1. What climatic and geologic hazards threaten Africa? What have been some of the historical ones impacting this whole region? How do you think any Global Warming or Climate Change will impact this region?

PART I: MAP ACTIVITY

Use the maps below to identify all numbered areas.

• Africa

• Middle East

   

   

PART II: SHORT ESSAY

Please answer the following question in a 1-2 page short essay using APA Format.  Please be sure to use the course readings and/or other outside documented research to support all of your ideas, facts, and opinions.

Pick any individual country in Sub-Saharan Africa or North Africa/Southwest Asia Realms and Regions, and then describe and explain its individual physical, historical, economic, political, cultural/human, and religious/spiritual geography.  How and why is it different than the countries it borders?  What future challenges do you see for this country?  Have you ever visited this country before?  Would you like to if you have not?  Why or why not?

PART III: GEOGRAPHY JOURNAL

Task #1.  Please utilize LIRN (you may visit the Academic Resource Center for a guide on how to utilize LIRN successfully) and search for one peer reviewed research article that covers any of the following:

• explain Africa’s unique plateau-like surface, unusual river patterns, and lack of interior highlands in terms of plate tectonics theory.

• describe African historical evolution in geographic context and interpret Africa’s nature-society relationships involving wildlife and farming.

• examine the Africa’s medical geography, including pandemics, epidemics, and the distribution of major diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.

• describe the major cultural-geographic features of Africa along with the environmental and human geography.

• examine the North Africa/Southwest Asia realm.

• evaluate the emergence, evolution, and expansion of Islam from Saudi Arabia to much of the rest of the world.

• analyze Islam’s basic Sunni/Shi’ite split and its evolution into modern times, including the rise of fundamentalism (revivalism) in recent years.

• describe the geography of oil, its huge concentration in North Africa/Southwest Asia, and the enormous impact is has made in this realm.

• examine the physical, human, cultural, and political geographies of Egypt, Sudan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, and the surrounding countries.

Then write a 1-2 page review/reaction/reflection paper describing that article using APA format (please visit the Academic Resource Center for a concise guide on APA format).  Be sure to include the following:

• Goals/Objectives: What is the purpose of the article?  What does it attempt to solve, determine, or demonstrate?

• Data: Which data are assessed or analyzed to determine if the goals/objectives are met?

• Methods: What specific methodology is used to analyze the data in the context of the goals?

• Analysis/Conclusion: What resulted from methods being applied to the data?  What do the author(s) conclude from the analysis or how do they interpret the analysis/results?

Your critical review of the article must include the following:

• Assessment: Were the goals and objectives clearly stated?  Did the goals match the methods and results?  Was the article easy to follow?

• Importance: What, in your view, is the importance of this research?  What impactdoesknowing this have on geography?

• Improvement: What, if anything, could the author(s) have done to improve the article?

• Reaction: What is your opinion of the research conducted?

Task #2.  For Modules 2-8, you will reflect on the specific region and then will turn in your complete work (for Modules 2-8) at the completion of Module 8.  You will only turn in a rough draft of your Task #2 work in this module’s homework assignment.

Please write a 1-2 page reflection paper on how the physical, economic, political, historical, and cultural/human geography of the Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa/Southwest Asia regions or realms would impact you if you lived there.  You can compile this as a document, PowerPoint Presentation, or even create an online blog (please ask instructor).  You can also set this up as a diary with daily entries.  Be creative.