SO286 Physical Geography

 Spring 2011 Exercise 1

You will have the class attendance on Friday 4 Feb 2011  to work on this requirement.   It will be due Wednesday 9 Feb.

This is entirely individual effort.  While there may be other students doing the exercise on the same continent, you should not have all the same stations for your discussion.  If you need help, contact the instructor.

You can use the computers in the classroom during the period on Friday, or in the evening.  The classroom will be in use during most periods of the week.  Alternatively you can install MICRODEM from the USNA web page.  To get the data sets, once you have installed MICRODEM, go to Files, Tools, Download data sets.  You want "Koppen climograph data", and might also want to get "ETOPO5" for a second base map.

The help file in MICRODEM has directions on how you can get climographs.  On the table of contents tab, look at "Tutorials and labs, Physical Geography, Temperature variation" or use the "Physical Geography" option in the center of the home page in the help file.

Base on the last two digits of your alpha code, you are to prepare a report on one of the continents.  You are to get a number of climographs, and discuss how temperature varies in that continent.  You should include at least three factors, and have 2-3 climographs for each, and graphs showing the length of daylight if those are relevant.  While the climographs also show precipitation, for this exercise you are only to consider temperature.  This is a writing requirement: you are to discuss how temperature varies within your continent, and why. You probably will need about 2 pages of text (double spaced) for a good explanation.

Each figure should have a caption below the figure (e.g. Figure 1.  Climograph of Annapolis, MD.) and be referenced in the text.  Note that you can have individual climographs, or put several climographs on a map with a line showing their location.

You will submit the exercise electronically, in the course dropbox in Blackboard.

• Using Adobe Connect if you need help with the program.