Utah Geography - Summer 2025

Students will be introduced to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth's surface at the local scale by examining Utah's geographic concepts as the case study. Students employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine the human social organization and its environmental consequences. Course Learning Outcomes By the end of this course, students should be able to demonstrate a general understanding of the following essential learning outcomes: 1. Develop a basic understanding of Utah's physical, historical, and cultural landscape. 2. Understand the human relationships between Indigenous people and their local natural environments in Utah. 3. Explain how the combination of Utah's absolute and relative locations, seasonal climate, energetic people, positive qualities of life, and its varied natural resource base will continue to propel the future of Utah in a positive direction. 4. Provide a concise overview of the complex characteristics that make up the natural environment in Utah, including the topography, elevations, physiography, climate, and biomes. 5. Develop a sense of place in photographing and documenting your lived experiences. 6. Explain why the variation in seasonal temperatures is distributed throughout Utah during the winter and summer seasons. 7. Discuss the importance of understanding the effects of both lake evaporation and the process of evapotranspiration in arid states like Utah. 8. Describe the weather abnormalities found throughout the state of Utah during the year, including the Lake Effect, strong canyon winds, differential wind effects, and light powdery snow. 9. Explain why the mountains in Utah have such large annual quantities of dry powdery snowfall. 10. Identify and explain the four most prominent weather-related natural hazards found throughout Utah. 11. Describe the characteristics unique to the contemporary Great Salt Lake. 12. Explain how four distinct water bodies could exist within the Great Salt Lake, each having its ecological characteristics, minerals, and brine mixes. Include in your discussion the impact of the Southern Pacific Causeway. 13. Explain why two major drainage systems in Utah are so contrastingly different in terms of origin and destination of water sources. 14. Compare the characteristics of Utah's eight major drainage systems, including the major rivers that drain each basin. 15. Explain how water resources in Utah should be utilized to achieve maximum efficiency, given its status as the second driest state in the USA? 16. Identify the percent of land area in Utah Controlled by the National Department of Defense and name the installation locations. 17. Discuss private vs. public land ownership and use throughout the State of Utah. 18. Explain why the Lands owned by the State of Utah are spread throughout the state in such a patchwork pattern. 19. Explain why the people in Utah have consistently had both the highest birth rates and lowest death rates in the United States. 20. Interpret and describe the changing age-sex characteristics of Utah populations. 21. Explain the development of large-scale mining from the early years of development in Utah to the present. 22. Discuss the farming trends in Utah relative to their sizes, numbers, levels of production, and proportion of farm income relative to other economic sector incomes. 23. Explain the probable reasons for the decline in local manufacturing in early Utah and the factors responsible for the locations and high production during the next manufacturing era in Utah. 24. Compare and contrast the characteristics of rural and urban regions in Utah. These online USBE CANVAS courses have been designed for active educators who are working on fulfilling the requirements for specific social studies endorsements. While the courses are not completely self-paced, they are asynchronous. Coursework unlocks weekly, so that the participants engage in the course material as a cohort, one week at a time. Educators can work on the course material when convenient within each week of the course. This is a 3-credit course in collaboration with Southern Utah University (SUU). Once enrolled in the Canvas course, students will receive further instructions and a CRN for registering through SUU for credit. SUU requires a $69 recording fee for this course. Upon completion of the course, grades will be available on an SUU transcript. PLEASE NOTE: You may only register for two of these endorsement courses at a time.