Geography Minor

Geographic principles of location; characteristics of landforms, soil, climate, minerals, water, flora, and fauna.

Introduction to human geography, emphasizing globalization, human-environment relations, and spatial patterns of population, development, economics, politics, urbanization, and culture.

Introduction to the use of geospatial technologies including geographic information systems and GPS.

Geography majors attend research seminars, conduct literature searches, identify relevant primary literature, read and take notes on primary literature, compile annotated bibliographies, and create written syntheses.

Analysis of the physical and human geography of North America.

The study of landforms and the processes that form them. Labs focus on interpretation of maps and aerial photographs. 3-hour lecture and 2-hour laboratory.

This course introduces the fundamental theories, art, and science of map making using web-based platforms. It provides an interdisciplinary approach for students to learn both practical and conceptual skills to collect, interpret, and present data in the form of online, interactive maps and data visualizations.

Introduction to the methods used in GIS programming and quantitative geospatial analysis.

Introduction to the use and analysis of remotely sensed images such as aerial photographs and satellite imagery.

The principles of physical, chemical, biological, and geological oceanography.

The distribution patterns of plants and animals, processes affecting this distribution, and how these patterns change in space and time.

The global climate system, factors influencing climate, recent climate change, and the role of human activity.

Summer session course examining the physical geography of coastal environments including human impacts. Includes field trips.

Concepts, technologies, and policies for energy conservation. Inefficiencies of current systems; technical and social changes for energy efficiency.

Solar system formation and evolution with emphasis on planetary interiors and surface features.

World urbanization, location, and central place concepts, economy of cities, land use patterns, urban, physical, and societal environmental problems.

Hydrologic processes and their estimation and measurement. Includes precipitation, evaporation, runoff, groundwater, and water resources management.

Analysis of the physical and human geography of Africa.

An introduction to the science, political economy, and ethics of global environmental change.

The study of the formation, processes, classification, and composition of soils with emphasis on environmental applications, including watershed delineation.

Theoretical, laboratory, and field investigations of modern sedimentary processes, depositional environments, the sedimentary record of earth history, principals of stratigraphy. 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab.

Exploration of changes in US and global economic landscape, 1970 to present. Approaches to sustainable economic development.

Exploration of the environmental management issues on US public lands such as national parks, national forests, and BLM lands.

The global ecology of rich and poor environmental implications of poverty, economic development, mass consumption, globalization, and demographic change.

Overview of the structure, evolution, costs, and benefits of the global food system. Exploration of local and global alternatives.

Advanced production of digital choropleth maps on PCs using a GIS vector-oriented software.

Computer based methods of representing, storing, and analyzing landscape features. Explores technologies such as LiDAR and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for gathering landscape data and the use of geospatial tools to analyze and represent landscape features. 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of lab.

Underground water and its movement. Aquifer identification and test; wells, contamination, and remediation; ground water as a geologic agent.

Atmospheric Science introduces students to the physics and chemistry of the atmosphere and examines the science behind current issues such as global climate change, air pollution, and reductions in stratospheric ozone. Atmospheric physics includes both weather (clouds, rain, winds) and climate (weather averaged over longer timescales, as well as trends in climate over time). Atmospheric chemistry investigates processes controlling the chemical composition of the atmosphere, including related processes in the biosphere, as well as anthropogenic pollution (smog, stratospheric ozone loss, etc.)

Analysis of renewable energy concepts, policy, and politics. Technologies and methods for renewable energy capture, storage, and distribution.

Principles of green design with an emphasis on building construction. Material and energy flows, choice of materials, designing for sustainability.

The theory and practice of data analytics using remote sensing and in-situ earth observations and communicating the science.

A record of climate change on Earth, methods used to reconstruct past climates, relevance of past changes to the current climate.

Modern physical, biogeochemical, and sedimentary processes in lakes. Lake sediments as archives of past climate and environmental change. Includes fieldwork.

Directed study offers students the opportunity to complete an existing course with an established syllabus under the direction and with the agreement of a faculty member.

Opportunity for advanced students to pursue a topic of special interest involving extensive reading, experimentation, and research.

Lab and or field-based research on a specific geoscience topic under supervision of a faculty member.