Geography | AA

Associate of Arts Degree with Designation

Recommended basic skills courses are

  • College Readiness in English
  • College Readiness for Quantitative Literacy for MAT 1240 Mathematics for the Liberal Arts: GT-MA1 or MAT 1260 Introduction to Statistics: GT-MA1
  • College Readiness for Algebra for MAT 1340 College Algebra: GT-MA1

Geography means, from its Greek origin, "to describe the earth." It is the scientific description, analysis, and explanation of spatial variations of the earth, answering questions of location and place. Geography is divided into two major fields: physical and cultural. Physical geography describes all phenomena of land, sea, and air at the surface of the earth. It focuses on processes that influence surface events, involving energy systems and environmental subsystems and materials. Cultural geography is the scientific study of the human-land relationship. It explores how humans impact the land, sea, and air and how they are influenced by the same. A background in geography lends itself to many professional fields including cartography, natural resource conservation, remote sensing and satellite imagery, geology, GIS (Geographic Information Systems), economics, community planning, historic preservation and resource analysis, and meteorology.

Program Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the Geography degree program, students should be able to:

  • Use information to describe a problem or issue and/or articulate a question related to the topic
  • Evaluate the relevance of context when presenting a position and identify assumptions
  • Establish a conclusion that is tied to the range of information presented
  • Reflect on implications and consequences of stated conclusion
  • Demonstrate how their own attitudes, behaviors, or beliefs compare or relate to those of other individuals, groups, communities, or cultures
  • Examine diverse perspectives when investigating social and behavioral topics within natural or human systems
  • Make connections between the worldviews, power structures, and experiences of individuals, groups, communities, or cultures, in historical or contemporary contexts