[samantha__]

If the title of this course wasn't obvious enough for you, you are about to read a review on Geo 1HS3/Geog 1HA3. As with many of the geography courses for the 2008/2009 year, several are being merged into 1 class, removed completely, undergoing a name change or are just being revamped. Prior to 2008/2009, this course was known as Geo 1HS3: Geography of the Human Environment. As of September 2008, this course will be known as Geog 1HA3: Human Geographies - Society and Culture.

In general, this course is known to be easy, but overall performance of this class was dependent on your writing skills, group teamwork skills and whether you could muster up the strength to wake up at 8:30am on Mondays and Wednesdays every week! Michael Mercier taught the course for Term 2 of this past year; For those who have had Mercier before, you will know that the his lecture slides are very skeletal - in other words, he posts lecture slides with only the titles of what was discussed in class.

The assignments vary between professors, but they were all written assignments, ranging from 2 page write ups to the 10 page report on Dundas Ontario. The mark you receive on these reports is dependent on your T.A, as they're the one's marking your assignments.

In terms of the midterm test and exam, they're made up of several short answer, multiple choice and good ol' fill-in-the-blanks. From my first year experience, this was one of my only classes that made use of different testing techniques other than strictly multiple choice questions.

The material is quite interesting, with a lot of it being common sense, hence why it is common for people to do well in the class. You learn about a large range of topics in the world of geography, from the basics of Space, Location and Region to different religions to how globalization has shaped the world. As you can tell, this is not your stereotypical geography class. No you will not be learning about different types of rocks; No you will not be learning about the different layers of the earth. In essence, this course is very similar to Grade 12 World Issues.

COURSE BREAKDOWN

• Midterm Test: 20%
• Assignments (each worth varying amounts): 50%
• Final Exam: 30%

Is this the same as 1HB3?

No 1HB3 was Geo 1HU3 before the 2008/2009 school year. That deals more with the economic side of geography; I'll write up a review for it once I've dug up my old notes on it. The classes overlap quite a bit though or at least they did last year.

What do you do in the labs for this course?

Theyre not really labs.. think of them as tutorials haha. The TA just explains the assignment that would be due the next week and you also hand in assignments. They're called labs because Geo is under the Faculty of Science.. well at least, thats what my TA told me.

Originally Posted by samantha__

No 1HB3 was Geo 1HU3 before the 2008/2009 school year. That deals more with the economic side of geography; I'll write up a review for it once I've dug up my old notes on it. The classes overlap quite a bit though or at least they did last year.

Hello I just signed up for GEOG 1HB3 HUMAN GEOGRAPHIES: CITY & ECONOMY and I would also very much appreciate a review Thanks!

bump

Sorry, totally forgot to write one. I'll have one up soon

I'm taking both first year geo's and I am just wondering, are the textbooks needed for these courses? Like how much do we use them?

So I took Geog 1HA3 this year with Dr. Mercier. He was pretty cool prof and he went through things at a very leisurely pace. I found that he kept things simple and frequently gave real life examples. He did a really great job of exploring various world issues/phenomena using a geographical perspective. We looked at a bunch of differing topics including the geography of religion, ethnicity, culture, language, cities, politics, health, and population, just to name a few.

This semester, we had five assignments which may sound overwhelming, but it is definitely manageable. The overall workload for this class was pretty average compared to some of my other classes. I didn't have to spend as much time studying for this class considering a lot of the concepts were fairly easy to comprehend.

The assignments we worked on included an "Introduction to the Map Library" assignment, a precis/critical review paper, a research paper on political/urban geography, a smaller fieldwork assignment, and a larger fieldwork assignment. Each assignment was assigned to and due in your labs. Assignments counted for 45% of your mark and there was also a 5% lab participation mark (we did various things including a debate, a trivia game, a discussion etc.). In addition, if you attended a majority of your labs, you were given a bonus mark at the end of year added onto your final mark (1-3% depending on your attendence record)

The midterm was worth 20% of your mark and the final was worth 30% of your mark. They were both pretty easy if you looked over your notes and paid attention in class. Overall, this wasn't too difficult of a class to do well in and the material was pretty interesting.

I've heard that some of the assignments are group projects...is that true? And if it is, how many of them are?

Thanks!

Hey, I just took the course, there was two group assignments when I did it, one in pairs and the other in groups of four. They really aren't that difficult if everyone puts a good amount of effort into them.

I was wondering, how heavy of a workload is this course, I'm in first year life science and taking this as an elective. As well, is it easy to get a double digit grade in this course if you put in the effort and time? Is the workload time-consuming? The assignments, are they long in length and time-consuming?

thanks a lot

The courses are pretty time consuming, but if you work hard it is easy to get a double digit grade. Especially on assignments having to do with article analysis (precis and critics), attention to detail is a must. Work hard, get it proofread by your classmates, and work to get perfect...