Chapter 1 will be handed out in class. Copies of the other assigned chapters will be made available for purchase at the Engineering Copy Center, ECF-103. The CD-ROM that comes with the book will be given to you for free. It is designed for both audiences, or as an elective. Maps are one of the geographer s main tools, because maps describe what is where.
Spatial variation means that things differ from place to place.
Spatial organization means that this geographic variation is not random but organized in some coherent, explainable way. Thus, geography is the study of how and why things differ from place to place on the surface of the earth. Geography is in the news lately. The lives of ordinary Americans is increasingly touched by products, diseases, wars, migrants, food, and pollution from other countries. The American public has become painfully aware that not only do we need to know about other places, but we generally know less about the world than people in other rich countries and even some poor ones.