End-of-Term Assignment: Reflecting on Urban Issues

Instructions and Guidelines

Here’s your End-of-Term Assignment! Remember, you have been given access to this Assignment by December 16 at 6:30pm and it is due to be submitted by you to our course D2L under ‘Assessment’ à‘Assignments’ by 10pm on December 20. This Assignment is worth 25% of your course grade and you will be graded according to the rubric below.

Please note that you cannot use the five-day grace period for this assignment and I won’t accept any late submissions! So please don’t flirt with the end of the deadline since internet can crash, laptops can die, and people can fall asleep!

Due to school policies, I cannot return your graded End-of-Term Assignment until after grades are uploaded to RAMSS. It sometimes takes quite a while for approval of instructor-submitted grades, but if you find your final grade has been released on RAMSS and I haven’t posted your grade on this Assignment, send me an email and I’ll update it!

The purpose of the End-of-Term Assignment is to get you to reflect on some important course ideas and how different topics relate to each other. You must answer in your own words. This means I do not want any quotations and I also do not want you to use the words of other people, including our course readings. You are NOT required to refer to our course readings for ideas, but if you are comfortable doing so, you may and should cite in APA format (which uses author, date – see below). If you do refer to course readings, do not quote directly; instead, paraphrase or cite ideas! You should not use materials from outside the course.

In the December 9 Community Learning Exercise, I asked you to reflect on some of the most pressing problems in the contemporary city and how they might be addressed.For the present assignment, I’ll ask you to repeat this reflection, but in a more thorough way.

Answer the following question -- If you were in charge of a large contemporary metropolis, what three things would you put on your policy agenda? In other words, what are the most pressing problems of the contemporary city and why? Your answer to this question must be between 100-200 words.

Then, answer this following question -- How would you begin to address the problems you suggested above? Your answer to this question must be between 300-400 words.

See the rubric below on page 2 for how you will be graded. Your response will be graded out of 10. Note that your answers must be concise (I don’t think 600 words maximum is very much given how ‘big’ the questions are!) and I will stop reading if you write more than the maximum word limit.You must include a works cited list in APA format and you should include citations where necessary. APA uses ‘author, date’ format (May, 2021).The basics of what you need to do are simple! If you have read something written by Jeff May and want to cite his ideas, just include this at the end of your sentence (May, 2021).

Assignment Overview

Discussions of course materials show superior understanding. They also show exceptional grasp of the subject matter with evidence of an exhaustive knowledge base. Your connections between stories and concepts show exceptional innovation of ideas within urban geography. Anybody who reads this project will learn significantly.

Discussions of course materials show very clear understanding. They also show excellent grasp of the subject matter with evidence of an extensive knowledge base. Your connections between stories and concepts show excellent innovation of ideas within urban geography. Anybody who reads this project will learn something.

Discussions of course materials show clear understanding. They also show excellent grasp of the subject matter with some evidence of knowledge in the area. Your connections between stories and concepts show very good innovation of ideas within urban geography.

Discussions of course materials show clear understanding. They also show solid grasp of the subject matter with some evidence of knowledge in the area. Your connections between stories and concepts show very good innovation of ideas within urban geography.

Discussions of course materials show understanding.  They also show solid grasp of the subject matter with some evidence of knowledge in the area and/or familiarity with the issues. Your connections between stories and concepts show good innovation of ideas within urban geography.

Discussions of course materials show understanding.  They also show solid grasp of the subject matter with some evidence of knowledge in the area and/or familiarity with the issues. Your connections between stories and concepts show good innovation of ideas within urban geography.

Discussions of course materials show some understanding. They also show some grasp of the subject matter with some evidence of knowledge in the area and/or familiarity with the issues. Your connections between stories and concepts show decent innovation of ideas within urban geography.

 Discussions of course materials show limited understanding. They also show minor grasp of the subject matter with little evidence of knowledge in the area and/or familiarity with the issues. Your connections between stories and concepts show some innovation of ideas within urban geography.

Discussions of course materials show little understanding. They also show little grasp of the subject matter with little evidence of knowledge in the area and/or familiarity with the issues. Your connections between stories and concepts show limited innovation of ideas within urban geography.

Discussions of course materials show little understanding. They also show very little grasp of the subject matter or familiarity with the issues. Your connections between stories and concepts show limited exceptional innovation of ideas within urban geography.

Discussions of course materials show barely any familiarity with course materials. Your connections between stories and concepts show no innovation of ideas within urban geography.