Lesson 12: Miscellaneous Cool Topics

Africa's Strength to Overcome

Annenberg/CPB has created an excellent set of streaming instructional videos relating to "The Power of Place: Geography for the 21st Century." One of the half-hour films is titled, "Strength to Overcome." The video starts with "South Africa: This is My Land," an investigation into how South Africans continue to face many challenges in redressing the land inequities under apartheid. The second part of the video, "Kenya: Medical Geography," discusses how AIDS has become one of the biggest killers in Kenya and how geography can help understand disease.

You will find a form in this ANGEL folder called "Africa's Strength to Overcome" Submission Form. This is where you will submit your responses to this assignment.

Suggestions for tackling this assignment:

  1. Read all assignment directions and grading information below carefully before you begin!
  2. Copy the questions below to a Microsoft Word file and work there on developing your responses. This is a safeguard against any Internet and/or ANGEL glitches that might occur while you are drafting your work.
  3. When finished, submit your paper to the Turnitin.com inbox for "Africa's Strength to Overcome" to confirm you have no accidental occurrences of plagiarism.
  4. After you have your report back from Turnitin.com, copy and paste your responses into the boxes in the "Africa's Strength to Overcome" Submission Form.

Keep in mind... I am going to assume that everyone knows nothing about Africa's land inequities and medical geography! So your job in this course is to prove to me that you are learning something! I will look for details and evidence that you have thought about the material. And trust me, I can see through "fluff" that is copied directly from the Internet!

Directions

  1. Go to the Web site for "The Power of Place: Geography for the 21st Century."
  2. Scroll down to 19. Strength to Overcome.
  3. Click on the VOD icon on the right-hand side.
  4. Enter your login and password created for Annenberg/CPB (if you do not have one, create one at this time and login).
  5. You will be directed back to the main page for "The Power of Place: Geography for the 21st Century." Scroll down to 19. Strength to Overcome again and click on the VoD link (Video on Demand). This time, the video will open up for you in a new window.
  6. Watch the video and answer the questions below in your Microsoft Word document. As you are watching the video, pay careful attention to the following concepts:
    • In the "South Africa: This is My Land" section: apartheid, homelands, land reform, global positioning system (GPS)
    • In the "Kenya: Medical Geography" section: HIV-AIDS, medical geography, disease diffusion, migration to urban areas

Assignment Questions:

  1. Why were homelands "less than desirable" for black farmers to be forced to live on?
  2. What is the land reform program? Describe and list three aspects of this program.
  3. How easy has it been for black farmers once land reform gave them their land back? Explain and list the challenges.
  4. How are GPS and satellite images useful for land use and reform studies?
  5. Do YOU think land reform has been successful in South Africa? Explain, and detail what else you think needs to be done for the future.
  6. How widespread is HIV-AIDS in Kenya? What age group has the highest infection rate? Why do you think this is so for this age group?
  7. Malaria, sleeping sickness, cholera,... are most diseases in Kenya preventable? Explain how or why not.
  8. How has AIDS spread across Kenya? Give several methods as examples.
  9. What is the connection between truck drivers and the spread of HIV-AIDS?
  10. What was your reaction to viewing the disease diffusion maps of Kenya? What do you think is needed to reverse this trend over time?

Deadline

All responses must be uploaded in the ANGEL no later than 11:00 PM on the due date (see Calendar tab in ANGEL). Note that is 11:00 PM by ANGEL's clock, not by the clock on your computer! The submission form will disappear at 11:00 PM, and this assignment will not be accepted late under any circumstances. I have no problems giving students a zero for an assignment if they do not take the responsibility to submit by the deadline, so don't even think about trying to submit this late!

Grading criteria

Your responses will be graded on a scale of 1-3, with 3 being the highest score. You will start with a grade of 2, and I will adjust up or down. No response or an extremely brief and poor response will score you a zero.

As for your references, I am looking for correct format in APA style. If you do not have the correct style, then I reserve the right to deduct 15 points off of your final assignment grade (once it is scaled to 100%) for inaccurate documentation. If there is an academic integrity violation, I will pursue the procedures outlined in Lesson 0. If you do not use any references for this assignment, please write "no additional sources used" in the space provided.

Your final assignment score is out of 24 points and will be scaled out of 100%.

How do you find out your assignment grade?

One week after the assignment is due, the submission form will become "active" again. You need to go back into the form and click on your responses to see your score and my comments. Again, I will be recording in my gradebook your score based out of 100%.

If you have any questions...

...on this assignment, on Africa, on anything! Don't hesitate to get in touch with me via phone or email ASAP. I would not recommend waiting until Sunday evening to contact me, as I cannot guarantee a response before the assignment deadline.