Essay, Geography

Essay, Geography
“Core and Periphery” or “GMOs, Traditional Foods and Indigenous Sovereignty” or “Migration and Climate Change”

Project description
Overview

Answer ONE of the prompts provided below in a thoughtful and well-organized essay.

Requirements:

Your essay should have a thesis statement and should support your claim with a coherent narrative; it should not be a list of responses to the questions in the prompt.

See the TLC for help with writing a thesis statement: http://tlc.uoregon.edu/. (8 points for thesis statement and supporting explanation, 16 points for overall quality

of narrative)

Essays should demonstrate familiarity with the course readings and discussions by including concepts and terms introduced in the course. (4 points)

In support of your response to the prompt you choose, you must include at least two graphic images in your essay. You may use maps, graphs, charts or diagrams; please

do not use photo images for this assignment. You must label the graphics, and you must explain how the graphic images support the claims you are making in your essay.

(4 points for graphics (2 points each), 4 points for explanations (2 points each))

You must provide full bibliographic information for all sources, including any course texts and supplementary articles that you use for the essay, including the images

you use. (4 points)

Essays must be between 1000 and 1300 words (excluding the references section or any appendices). We cannot accept essays that do not meet these word limits.

Essays must be uploaded via Safe Assign on the Blackboard course site by 23:59 pm on Saturday, August 9th, 2014. No late assignments can be accepted.

NOTE: Wikipedia and websites like it can be very useful; however, they are not appropriate sources for this assignment. Please do not include these sources in this

assignment. (minus 4 points)

Essay Prompts (respond to only one)

Core and Periphery

Drawing from chapter two of the course textbook, and other sources as needed, discuss whether the United States should still be considered a core country. Discuss two

arguments in support of and two arguments against your claims. Provide evidence to support your claim. Also, consider what countries might be moving into the core or

the semiperiphery or periphery. What evidence could you find to support such transitions?

GMOs, Traditional Foods and Indigenous Sovereignty

Focusing primarily on the example the Ojibwe’s relationship to wild rice in Minnesote, Winona LaDuke’s 2007 Orion article, “Ricekeepers: A struggle to protect

biodiversity and a Native American way of life” discusses the issue of “biocolonialism” and how it is affecting the Ojibwe and other indigenous peoples around the

world. Define what LaDuke means by biocolonialism in this context. Explain at least three key issues regarding biocolonialism that indigenous peoples are facing.

Discuss what you would find to be an adequate solution to these issues.

Migration and Climate Change

As discussed in your textbook, the movement of people at multiple scales involves politics, economics, human rights and more. Global climate change is becoming a

significant factor for human migration, both within countries and from country to country. Choose a place where climate change-induced migration has been a key topic

in the news since the year 2000 (you may use online sources like the BBC, New York Times, or even a local newspaper). Write two paragraphs summarizing the situation:

the who, what, where and why of this situation. Explain the “push” or “pull” factors for people migrating to or from that place. Be sure to distinguish if this

migration is within a single country, or from one country to others. Explain how the government and other organizations are involved. Propose a “solution” to this

issue; discuss how you think this issue should be addressed, and by whom. An excellent essay will acknowledge current attempts to address the issue and explain why the

proposed solution is an improvement on current approaches.

Format guidelines

This assignment must be typed, using double-spacing and 12-point font with one-inch margins. Please do not include a title page.

The length for this assignment is between 1000 to 1300 words (excluding the references section or any appendices). Remember quality is better than quantity for written

portions of this assignment.

Present quotes and paraphrasing appropriately. If it is not your own personal thought or widely recognized as common knowledge, you must cite the original source of

the information. This includes citing maps and images if they are not your own creation. If in doubt, please consult your GTF (in advance of the deadline) to determine

what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it.

A references section should be submitted with your assignment in MLA format.

You must also upload an electronic version to Blackboard via Safe Assign. If you do not submit the electronic version via Safe Assign, we will reduce the overall essay

grade by 50%.

If you experience troubles uploading, try using a different browser (e.g., Firefox is good; Safari often has trouble with Blackboard). Check the “help” feature on

Blackboard.

Assessment

In order to help you understand how this assignment will be assessed, the points allocated to each component of the essay are listed with the requirements (above). Use

these requirements as a checklist to make sure that all relevant components are included within your essay