Geography, Environment and Sustainability
- Mission Statement
The mission of the Geography Department is to prepare students to engage in the processes that create more sustainable environments and communities throughout the world.
- We offer students the highest quality geographic education through innovative teaching, interactive field experiences, and integrative research.
- We provide students with foundational geographical knowledge and skills that focus on the interconnection and interdependency of Earth’s complex natural systems and diverse human societies.
- Student Learning Outcomes
- Certificate
See Geospatial Technology certificate on the Earth and Environmental Sciences page here.
Students completing the Geospatial Analysis Certificate will demonstrate the following outcomes:
- 1. Students will demonstrate how to effectively create and communicate geospatial data/results to others through cartographically accurate maps/dynamic products, technical reports, and multimedia presentations.
- 2. Students will demonstrate understanding of basic geospatial concepts, such as data models, spatial databases, data projections and coordinate systems, topology, digitizing spatial data, metadata, and quality control.
- 3. Students will demonstrate understanding of geospatial analysis that can be performed on vector and raster data collected from various platforms such as satellites / drones (Remote Sensing), GPS instruments, field maps. They will demonstrate the ability to perform multiple types of analysis, including spatial overlay, raster processing, statistics, terrain and hydrologic analysis, transportation networks, modeling, and Python programming.
- 4. Students will demonstrate the ability to work in a team environment to complete a set of geospatial tasks or a geospatial project that includes project objectives, methods, data collection, analysis and reporting results in a professional format through completion of a geospatial internship or capstone course.
Students who complete the Sustainable Land Use Planning Certificate will:
- Understand the importance of balancing the necessities of economic, social, and environmental development to create more sustainable places.
- Gain experience working with the tools and techniques that are important to the planning profession; GIS is strongly recommended, hence the requirement of at least one GIS course.
- Be prepared to participate in the urban and regional planning field as skilled professionals with a grounding in the theories, methods, and techniques of land use planning at all scales. See advisor for internship opportunities with local planning agencies.
- Associate Degree (Not Applicable)
- Bachelor Degree
Consistent with the mission, the following are objectives/goals that the department strives to achieve:
- To provide students with knowledge about the earth’s natural environment and its relationship to society.
- To provide students with knowledge about the world’s peoples, nations, cultural environments, and spatial organization.
- To provide students with a good grounding in the modern technical skills of the discipline, including computer cartography, spatial analysis, spatially-oriented quantitative methods and techniques, and geographic information systems.
- To provide (some) students with training emphasizing the understanding of the planning profession and issues related to that field.
- To instill within each student an appreciation for the great variety of cultural forms and ways of thinking throughout the world, and to help students formulate a world view that uses this appreciation to become responsible citizens in America.
Meeting these objectives will equip students to function within American society as informed and engaged citizens, as well as equipping them with specific job skills that help them gain employment and/or admission into graduate schools. These goals are also major goals of the university as a whole. These 5 geography learning objectives are linked to the curriculum discussed in the next section and are shown in a curriculum/objective grid below.
- Certificate
- Curriculum Grid
- Program and Contact Information
Geography begins with a lack of uniformity on the earth's surface. People, their activities, and physical features are distributed unevenly across space, so one of our most important tasks is to explain why things are where they are. But that's not all. Geographers study the earth's physical processes, movement and change of both people and natural systems, and the interaction of people with their environment. Virtually anything can be examined from a geographical perspective because everything, including environmental problems, economic activity, and natural environments, happens in particular places for reasons that we may or may not yet understand.
- Assessment Plan
Core required courses for majors ( and Gen. Ed. Courses)
Completed 2017-18
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23
2023-24
2024-25
GEOG 1000 PS Natural Environments of the Earth
X
X
X
X
GEOG 1300 SS/DV Places and Peoples of the World
X
X
X
X
GEOG 1500 PS Science of Global Warming
X
X
X
GEOG 1520 SS/DV Geography of US & Canada
X
X
X
X
GEOG 3790 Research Methods in Geography
X
X
X
X
GEOG 4990 Senior Research Seminar
X
X
X
X
Assessment approaches:
Possible approaches include (but are not limited to):
? A standard set of Exam Questions that assess general education and departmental learning outcomes. They will be based on the essential core content developed by faculty. These are to be delivered each semester, and tracked through Chi-tester.
? Homework assignments, Research papers, Journals or Reflection papers, Field work, Surveys, Data collection, Statistical and/or Spatial Analysis, Map Design and Creation, Presentations, Portfolios, Service Learning, and Graduate Exit Interviews.
Plan Overview:
As part of outcomes assessments for General Education courses in geography (GEOG 1000, GEOG 1300, GEOG 1500, and GEOG 1520), full time faculty have collectively crafted a standardized set of topics and skills that we expect all instructors (full-time and adjunct) to deliver whenever those courses are offered. For example, in GEOG 1000, students should always be exposed to Plate Tectonics, Biogeographic Processes, Weather and Atmospheric Dynamics, Geomorphology, the Hydrologic Cycle, Human-Induced Climate Change, Soils, Concepts of Sustainability, the Scientific Method, etc. This will insure that any student who takes a general education class in our department (whether on campus, off campus, at night, online, or in person), will have been exposed to what the geographic community widely considers the standards of the discipline. What we expect students to know will be consistent with the General Education Course learning outcomes and objectives as well as our Departmental Learning Objectives. A set of standard exam questions only will form the basis of our assessment, and will be tied to outcomes. Assessment methods will vary from course to course as noted in the Assessment Plan matrix above only for non-general education classes. The assessment of introductory level General Education Courses will be based solely on analysis of individual test item results. We chose a minimum of 70% on scores for test items as the bottom threshold for demonstrating mastery since the lowest grade accepted for the geography major is a C-, or 70% (soon to be raised to a minimum of a C). Exam copies with assessment results will be kept by the department chair and/or with the instructor who taught the course along with other evidence of learning “artifacts” as part of program review documentation. Once fully deployed, we can gather the question results through Chi-Tester in every section and in every semester.
The two required core upper division geography courses (also soon to change and grow) will be assessed as part of an ongoing process using more diverse methods (exams, research papers and projects, and homework assignments) by individual faculty who typically teach these courses (see Assessment Plan matrix above). Upper-division geography elective courses will also be assessed periodically, although the department’s focus at this time is on general education classes and our common core geography courses.
- Assessment Report Submissions
- Program Review
This information is part of the cyclical program review process. Details such as mission statements, learning outcomes, etc., are updated as part of the biennial assessment reporting process, an integral component of program review.