If it helps, think about the final as a meaty 4-5 paragraph essay with illustrations andreferences. For example, spend perhaps 100-150 words explaining and describing thephysical geography factors that helped shape your landscape as it looks today (number1, above). Then, you may want to have sub-headings for “Landscape XXXX 10,000Years from Now”, “Landscape XXXX 1,000,000 Years from Now”, “Landscape XXXX10,000,000 Years from Now”. Within each subheading, you spend about 100 words
hypothesizing and giving evidence to support your hypotheses for each time period.Finally, spend about 50-100 words tying it all together in a nice, neat conclusion.
If it helps, think about the final as a meaty 4-5 paragraph essay with illustrations andreferences. For example, spend perhaps 100-150 words explaining and describing thephysical geography factors that helped shape your landscape as it looks today (number1, above). Then, you may want to have sub-headings for “Landscape XXXX 10,000Years from Now”, “Landscape XXXX 1,000,000 Years from Now”, “Landscape XXXX10,000,000 Years from Now”. Within each subheading, you spend about 100 words
hypothesizing and giving evidence to support your hypotheses for each time period.Finally, spend about 50-100 words tying it all together in a nice, neat conclusion.
You must hypothesize about what your landscape might look like in the future–and FAR into the future: 10,000 years, 1,000,000 years, and 10,000,000 years.
The first time period is only about the length of time that archaeological evidence says homo sapiens have been dominant. The second and third time periods (one million and 10 million years) represent geologic time frames (remember the third lecture?) where things can REALLY change. For those last two periods, think of the grand processes: plate tectonics, changing climates, mountain building, rivers reaching base level, etc.
For example, what was once a sea might become a lake because tectonic plates enclose it in a million or two years. In another instance, if your location moves closer to the poles due to tectonics, how would that change the climate?
While 10,000 years might directly influence people and their civilizations, in one million and 10 million years, well…civilization might not even be here. And what IS here, will have changed dramatically. because physical geography 😀
So think HARD about your final post. And, make sure that you have evidence to back up your claims. Remember: if you say, “the mountains will continue to build because of tectonics”, you need to show the reader EXACTLY why the mountains will be like that–find a graphic that helps explain it, use information from the lectures, or find a place that used to be similar to your location long ago and use that as a reference…sometimes we can use past events as evidence to help interpret what the future might look like.
