The American Heritage College Dictionary, 3rd Edition defines humanities as the branches of knowledge, such as literature and art, that are connected with human thought and culture. The underlying theme of this course is “what it means to be human.” With these thoughts in mind you will tackle the social science section of the Anthology. You will research your region keeping many of the six essential elements of geography in mind, ultimately coming to a conception of your region from a human perspective. You will examine how all aspects of geography intertwine to present a unified picture of your region.

PART ONE:   Research

ANNOTATED HISTORICAL TIMELINE
You must choose 10 events from your region’s history that have been the most influential in shaping that region.  A change over time must be shown, therefore there must be a considerable time apparent between the first and last event.  This timeline will be annotated, meaning each entry will be accompanied with a 2-3 paragraph explanation.
Format should be similar to that which is used by Davis in your Don’t Know Much About Geography book.  Your 1-2 sentence explanations must summarize the event and its importance.
5 of your 10 events must be accompanied by a corresponding image and caption.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY & DEMOGRAPHICS
1)  Must include a minimum of 2 different types of maps which are reflective of your region (population, climate, etc).  Each map must be accompanied by a 2-3 paragraph explanation of the information the map conveys.
2)  Must include a minimum of 6 different images which accurately reflect the physical geography of your region (landforms, climate, agriculture, demography, etc).  Each image will have an explanation.  Your images must reflect all aspects of the physical geography of your region.
3)  Must include an annotated list of geographical data (the kind you would find in an atlas).  This list must be accompanied by a written explanation.

CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY:
1) You must include an annotated list of cultural data (religion(s), holidays, cultural observances, food, agricultural practices, family life, governmental structure, etc).  You need to provide a short explanation for this data.  Do not simply list.
2)  Must include 10 images which accurately reflect different aspects of the culture of your region.  One image must show a religious/spiritual practice, one image must show a ceremonial practice, one image must show food.  All images will be accompanied by a 2-3 paragraph explanation.

PART TWO:  Evaluative Essay

MORE INFORMATION ON THIS PART OF THE ESSAY TO COME.
Essentially, you will be composing an essay where you will make connections and conclusions about the research you compiled and presented in part one.  You may want to start “Thinking Geographically” as Davis would say while you are working on part one.  Some of your explanations for part one may even start leading you in the right direction to begin thinking about part two.

A WORD ON SOURCES:

You will be required to complete a Works Cited / Consulted page for this section.  You MUST cite your sources not only at the end as a Bibliography, but within your section as well.  You MUST cite the source for all your images.  You must cite the source for all your data.  You must cite whenever you use a statement that isn’t yours.  You  must cite whenever you use a complete thought that is not your own.  Simply paraphrasing does not mean your are no longer plagiarizing.

For the social science section, you will be citing using MLA format.  You may want to use a website called “Citation Machine” (http://citationmachine.net/) to help you compile your information.  Because you will need to cite considerably in this assignment, make sure you have all the relevant information from all your sources including:  Author’s first and last name, Title of article, Title of book, Edition, Publishing City, Publishing Company, Publishing Year, Page numbers where you accessed specific information (quotes, images, etc), Volume number of journal, online URL, date accessed online, publishing organization, etc.  Citation Machine will be a great help in this matter.