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Geo 201 - Physical Geography II

at Illinois State University
  The Spring 2001 class, the Spring 2002 class, the Spring 2003 and the Spring 2004 class created topical web pages as we worked through the content material below.  Click on the links above to see their pages.  We also took on a project to examine maps of elevation of the world, using an interactive package available from Lamont-Doherty Environmental Observation.  We built a web site displaying the elevation maps we created.

The syllabus for this class is online.  We start the class with a basic diagnostic quiz.  We will be addressing these and many more questions throughout the semester.  

This course has been on the books for many years but has been revised as we restructure the major.  The focus is on physical geography based on the assumption that the students in the class have already had one course in physical geography, earth science, climate or weather.

In this second course in physical geography attention is given to the organization and distribution of processes shaping the surface of Earth, including the ocean and freshwater bodies. The course starts with an overview of water in the environment and the ways geographers account for water the presence or absence of water.

Then consideration is given to the material making up the crust and how that material is transformed and translocated through such processes as plate tectonics, folding and faulting, earth quakes and volcanism. 

Soils are examined as the interface between the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere. Weathering and the various forms of mass movement are studied as these processes vary in local and global environments. 

Systematically attention is then given to karst environments (caves), groundwater and aquifers, river systems and watersheds, eolian processes and the landscapes of arid environments, oceans and large water bodies, coastal processes of deposition and erosion, as well as glacial and periglacial processes. 

An integrating thread throughout the course will be the movement of water through the hydrologic cycle. Further, attention will be given the ways these aspects of the natural environment are involved with, respond to and indicate probable global climate change. 

Student outcomes:

  • Gain an appreciation for the dimensions and behavior of the planet we call home

  • Learn how many natural processes function on the surface of Earth and how those processes are influenced by human activities

  • Develop skills and techniques for the observation and analysis of the lithosphere and hydrosphere

  • Learn about parts of the natural environment so that the education majors and future instructors will be better prepared to teach these subjects in geography and earth science curriculums

  • Prepare to take advance courses in geography, other sciences and courses in environmental studies

  • Become an informed citizen better prepared to evaluate environmental issues such as global climate change, landuse regulation and wetlands policies