Geography (GEOG)

This course introduces some of the many topics geographers examine to explain the relationship between people and place. Topics include the physical earth, e.g. how mountains and lakes form, cultural patterns such as how languages in neighboring countries are related, population analysis, like human migration trends, environmental challenges like water scarcity, and economic analysis including growth and decline of regions. Study of the inter-relationship between the natural world and human landscapes is emphasized. Geographic factors that underlie current social, political, environmental and economic problems will also be explored.

This course provides the student with a survey of the lands, peoples, and places in the world's major culture regions. Students explore the interaction between the physical environment, cultural, political and economic conditions. The varying patterns of human activity which emerge from this interplay are examined. Examples of regions under study include South and Middle America, South and East Asia, Southwest Asia and North Africa, the Caribbean and Eurasia.

This course provides an introduction to Human Geography by exploring the ways people shape the world in which they live. It will focus on the geographic aspects of cultural diversity, population trends, social identity, resource utilization, regional integration, urbanization, social challenges and justice, globalization and human impacts on the environment. The themes and concepts of human geography will be studied and explored through current issues and the larger questions which guide them.

This course provides an introduction to current environmental issues and challenges from the uniquely integrative perspective of geography. Topics include the basic processes underlying environmental concerns at local, regional, and global scales ranging from the global issue of the climate crisis, to the local-scale impacts of drinking water contamination. The interactions of geography, history, politics, economics, culture and environmental science when dealing with environmental issues will be explored. Some of the initiatives underway/proposed to secure a path toward sustainable accommodation and development of the world's growing population will also be addressed.

This course surveys urban geographical analysis and the development of the world's cities. Theoretical and methodological approaches of urban geography are used to explore cities as they shape and are shaped by their social, cultural, economic, and physical contexts. Topics include pre-industrial and industrial cities, the evolution of American cities, the role of globalization in urbanization, and new geographical patterns forming within and between cities. Contemporary urban issues both domestically and in Asia, Africa, and Middle and South America as they have developed from traditional forms to modern metropoli housing the majority of the world's urban dwellers will also be discussed.

Students will learn the basic principles of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and explore and evaluate the various data models and structures used in the input management, analysis and output of geographic data. Students will develop hands-on experience through use of a microcomputer based GIS system, and examine how the nature and character of spatial data can be used in studies of natural and socio-economic environments. Basics within the fields of geography, cartography, spatial statistics, remote sensing, and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and their roles within a GIS will be introduced.

This course introduces students to the human and physical landscapes of the US and Canada. A regional study of the environmental, cultural, demographic, political, and economic patterns that give character to the different parts of the US and Canada will be explored. Historical and contemporary factors are considered to determine the place of this region in the modern world, with focus on the changing role of the US on the global stage, and in the global marketplace.

The course introduces the tourism field, enumerates the goals of the profession and provides a guideline for building individual and collective successes within it. Need/want satisfiers and motivators associated with travel, intrinsic and extrinsic influences of the buying process, accommodations, support industries, regulation, development, and marketing will be covered. Spatial analysis of tourist flows, modes of transportation, effects on regional economies, and impacts on cultures and environments will also be discussed.