Five Themes Group Homework Assignment

Lashale Pugh
,
Youngstown State University
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Summary

Students are asked to work in groups of five. Each group chooses a country to write about, using the five themes of Geography.

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Context

Audience

Undergraduate course in human geography, general education course. Course for majors and non-majors.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students should have a basic understanding of geography's five themes and some experience writing essays.

How the activity is situated in the course

Near the end of the semester as a means of synthesizing information from the entire semester. This is a stand-alone exercise which allows students cooperate to complete a task.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Students should be able to identify the concepts related to geography's five themes (location, place, regions, movements, human environment interactions).

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Critical thinking skills, writing skills, synthesis of information from multiple sources.

Other skills goals for this activity

Identifying sources appropriate for college writing, working in groups.

Description of the activity/assignment

To complete this assignment students need to choose a group and decide who will write each section. They should also agree on a timeframe which will allow them to complete the assignment in the time provided. One student is expected to take the lead in assembling the final document. Students are expected to edit themselves the stay within the page limit, as they will find a vast amount of information. Students may work alone or in groups of less than five, but are still required to include all the necessary information.

Determining whether students have met the goals

I have a rubrick that I use to evaluate the students. Points are awarded for turning in a paper, not exceeding the page maximum, having a list of works cited, proper citation, appropriate sources and having a complete paper. When working as part of a group students also have the opportunity to rate the contribution of their group members. I assign 35 points to the paper, the students get an average of the points assigned by their group members when appropriate.

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