GEOG 125 - World Regions and Development

Units: 3 ; Breadth Area: GE-D1-2
Geographic analysis of the physical, cultural, environmental, economic and demographic patterns of world regions and selected nations. Patterns of global wealth, poverty and inequality from a geographical perspective and trends in important economic, environmental and sociocultural dimensions of world development.

Possible Instructional Methods: Entirely On-ground, or Entirely Online.
Grading: A-F or CR/NC (student choice).
Breadth Area(s) Satisfied: GE-D1-2 - Lower Division Social Sciences
Course Typically Offered: Variable Intermittently

Student Learning Outcomes - Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to:

Identify, describe and explain the global variation in selected important economic, environmental and sociocultural dimensions of human welfare and the important causal factors behind those distributions.
Identify and describe different measures of inequality and compare and contrast North America/United States with other regions and nations.
Describe and explain geographical factors that contributed to patterns of wealth, poverty and inequality of different regions and nations.
Identify and explain the operation and characteristics of the latitude and longitude system, altitude, time zonation and the International Dateline.
Identify and explain the effects on geographical perception of global map projections and the elements needed to interpret world maps correctly.
Identify the major features of and describe the causal factors of regional landforms, climates, demographic distribution and their change.
Recognize and distinguish between different world regions and describe basic cultural patterns within and between those regions, including those of language, religion, economics, settlement and land use, and identify the historical and geographic factors that shaped those patterns.
Explain the basic concepts of political geography, the concept of the nation-state, national sovereignty and different political boundaries and identify the locations of different nations and mega-cities that make up different world regions.

D1-2. Lower-division Social Science Electives Learning Outcomes

specify how social, political, economic, and environmental systems and/or behavior are interwoven;
explain how humans individually and collectively relate to relevant sociocultural, political, economic, and/or environmental systems-how they produce, resist, and transform them;
discuss and debate issues from the course’s disciplinary perspective in a variety of cultural, historical, contemporary, and/or potential future contexts; and
explore principles, methodologies, value systems, and ethics employed in social scientific inquiry.