Why Geography Optional

Why Geography Optional

11
May

The primary mission of the Direction IAS Neetu Singh  is to provide relevant, up-to-date, and integrative educational experiences in Geography for IAS  more broadly.

In addition, the Direction IAS Neetu Singh  strives to prepare students for engagement with ethical and moral values; and to help students develop a set of integrated theoretical and practical skills that can be applied to solving UPSC  issues and problems. The Department strives to integrate the curriculum with General Studies needs and to prepare students for careers in civil services

 The Direction IAS Neetu Singh  aligns its objectives with the strategic goals Promoting active learning in the course setting, especially as it advances development of critical and integrative thought processes and/or advances students’ appreciation for the diversity of viewpoints.

• Cultivating opportunities for academic engagement within the context of syllabus
• Developing students’ appreciation of the trends of questions and answer writing

 TEACHING GOALS AND OUTCOMES:

• To develop clarity in students’ fundamental communication skills;
• To develop students’ critical-thinking and problem-solving abilities;
• To instill in students core values and ethics for this toughest exam;
• To instill in students an awareness of contemporary and applicable aspects of discipline;
• To enable students to understand and engage with the concepts and practices of global interdependence;
• To promote in students a capacity for continual writing skills development;
• To encourage students to enhance their aesthetic perception and ability;
• To develop students’ professional proficiency.

Everyone thinks and acts geographically

One point to keep in mind throughout this presentation is that  everyone thinks and acts geographically. We all make decisions in our daily lives based on our understanding of the spatial arrangement of places and people in the world around us.

Geography is not the memorization of the countries, capitals, rivers, mountains, and so on. It’s not to say that learning these things is unimportant. In fact, knowing toponyms—the names of places—can be very informative. In geography, it’s good to know that Everest has the highest elevation above mean sea level but it is far more important to know why it is the highest peak and what are the physical and human contexts of the Himalayas and this particular mountain?

“Geography is Everything & Everything is Geography!!”

The word geography originates with the Greek words geo, meaning Earth, and graphia, meaning to write about or describe. Literally, geography is the description of Earth. On the surface, this definition seems pretty straightforward, because “description of Earth” seems to indicate that geography is concerned with the “what of where”—the location of the world’s mountains, rivers, deserts, countries, cultures, and so on. But with any discipline, geography is not so simple. There multiple, and oftentimes complex, ways to describe the earth and the people who inhabit it.