Week #5/6 Text: pages 273-304, Chapter 6

Test Discussion:

(Fall 2003)

The Scores came out late Wednesday afternoon.

Considering only those who actually took the test (105), the average was 27.90 (62%), median was 27, and the mode was 23. The best score was a 44 (of 45) and 6 students got 40 or better. The worst score was 8 and 10 students scored below 20. Seven people, who are still enrolled, have unexcused absence from the first test. I assume these people are electing to take the final.

This performance is worse than last semester (average of 29.2).

At the end of this file you will find 3 lists, each is specific to 2 of the 6 forms of the test (1A & 2A, 1B & 2B, and 1C & 2C). (Questions and options were scrambled to generate 6 forms. This renders hawking from someone else's test pretty risky.) Using the scoring office report sent to you via email and the appropriate list from below you can go a long way in diagnosing your own problems on the first test. I encourage you to come in to see me about problems, but if you wish to do this yourself it can still be quite helpful.

SAVE THE SCORING OFFICE REPORT - - THEY DON'T SEND ONE LIKE IT TO ME.

First, examine the scoring office report, noting which form of the test you took (it will show 1A, 2A, 1B, 2B, 1C, or 2C; or at least A, B, or C depending on how we sent them over to the scoring office). Print the appropriate list from the end of this posting. Now, take a colored marker and highlight each question you missed on both the report from the scoring office and the list from the end of this file.

The questions you want to ask yourself are "where do most of my errors come from?" and "what patterns do I see in my errors?" For example, a student might show an imbalance between text or lecture based questions. Often this will show up a problem in preparation, i.e. attendance, poor note taking, too quick of a read, didn’t finish the reading, etc.

There are also some questions marked NOT; these refer to questions that ask for the negative. That is, "which of the following is not associated….." Quite often students will lose track of what the question is really asking as they read through the options. Commonly, this is a problem of concentration that might be eliminated by circling the "NOT" or keeping your free thumb above it; anything to maintain your focus during the taking of the test. If you missed 20% of the questions on the overall test but missed 60% of the NOT questions it may indicate a concentration problem during the test itself, not just a preparation problem.

Next, you want to look at the specific topics which gave you trouble. In this first set of material this might be the Thunen model, the gravity model, Gini ratio, or Nearest Neighbor statistic; these are the theoretical and technical things. Make note of the coincidence between errors and attendance, the lecture questions tend to come evenly from the lectures, so they will some times reveal gaps in your attendance or where you got lost. Also, it is not unusual for students to do poorly on the last of the reading material - - didn't finish the readings.

........................ now on to the new stuff!!

 

 

Study Questions/Exercises/Tips (for new material):
  1. Most of us associated with the class are not products of an agricultural society; we are far more familiar with cities. Think about your hometown. What are the major employers and where are they located? What changes are going on in the labor market in your hometown? What industries are growing, which are cutting back? What was your town known for 50 years ago?
  2. Starting particularly on page 278, associate the new vocabulary with your hometown; can you see examples of "scale economies" or "diseconomies?"
  3. Firms and residents compete for space in cities. Describe the differences between the criteria the two uses. What are basic and non-basic firms? How are basic and non-basic firms different from each other in their competition for space?
  4. Try drawing a picture of the Hoyt Sector model described on page 287.
  5. Does the Burgess Concentric Zone Model seem familiar to something else you've learned? To your hometown?
  6. What is gentrification and what impacts does it have on cities?
  7. Considering the list of urban problems addressed in your textbook, which of them relate to your hometown?
  8. Starting on page 289 you'll notice a change in the scale of the presentation, the cities are now elements of larger patterns. In the early material, the text is showing patterns or structures within cities.
  9. What your book calls "urban spread" is currently a very political issue in Michigan, our Governor and many others commonly refer to it as "urban sprawl," a problem worthy attention. Could you explain what the "problem" really is? What behaviors are the root of the problems?
  10. The Lansing State Journal has an interesting piece (2/12/01) concerning "private roads" as a problem for homeowners and, to some extent, the rest of us too.

    http://www.lsjxtra.com/news/010212PROAD.S12.html

    It's still there, I just checked.

 

Commentary on the fifth early sixth week readings: I hope this chapter (#6) isn’t hard to read, many of the topics sound quite familiar. Maybe because of this it is not uncommon for a few students to dismiss the new concepts and terminology introduced in this chapter. As the questions above suggest, I think if one relates the text material to one’s own life it can be learned and reinforced fairly painlessly.

There are some interesting discussions of other places in the world in this chapter too. If you’ve traveled, try to integrate the text with your experience. If you haven’t try to relate the systematic descriptions to what is going on here where you do have experience. What sounds similar, what is different? This is also a chapter that has several linkages with the lectures. It helps to spend a few minutes thinking about those linkages and overlaps. You can even go back to the earlier section, the property assessment and taxing stuff could have fit equally in this section.

 

Forms 1A and 1B

1. either, intensive vs extensive agriculture

2. either, isotropic surface

3. text, demographic transition

4. lecture, Gini ratio purpose

5. text, examples of "second world"

6. lecture, Thunen, added canal

7. both, distance decay and spatial interaction

8. lecture, nearest neighbor analysis

9. lecture, gravity model

10. lecture, Namibia and resources

11. text, food problems in developing world NOT

12. lecture, functional or nodal region

13. text, primary, secondary, tertiary

14. text, maximum sustainable yeild

15. lecture, Gini ratio

16. lecture, central America and population

17. lecture, nearest neighbor analysis

18. either, mean center

19. text, primary, secondary, tertiary over time

20. either, density calculation concept

21. lecture, Lake Co. model anomaly

22. lecture, problems with Crude Death Rate

23. text, GIS operations

24. lecture, township and range survey system

25. text, themes of Economic Geography since 1920s

26. text, types of commercial agriculture

27. either, rule of 70

28. text, core-periphery and world economy NOT

29. text, types of political economies

30. both, applications of demographic insights NOT

31. lecture, comparison to Economics

32. either, Thunen calculation

33. text, population pyramid

34. text, first agricultural revolution

35. lecture, transportation in central America

36. lecture, Namibia NOT

37. lecture, dimensional primitives NOT

38. either, assumptions of initial Thunen model

39. either, Thunen, rent from distance to market

40. either, Thunen and Ricardo

41. text, systems of agricultural production

42. either, push and pull in migration

43. text, subsistence agriculture

44. lecture, calibration of gravity model

45. text, Target Marketing

Forms 2A and 2B

1. either, mean center

2. text, food problem in developing world NOT

3. lecture, central America and populations

4. lecture, Namibia and resource

5. lecture, Gini ratio

6. text, maximum sustainable yield

7. text, primary, secondary, tertiary over time

8. either, density calculation concept

9. either, push and pull in migration

10. text, subsistence agriculture

11. lecture, calibration of gravity model

12. text, Target Marketing

13. lecture, functional or nodal regions

14. lecture, nearest neighbor analysis

15. text, primary, secondary, tertiary

16. lecture, gravity model

17. either, intensive vs extensive

18. either, Thunen initial assumptions

19. text, commercial agriculture

20. lecture, Lake Co. model anomaly

21. text, "second world"

22. either, isotropic surface

23. either, Thunen, distance to market as main factor

24. text, first agricultural revolution

25. both, applications of demographic insight NOT

26. either, rule of 70

27. lecture, problems with Crude Death Rate

28. lecture, Thunen adjustment to canal

29. text, demographic transition

30. either, Thunen and Ricardo

31. lecture, central America example

32. lecture, comparison of Geography and Economics

33. text, core-periphery, core country characteristics NOT

34. text, GIS applications

35. text, distance decay and spatial interaction

36. lecture, Namibia and resource NOT

37. either, Thunen calculation, distance

38. lecture, township and range survey system

39. lecture, nearest neighbor analysis

40. lecture, Gini ratio

41. text, systems of agricultural production

42. lecture, dimensional primitives NOT

43. text, population pyramids

44. text, types of political economies

45. text, themes of Economic Geography since 1920s

Forms 3A and 3B

1. lecture, gravity model

2. lecture, nearest neighbor analysis

3. either, distance decay and spatial interaction

4. lecture, Lake Co. model anomaly

5. lecture, problems with Crude Death Rate

6. text, GIS applications

7. either, township and range survey system

8. text, themes of Economic Geography since 1920s

9. text, types of commercial agriculture

10. either, rule of 70

11. text, core-periphery and core country characteristics NOT

12. text, functional or nodal regions

13. text, types of political economies

14. lecture, Gini ratios

15. both, applications of demographic insight NOT

16. lecture, comparison of Economics and Geography

17. lecture, nearest neighbor analysis

18. either, Thunen rent calculations, distance

19. text, population pyramids

20. text, first agricultural revolution

21. text, food problems in the developing world NOT

22. lecture, central America example

23. text, maximum sustainable yield

24. either, Thunen, initial assumptions

25. either, Thunen, main factor distance to market

26. either, Thunen and Ricardo

27. lecture, Namibia NOT

28. either, mean center

29. text, systems of agricultural production

30. either, extensive vs intensive

31. lecture, Namibia

32. lecture, dimensional primitives NOT

33. either, isotropic surfaces

34. text, demographic transition

35. text, primary, secondary, tertiary

36. lecture, Gini ratio

37. text, second world

38. lecture, central America

39. lecture, Thunen adjustment to canal

40. text, primary secondary tertiary over time

41. either, density calculation concept

42. either, push and pull of migration

43. text, characteristics of subsistence farming

44. lecture, calibration of gravity model

45. text, Target Marketing.