Hunter College of the City University of New York POSTCARDS FROM AMERICA REQUIRED LANDSCAPE EXERCISE The purpose of this Web-based exercise, which is worth 25% of your final grade, is to increase your awareness and knowledge of selected human and physical landscape features that characterize various parts of the United States and Canada. DUE NO LATER THAN MAY 11, 2015. You are required to submit a 16-unit portfolio of landscapes to which is attached (1) a Cover Page with your name, course number and date; (2) a Table of Contents with the names of the landscape features and their corresponding numbers placed on the numbered (1-16) lines, state or province location of the feature, and page number where the landscape feature description is found; and (3) a Map of North America showing the location of each feature listed in the Table of Contents by using the ID number of the corresponding feature from list. See Fig. 1. Each landscape portfolio page is to be headed by a title that corresponds to an item in the list on page 3. See Fig. 2. The contents of each must consist of the following minimum requirements: 1. One thumbnail continent locator map showing the landscape feature s location in N. Amer.; 2. One local area detailed readable map of the landscape feature s area; 3. Two photographs or illustrations of the landscape feature in question; and 4. A half-page written description of the subject and its geographic significance (consult the Fundamental Themes of Geography handout). Short and or incomplete descriptions will reduce you grade for the individual entry. Be sure to stay on topic. The written description MUST be in your own words, and NOT something that you have cut-and-pasted from an online source as Wikipedia. (Everyone has their own writing style as do on-line sources!) The verbal portion should be done in paragraph format using 11-12 point type and take up at least half the page (4 inches of page in portrait mode or 3 inches of page in landscape mode). One-three sentences or just phrases are not acceptable. Typing should be single-spaced and have standard 1-inch margins to either side. See NOTES below. The 16 landscape features are to be selected from the category groups on page 3. Your selection should be varied and represent different areas of the U.S. and Canada from the Arctic to the Everglades, from the mountains to the plains, from urbanized areas to rural towns, from manufacturing complexes to wilderness areas as discussed in class and in the textbook. NOTES: 1. This assignment cannot be done in one day. Give yourself ample time to collect and organize your material, think out the presentation, format the page and write the descriptions. 2. Information may be gathered from anywhere except Wikipedia, Prof. Grande s Power- Point slides used in class, and the textbooks. There should be at least two (2) different sources of information for each landscape. (Never rely on one source when doing research.) 3. DO NOT CUT and PASTE web-derived information. Summarize it in your own words. Focus on the topic. Present the landscape feature specific to the theme. 4. Information that is photocopied from a book, atlas, road map, topographic map or other hard copy source is permitted and should be trimmed and taped to an 8 x11 page for inclusion. 5. Every illustration must have a caption (What are we looking at?) or referenced in the description 6. Citations (sources of information) are to be placed at the end of the write up or attached to the caption. >>>No separate bibliography page is needed! 1
7. Page orientation may be portrait or landscape (landscape is more functional; see Fig. 2). 8. Page layout may be constructed in one column or two column format. 9. Digital photographs or diagrams can be sized by pulling or pushing in at their corners (this avoids distortion) or may be trimmed by using the SIZE or FORMAT mode in the pop-up after hovering the cursor over the image. FIGURE 1. Sample pages. COVER PAGE A Sample of Landscapes found in the US and Canada Your Name GEOG 306.03/ 705.09 Postcards from America Date TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Landscape P, p.2 2. Landscape Q, p. 3 3. Landscape R, p. 5 4... 5... 6... 7... 16. Landscape S, p. 22 MAP of NORTH AMERICA (see last page of this exercise) Locate all your landscapes on this map using numbers 1-16 for the required locations. FIGURE 2. The example below is in landscape orientation across a portrait oriented page. Landscape orientation across a landscape oriented page gives you more room for maps, photos and illustrations. Landscape 99: The Narrows of NY Harbor Locator map. Site and situation of Location of the terminal Satellite view of The V-N Bridge crossing The The Narrows. moraine of the continent- Narrows and the Verra- Narrows from Ft. Hamilton al glacial. zano-narrows Bridge. to Ft. Wadsworth. The Narrows of New York Harbor is a gap in the terminal moraine created at the end of the last Ice Age as the glacial lake located behind the moraine was breached. It marks the entrance to New York Harbor, separating Upper New York Bay from Lower New York Bay. Its deep channel allows the largest ships to enter the harbor. Located between the Long Island and Staten Island, The Narrows protects Upper New York Bay from wind and waves originating in the Atlantic Ocean. Fort Wadsworth (Staten Island) and Fort Hamilton (Brooklyn), located on high ground overlooking The Narrows, historically protected NY Harbor from naval attack. The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the world s longest suspension bridge when completed in 1964, spans The Narrows carrying traffic between Brooklyn and Staten Island. Its opening sparked the rapid growth of SI s population. Etc., etc., etc. for additional information to fill at least a half-page of description and analysis. Sources: United States Geological Survey (www.usgs.gov); Yahoo Images (www.yahoo.com); Schuberth, C. The Geology of New York City and Environs, New York: Natural History Press, 1968. 2
LANDSCAPE FEATURE TOPICS Choose a mix of 16 landscapes from the 80 listed to include in your portfolio. The 16 landscape features you choose should be varied and represent different areas of the U.S. and Canada from the Arctic to the Everglades, from the mountains to the plains, from urbanized areas to rural towns, from manufacturing complexes to wilderness areas. 1. Adirondack Park in NYS 2. Aleutian Islands 3. Amish area (choose Ohio or New York or Pennsylvania) 4. Badlands topography 5. Baffin Island environment 6. Barrier islands of the East Coast (select one segment) 7. Basin and Range topography 8. Black Hills environment 9. Canadian National Park north of latitude 60 N. 10. Canals and locks (pick one transportation canal in the US or Canada) 11. Clear cutting in the Pacific Northwest 12. Coal mining in Pennsylvania 13. Colonial fort location (pick one) 14. Congressional Survey System 15. Containerization ports (pick one) 16. Dams on the Columbia River 17. Desert landscape of southern Arizona 18. Earthquake Aftermath Landscape 19. El Camino Real (California) 20. Everglades of South Florida 21. Farming in California s Central Valley 22. Feed lots of the Mid West 23. Finger Lakes of Upstate New York 24. Fjord coastline 25. Florida Keys tropical landscape 26. Freeways of Los Angeles urban landscape 27. French long lot system in Louisiana 28. Fruit tree landscape 29. Gentrification in the city of (pick one city) 30. Ghost towns of the West 31. Golden Gate entrance to San Francisco Bay 32. Great Salt Lake and vicinity 33. Groins and jetties and the sandy coastline 34. Hog farms 35. Hoh Rainforest natural landscape 36. Hurricane X (pick any one): Before and after landscapes 37. Jamestown Settlement Virginia Colony 38. Lake of the Woods natural landscape 39. Lake Tahoe and vicinity 40. Lava flows on the island of Hawaii 41. Meander loops and oxbow lakes of the Mississippi flood plain 3
42. Metes and bounds survey system 43. Mississippi River delta meets the Gulf of Mexico 44. Missouri River flooding landscape 45. Monument Valley natural landscape 46. Mountain ski resort landscapes (pick one) 47. Napa Valley wine country 48. National Park Service (NPS) national seashore landscape (select one) 49. New England townscapes 50. New Orleans flood control system 51. Northern estates 52. Okefenokee Swamp 53. Open pit mines 54. Pacific Coast Highway 55. Pearl Harbor s site and situation and its affect on Dec. 7, 1941. 56. Pivot irrigation system 57. Portland, ME vs. Portland, OR (compare the landscapes of the two cities) 58. Railroads crossing the Rocky Mts. (select one US or Canadian RR lines) 59. Redwood forests of California 60. Rocky shorelines 61. Rust belt landscapes of the northeast US 62. Salton Sea and vicinity 63. San Andreas Fault zone 64. Santa Fe Trail landscapes 65. St. Augustine (FL) Old Town 66. Shopping mall landscape (pick one) 67. Site and situation of any state or provincial capital city 68. Southern plantation 69. Strip mining 70. Suburbanization of (pick a city) 71. Tornado Alley 72. Tourist landscape of Orlando, FL and vicinity 73. Town plat (street layout) of 2 cities or towns with different backgrounds (compare them) 74. Tundra landscape of around Hudson Bay 75. Urban landscape of (choose Toronto or Chicago or Denver or Seattle) 76. U.S./Mexico border area 77. Volcanic features of western North America (pick one area) 78. Wheat fields of the Dakotas or Prairie Provinces 79. Yakima Valley agricultural area 80. Zuni Pueblo NOTE: A mix similar to the following, using sites from the Arctic to Florida and Hawaii and areas in between, would provide diversity to your portfolio: 4 physical landscapes 3 environmental impact features 4 cultural landscapes 2 features from national/state/provincial park sites 2 features from urbanized areas 1 feature that is from colonial/pioneer times AFG 1014(rev) 4
Grouped Examples from the List Above. Some places may fall into more than one category and you may use it in a category different from below as long as you clearly state its new category and explain it. However, each place may be used only once. NATURAL LANDSCAPE 1. Aleutian Islands 2. Badlands topography 3. Baffin Island environment 4. Barrier islands of the East Coast (select one segment) 5. Basin and Range topography 6. Black Hills environment 7. Desert landscape of southern Arizona 8. Finger Lakes of Upstate New York 9. Fjord coastline 10. Florida Keys tropical landscape 11. Golden Gate entrance to San Francisco Bay 12. Hoh Rainforest natural landscape 13. Lake of the Woods natural landscape 14. Lava flows on the island of Hawaii 15. Meander loops and oxbow lakes of the Mississippi flood plain 16. Mississippi River delta meets the Gulf of Mexico 17. Missouri River flooding landscape 18. Okefenokee Swamp 19. Rocky shorelines 20. San Andreas Fault zone 21. Tundra landscape of around Hudson Bay 22. Volcanic features of western North America (pick one area) CULTURAL LANDSCAPE 1. Amish area (choose an area from Ohio or New York or Pennsylvania) 2. Canals and locks (select one transportation canal in the US or Canada) 3. Congressional Survey System 4. Dams on the Columbia River 5. Farming in California s Central Valley 6. French long lot system in Louisiana 7. Fruit tree landscape 8. Lake Tahoe and vicinity 9. Metes and bounds survey system 10. Mountain ski resort landscapes (pick one) 11. Napa Valley wine country 12. New Orleans flood control system 13. Northern estates 14. Pacific Coast Highway 15. Railroads crossing the Rocky Mts. (select one US or Canadian RR lines) 16. Shopping mall landscape (pick one) 17. Southern plantation 18. Tourist landscape of Orlando, FL and vicinity 19. U.S./Mexico border area 20. Wheat fields of the Dakotas or Prairie Provinces 21. Yakima Valley agricultural area 22. Zuni Pueblo 5
PARK DESIGNATION 1. Adirondack Park in NYS 2. Canadian National Park north of latitude 60 N. 3. Everglades of South Florida 4. Monument Valley Tribal Park 5. National Park Service (NPS) national seashore landscape (select one) 6. Pearl Harbor s site and situation and its affect on Dec. 7, 1941. 7. Redwood forests of California URBAN LANDSCAPE 1. Containerization ports (pick one) 2. Freeways of Los Angeles urban landscape 3. Gentrification in the city of (pick one) 4. Great Salt Lake and vicinity 5. New England townscapes 6. Portland, ME vs. Portland, OR (compare the landscapes of the two cities) 7. Rust belt landscapes of the northeast US 8. Site and situation of any state or provincial capital city 9. Suburbanization of (pick a city) 10. Town plat (street layout) of 2 cities or towns with different backgrounds (compare them) 11. Urban landscape of (choose Toronto or Chicago or Denver or Seattle) ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT 1. Clear cutting in the Pacific Northwest 2. Coal mining in Pennsylvania 3. Earthquake aftermath landscape 4. Feed lots of the Mid West 5. Groins and jetties and the sandy coastline 6. Hog farms 7. Hurricane X (pick any one): Before and after landscapes 8. Open pit mines 9. Pivot irrigation system 10. Salton Sea and vicinity 11. Strip mining 12. Tornado Alley COLONIAL/PIONEER TIMES 1. Colonial fort location (pick one) 2. El Camino Real (California) 3. Ghost towns of the West 4. Jamestown Settlement Virginia Colony 5. Santa Fe Trail landscapes 6. St. Augustine (Florida) Old Town 6
LANDSCAPE FEATURES PORTFOLIO LOCATOR MAP KEY to LOCATION of the LANDSCAPES included in the PORTFOLIO. (Remember to select examples from all parts of the United States and Canada.) 1. 9. 2. 10. 3. 11. 4. 12. 5. 13. 6. 14. 7. 15. 8. 16. 7