Introduction and Goals.
This project will allow you to explore how a variety of geographic phenomena vary in space and through time. More specifically, you will be writing a 5 page paper based on climate/weather profiles for three cities throughout the world: Houston, Texas; Lima, Peru; and a third city (my assigned city is Cape Town, South Africa) that will be assigned to you individually. The goal of the paper is for you to gain a better understanding of weather and climate principles and apply them to real-world places. Your finished product will be due by Sunday, June 30th. This assignment is worth up to 80 points in total (20% of your course grade).
Structure of Paper. Make sure you include a title page with the title of your paper, your name, class title, instructor name and date.
To start with, you will want to introduce the three cities you are looking at. This can be approximately 1-1.5 pages and can incorporate background information such as their location, altitude, population, history, what their economies are based on, etc. Good places to start include http://www.discover-peru.org/lima/
Links to an external site. and https://www.limaeasy.com/lima-guide/lima-information/important-facts-and-figures-about-lima
Links to an external site. for Lima, and http://www.houstontx.gov/abouthouston/index.html and History of Houston for Houston. There are other sources on the web and in the library that you can also find on these cities (I encourage you to look at further sources – this will help your paper be more well-rounded and distinct). You will need to find other sources (whether on the web or in the library) for your chosen city (Cape Town, South Africa). This part of your paper should be approximately one page. Make sure to cite your sources!
Next, you will construct a series of five tables:
You will consult the following website to find the necessary climate data on the cities:
http://www.weatherbase.com
You will find out data on the average monthly high and annual temperatures, average monthly low and annual temperatures, average monthly and annual precipitation, average monthly and annual wind speeds, and average monthly and annual evening relative humidity readings for Houston, Lima, and your city (Cape Town, South Africa). Make sure once you have found the cities on the weatherbase site that you click on “all data” for the respective cities in the top right corner of the webpage (Note: This way you will find all the necessary climate information). Create five small tables and place them on one or two pages. It should look a little like this: (I uploaded example in the files)
The tables can be hand-drawn, but if you choose to hand draw the tables, make sure they are clear and neatly organized. For temps, use Fahrenheit; for rainfall, use inches, and for winds, use miles per hour, and use percentages for relative humidity.
Once you’ve created the tables, you will then provide a comparative analysis of the climates of the three highlighted cities. This is the most important element of the entire project. What kind of weather/climate patterns do they have, based on the information from the tables? And very importantly, what are some of the factors that seem to influence the climates of these specific locales (remember features such as latitude, altitude, interior versus coastal location, etc.)? Are their individual climates relatively stable from month to month or highly variable, and what explains this?
Your analysis of the tables should highlight the key similarities and differences between the climates of the three cities and should be approximately 2-3 pages in length. Check out some of the maps and figures within units 1-7 to see whether there are consistencies in the data you find on the world climate web page with what you come across in your text (for example, the mean temperatures for January and July). Also, what climate types do the three locales have?
To strengthen your paper, you are encouraged to consider and analyze how additional weather phenomena and climate flows (such as global wind patterns, hurricanes, monsoons, El Niño, or climate change) specifically effects or applies to the locations you are looking at. Also consider incorporating discussion of how the atmospheric features of your cities as reflected in the climate tables interact with or are revealed by one of the other “great spheres”. For example, you can take a look at a few images of the natural settings/environment of your three cities, and discuss/analyze how it interacts (or is influenced by) the climate features in producing/revealing local elements of the biosphere, hydrosphere, or lithosphere (i.e. low rainfall totals in this city are revealed by a natural environment that situates the city in a natural environment that possesses a “desert-like appearance”).
To conclude your paper, you should incorporate roughly a paragraph or two that summarizes your key findings. Here, you should convey what these findings say or why they are important as well as the connections that can be drawn among and between them.
Make sure you include a works cited or reference page , citing all the sources you have used. Remember that it is recommended that you look beyond the sources I have listed here – in fact, you will need to utilize more resources in order to have a complete, well-rounded paper. If you quote or paraphrase a source, make sure to provide an in-text citation for that source. Any citation style will be sufficient so long as you are consistent. Please do not use Wikipedia, as information presented on Wikipedia is not always reliable or accurate (please note: using Wikipedia will result in points being deducted from your grade). Make sure to cite the textbook if you use it! Please double space, use 12 point font (Arial, Times New Roman, and Tahoma are all acceptable) and incorporate standard margins when constructing your paper.
Grading. Your papers will be graded for content as well as grammar, punctuation, etc. The final product should be about 5 pages plus the tables and any maps you might incorporate. Remember to try to “think spatially”. It is alright if your finished product ends up being 6 pages, but anything longer than that will incur grade deductions. Each student is responsible for submitting a paper as a word document attachment (rich text format is also acceptable) via the “Course Project Submission” link towards the top of our course website by Sunday, June 30th. Late papers will not be accepted for any reason since you will have the majority of the semester to complete it. You may turn in your paper earlier than this if you would like, though please bear in mind that your submission will be treated as final once you submit it.
Academic Integrity. You are required to research and develop your own paper. Any evidence to the contrary will result in an automatic zero for the assignment, and possible expulsion from the course. Additionally, any evidence of plagiarism will result in an automatic zero for the grade on this project and potential reporting of academic indiscretions through the Maxient system. Please note that when you submit your paper through Turnitin, your similarity score may come out to higher than 20% due to the climate tables (typically you do not ever want to have a Turnitin similarity score of over 20% on an academic paper). However, if the similarity score you see in your submission is impacted primarily because of the climate tables, please do not worry about it (since you are being asked to construct these climate tables for the paper). Please just make sure to include the Weatherbase website in your works cited/references so as to attribute credit to the data source.
“Final Thought”. Please do not hesitate to ask questions if you have any throughout your project. Good luck and hope you enjoy learning more about the physical geography of the world around you along the way!
