Learning Goals
Since its inception, the goal of the Geography program has been to offer its majors a solid liberal arts
education with a focus on the discipline of Geography.
In the course of carrying out its educational mission the Department implements the University’s learning
goals in its courses. These include giving students the opportunity to become competent in geographic
inquiry and understandings, to engage in analysis and problem solving, to practice effective reading,
writing and listening and to develop computer skills relating to obtaining, developing, analyzing and
displaying spatial information. By means of its courses in human geography and regional geography the
Department assists students to become acquainted with and understand various cultural perspectives and
contributions. (See section II. A. for learning expectations.)
The National Geographic Standards and the Geographic Perspective
With respect more specifically to the discipline of Geography, the Department implements the 1994
National Geography Standards specifying what “the geographically informed person knows and
understands.” These standards of geographic education and understanding also express the distinctive
perspectives of geographic inquiry. They include:
a. the effective use of maps and means of spatial analysis at various temporal scales;
b. the distinctive physical and human characteristics of places and regions;
c. the description, explanation and spatial distribution of physical processes, such as those relating to
landforms, climate and vegetation at various spatial scales;
d. the description, explanation and spatial distribution of human activities related to population change,
cultural traits, economic patterns and political interaction at various spatial scales;
e. interconnections between human activities and the environment; and
f. the application of geographic understandings to interpreting the past and present and to planning for
the future.
Responding to Community and Regional Needs
The Department’s goals respond to several community and regional needs. These include the need for the
habits of mind present in liberally educated men and women as informed members of the community.
They include as well the need for men and women educated in spatial analysis who are able to contribute
their skills and understanding, as students in the contexts of internships and service learning and as
graduates in employment in government agencies, private organizations and teaching. These skills and
understandings are especially needed in this region, given its focus on the state’s government and policy
issues as well as on planning at the local and regional levels. Students of geography also acquire explicit
knowledge of the local community and region and tools for conducting further investigations through
research and field work in urban, suburban and rural settings.
The Department’s faculty provide needed expertise to the community and region as competent resource
people who participate in public deliberations, serve as consultants and conduct research. Recent
examples include interpretation of California’s regions pertaining to legislative reapportionment,
interdisciplinary research relating to the lower American River, geographic information systems projects
benefiting law enforcement agencies, restoration in the Fall River watershed of northern California and
surveys and reports to aid local community planning. On numerous occasions ESRI (Environmental
Systems Research Institute) workshops have been conducted in the Department’s GIS lab with the
technical assistance of Department faculty.
The Department’s faculty, staff and students have an established practice of being directly engaged in
the community through a variety of volunteer activities such as the annual geography bee and
presentations to elementary and secondary school students, elder hostel participants and social clubs.
Additional activities have included cleaning local rivers, planting trees and staffing KVIE auctions. (See
the Supplemental Materials for faculty members’ resumés.)
