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Geography: Physical Geography
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Geography is a complex field that bridges the natural and social sciences. It is a branch of science focused on understanding where phenomena are located on or near the earth's surface, how they got there, where they are going in the future, and why. Geography is the "spatial" science - concerned with place, space, and pattern - and change in pattern over time. At the same time, geographers study processes of change at different scales from global to local.Geography has deep roots in history; it is one of the oldest disciplines in either the social or physical sciences. It was over 2,000 years ago when the word geo-graphy (earth description) was first coined by the Greeks. The ancient Arab scholars who followed the Greeks as lovers of geography called geography the "origin" of the sciences.
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Geography is the science of place and space. Geographers ask where things are located on the surface of the earth, why they are located where they are, how places differ from one another, and how people interact with the environment. There are two main branches of geography: human geography and physical geography. Human geography is concerned with the spatial aspects of human existence - how people and their activity are distributed in space, how they use and perceive space, and how they create and sustain the places that make up the earth's surface. Human geographers work in the fields of urban and regional planning, transportation, marketing, real estate, tourism, and international business. Physical geographers study patterns of climates, land forms, vegetation, soils, and water.
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The Associate in Arts Degree option in Geography provides for a liberal education and prepares one for positions in business, government, service in foreign areas and, especially, teaching. When combined with electives in art, music, English, foreign languages, geological sciences and mathematics, geography is excellent preparation for elementary teaching. When combined with other social science fields (anthropology, economics, history, political science, sociology, social psychology, social science), geography is excellent preparation for secondary teaching in social studies. Combining an emphasis in physical-biotic geography with other science fields (biology, chemistry, earth sciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, statistics) is excellent preparation for secondary teaching in science and environmental studies.
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Geography focuses on the spatial dimensions of human activities and physical landscapes. It is concerned with interrelationships between humans and their environments and links the physical and social sciences. The primary medium of analysis is the map, in traditional form, as an image generated by satellites (remote sensing), or generated by computers. Geographers have a wide variety of employment options in business, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. The job market is especially strong in computer based Geographic Information Services.
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This track within the Geography Major is designed to meet the interests of students who wish to pursue careers in geographic information systems, cartography, and remote sensing. It provides students with: 1) the intellectual platform from which they can select more specific paths to follow within this field at the graduate level, and 2) the technical skills and professional training that might allow them to obtain entry level positions with a wide range of mapping organizations. This track focuses on the art and science of geographically (spatially) organizing and analyzing information pertaining to the earth's physical and cultural landscape. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) employ cartographic and remote sensingtechniques along with computer and data based technology to create sophisticated and complex maps used to address a wide range of locational problems. Cartography deals with the technical and decision-making processes related to making maps. Remote sensing centers around interpreting aerial and satellite imagery and extracting relevant information from such imagery.
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Geography serves as a bridge between the physical and social sciences. Empahsis is on the nature and distribution of environmental systems, human activities, relations between them, and their variation from place to place. Geography's uniqueness is not derived from the subject matter studied, but from the discipline's technical and methodological approach to the locational analysis of phenomena.
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Physical Geography