or nearly all of the lectures.

Graded Assignments: None.

Exams: There will be three one hour exams and one final one hour and fifty minute exam. The final exam will contain questions from the entire course. The other exams will only cover material since the previous test. All of the exams will be short answer. Generally each question will involve writing one to several sentences and perhaps a sketch or diagram. I will pass out study questions prior to each exam. If you can thoroughly answer each of the study questions, you should do well.

Extra Credit: None. Please don’t ask for any extra credit.

Grading: Each test, including the final, will count for one third of the grade. No makeup exams will be given, but the lowest exam score will be dropped. If you miss an exam for any reason (valid or not), that will be the exam that you drop. If you are satisfied with your grade after the first three exams, you do not have to take the final.

The following scale will be used for the exams:

A 90 and greater; B 80-89; C 70-79; D 55-69; F 54 and less

4. Schedule:

The exact timing of the subject material is not definite but should be fairly accurate. I will post any changes on the web version of this syllabus. The test dates, however, will not be changed.

date	subject	reading
1/20	Syllabus, Intro	Chapter 1
1/22	Origin of earth, structure of earth	Pages 43-45 & Chapter 11
1/28	Continental Drift & Plate Tectonics	Chapter 11 & 12
1/30	Earthquakes	Chapter 12
2/3	Volcanoes	Chapter 12
2/5	Natural Resources, Energy, and population growth	TBA
2/10	Weathering, hillslopes and mass movements	Chapter 13
2/12	Soils	Chapter 18
2/17	TEST #1
2/19	Eolian processes,Deserts	Chapter 15
2/24	Solar energy, Seasons, Structure of the atmosphere	Chapters 2 and 3
2/26	Radiation Balance, Temperature, air pollution	Chapters 4 and 5
3/2	Atmospheric and Oceanic Circulation	Chapter 6
3/4	Water in the atmosphere	Chapter 7
3/9	weather	Chapter 8
3/11	climate	Chapter 10
3/15-3/19	SPRING BREAK
3/23	TEST #2
3/25	Global climate change	Chapter 10
3/30	Rainfall runoff, groundwater, water resources	Chapter 9
4/1	rivers 1: Flow and transport	Chapter 14
4/6	rivers 2: river forms	Chapter 14
4/8	glaciers	Chapter 17
4/13	ecosystems	Chapter 19
4/15	Urban physical geography: Phoenix	TBA
4/23	TEST #3
4/27 & 4/29	Putting it all together: Physical Geography of the Grand Canyon	TBA
5/4	Review for final
5/6	FINAL EXAM 12:20-2:10 PM