Hi students. These past two weeks haven't been super easy for me. I got a little bronchitis then. I had a family emergency. But now I'm really happy to be back with you all and starting the second half of the semester, strong as the midway point has passed. Now we're going into a little mini break on Monday and Tuesday. Please take at least one of those days to recharge. Probably after some mid terms you had then prepare yourself to really finish strong the application assignment. Grading is ongoing right now. You can expect to have those grades hopefully before the weekend next week. That is sometime late next week. Some of you are still struggling with paraphrasing and citations. I've also noticed that some students don't watch my videos and didn't quite understand the assignment. This was a newspaper article, a period piece about something happening in America surrounding westward expansion. This was really an opportunity to infuse some imagination into academic writing. Those opportunities don't happen too often, I hope see more of that creativity as the grading continues. We have just one item due this coming week with the urban landscape reflection on the horizon, but still two weeks away. About two weeks away. As I might have mentioned, the urban module does not have overly long videos assigned in part one, rather it's several shorter clips. My goal for the reflection is for you to consider how policies of the past, and in some cases more recent policies, have influenced urban and suburban issues that exist today. This time, you will have to choose one of three articles and reflect on, not summarize, its contents. Consider how policy and wealth both influence and disadvantage, certain populations and where they live. In turn, how does where you live influence your well being? Our region this week is the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains. Physically, this region is unlike any other that we have covered in this class today. For starters, the Pleistocene ice sheets that endowed the Great Lakes and corn belt with that nice level topography and sediments for fertile soils to form did not have that same effect as we move further west. Speaking of being further west, this geography also means that this region is just out of reach of those moist air masses that come off the Gulf of Mexico. The climate of the plains is considered semi arid and drier than areas to the east. Any moisture that would come from the west, from the Pacific is blocked by the Rocky Mountains. The area on the eastern side of the Rockies is in a rain shadow and quite dry. The crest of the Rockies is also the Continental divide. Once we cross over it, rivers no longer empty into the Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic, but instead into the Pacific. Other important topics in the physical setting section include the Great Plains, enormous underground aquifer, the Oglala, a gift of good sandy sediments washed down from the Rockies that allowed for water to collect over millions of years. Also, the tornadoes that this region is pretty well known for, and the Des Bowl, one of the greatest human tragedies that this country has ever experienced. Environmental tragedies. Be sure that you understand the difference between a root and a direct cause. To give you an example, if your dog chews up your book, the direct cause of your chewed up book is the dog. But some of the root causes might be that you didn't train them not to chew on things. You leave them alone, leave him alone for long periods of time. You don't provide alternatives for chewing like a bone or something like that. Drought in a barren landscape caused massive dust storms. But that is not the complete story of this catastrophe. Settlement in this region was largely driven and incentivized by the Homestead Act. Of course, by the time settlement took off and people claimed their free land, the railways were ready to move them west. In addition to homesteads, towns began to pop up to provide water for the locomotives along the way, and also in places where minerals were discovered. Mining is of course prone to boom and bust, which didn't bode very well for many of these old mining towns. Of course, then when the Dust Bowl hit, although reluctant at first to move, they soon realized that they really had no choice but to leave. The population of the plains never really recovered after that, and the United States Interior remains pretty sparsely populated today. Like tank towns, mining towns, and these homesteads there can still today be a sudden catalyst for population growth. This is true for the energy boom of western North Dakota. Just like in the olden days, towns spring up rapidly and they expand to accommodate a new industry and population growth that comes with it. We don't dive too much into Rocky Mountain culture because the story here is really the rural nature of the plains. If you look closely at a map, many of the cities that are considered Rocky Mountain cities are scattered about the surrounding region. But anyway, it is worth noting that the cities of the Rocky Mountains, while not really big on the scale of a Chicago or a Houston, they do hold their own. Denver, Colorado, Bozeman, Montana, and other small towns throughout the mountain west are experiencing some growth. They are scenic, no doubt, and many have a strong tourist economy that gives them both the service amenities and charm. Now the regions, larger cities were on a growth trajectory before the global covid, pandemic hit. Now, as more and more are, may be seeking solace and realize that they can work from home, work remotely. Some of the even more rural and remote cities called Zoom Towns are having a moment, we'll see where that trend goes. All right. I'm going to wrap it up there. Remember you can listen along with an audio recording of the lesson available on the outline page in the lesson module. Again, please set some time aside to watch and take notes on the video clips in the urban landscape module, there will be a bonus coming up, and November will be here before you know it. Have a great week.