Exams will include fifteen multiple choice questions, four concept identifications, place location items and two short answer paragraph essay questions. There will be some choice in the selection of concepts and essay questions. Exam grades, with plus and minus, will approximate a 58-67-80-90% scale.

        The project for this course will be individually designed by the student, and approved by the instructor before work begins on the project. The project will produce a written paper, with appropriate documentation and professional presentation utilizing field work and statistical data sources. Appropriate documentation means a bibliography with professional citations in the text of the paper as needed. The minimum bibliography is eight items (but this may include your text and your statistical data sources). Internet sources may serve as bibliographic items. Professional presentation means a title page, abstract, table of contents, text with tables and maps, and bibliography, neatly presented with due care for spelling and grammatical matters. The complete report should result in at least a twenty-page report with a text of at least twelve pages. Field work means that you have visited the site of your research and gathered information in a systematic manner: structured observation or interview would be most common. Statistical data means data from a consistent source--such as government reports--that allows you to describe your topic in a consistent and precise manner. The source may be census reports, county business patterns, the city -county data book, or an online source.

        The specific topic is of the project is your choice. The most successful project will try to demonstrate or empirically test some of the ideas of this course. For example: You might look at the retail structure of a group of towns--to document what is available in small towns, or to show how a retail hierarchy works. Alternatively, you could try to prove that Cumberland is great place to live because it ranks so high on certain statistical measures. You could investigate travel patterns of shoppers and try to identify the market area of a shopping area.

        Proposal: A one paragraph proposal is due February 21. It should identify the purpose of the project and your statistical data source.
        Project Draft: A more or less complete draft of the paper text is due April 24. Table of contents, title page, abstract, and illustrations are not required.
        Final Version: Complete and due May 10, 2000.

Policies:

        Students are expected to attend each class. Excessive absence may affect course grade.
        Academic honesty is expected in all matters relating to this course. Please consult the Pathfinder for a definition of academic standards. Academic dishonesty will lead to course failure.
        Disruption of class or any behavior in class which interferes with an effective learning environment will not be tolerated, and will result in expulsion from the classroom. Please consult the Pathfinder.