Welcome to Geography
Geography, as part of the Social Science Department, offers a Minor and an Endorsement for Education Majors grades 7-12. The minor supports degrees in Science, Agriculture, History and GeoScience, plus it is applicable to other areas of study such as Political Science, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Business, Sociology and Psychology.
The Geography Minor or Endorsement are strong foundations for an excellent liberal arts education, a solid background that supports other majors and a set of skills and techniques for applied classroom use by education professionals.
For example, a biology major can benefit from environmental geography courses, a sociology or psychology major from cultural and regional courses. Social studies education majors need solid geography backgrounds, and elementary education majors can benefit from a well-rounded geography minor.
What is Geography?
Geography is a synthesizing social and physical science concerned with the spatial aspects of physical, natural and human phenomena.
- It can be conceptualized as bridging the gap between the physical and social sciences.
- It is interested in interrelationships and examining how various factors (both physical and cultural) interrelate.
Geography is a science, a humanity and an art.
- It is a science because it has hypotheses and predicts;
- It is a humanity because it studies ethics and values; and
- It is an art because of its forms of visual communication: maps (cartography) and images.
Geographers ask:
- What is Where, Why and What about it?
The What = description;
The Where = location;
The Why = analysis and explanation. - A fourth element is prevalent - the How, which is the process.