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Department of Geography and Planning CSU, Chico

Our Department

Mission Statement

The Geography and Planning Department is committed to preparing students to effectively participate in our rapidly changing world by engaging them in the exploration of the social, environmental, and technical forces that shape our planet's future. Through effective teaching, advising, and research, our goal is to give students geographic insight into the relationship among human societies and the physical world at different scales.

Learning Goals

Goal 1: Demonstrate technological capabilities related to geographic data interpretation and their spatial representation.
  1. Students can formulate geographic research questions.
  2. Students can collect, compile, and interpret geographic data.
  3. Students can present geographic data in a map.
Goal 2: Demonstrate an awareness of global, regional, and local scales of the physical and social worlds.
  1. Students can recognize the presence and application of regional, local, and global dimensions of the social and physical worlds in the landscape.
  2. Students can recognize the presence and application of regional, local, and global dimensions of the social and physical worlds in data.
Goal 3: Demonstrate an awareness of environmental variation, human-environmental interaction, and environmental values.
  1. Students can explain interactions between the size and distribution of human and non-human populations, resources, and the natural environment in historic and contemporary perspectives.
  2. Students are cognizant of varying interpretations of causality, interaction, policy, and values in human-environmental relationships.
  3. Student will understand ways in which they use the environment can affect future generations and other human and natural systems.
Goal 4: Demonstrate an awareness of and appreciation for the interdisciplinary nature of geography.
  1. Students can analyze information from different physical or social sciences from a geographic perspective.
  2. Students can interpret popular media (novels, films, newspapers) from a geographic perspective.
Goal 5: Demonstrate commitment to experiential learning and service to the community.
  1. Students provide appropriate geographic skills to community-based organizations and associations.
Goal 6: Demonstrate proficiency in written and spoken communication.
  1. Students can use and cite scholarly sources of information correctly.
  2. Students can write and speak clearly in the discipline of geography.

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Facilities

The HUB

The student computer lab contains 25 new Dell workstations, LCD displays, and are running XP Professional. All workstations have T2 Internet and campus WAN. This state-of-the-art lab is continuing to grow. We are always adding new software packages in support of our techniques-based classes.

Software Output Devices Field Equipment HUB Lab Hours Spring 2008 (Word)
ArcView 3.3
ArcGIS 9.1
ArcInfo
Wacom 21 Cintiq pen pad Trimble GeoXM w/Pathfinder HUB Lab Hours – Spring 2008 (Word)
SPSS HP 5550DN color laser printer (to 11"x17") Garmin Vista eTrex GPS (20 units)  
Adobe Creative Suite with Flash, Illustrator, EncorePhotoshop HP 1220C color inkjet printer (to 11" x 17") Nikon Coolpix 7600 digital camera HUB Lab Policies
PCI Geomatics HP 800 color plotter (up to 42" wide) Increment tree borers  
Google Earth Color scanner Clinometers  
Adobe Photoshop 35mm slide scanner Densiometers (HUB Full Equipment List)
Freehand HP 5M/MP laser printer (up to 11" x 17") Dell laptop (HUB Equipment Checkout)

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Meriam Library Map Repository

An extensive map collection is located in Special Collections on the fourth floor of the University's main library. It is open to the public.

Geography and Planning Equipment

The department provides field equipment and electronic devices for checkout by students and faculty.

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