What Are the Program Goals for an Undergraduate Degree?

Our B.A. and B.S. programs offer students the opportunity to develop an integrative perspective on the relationship between social, political, economic, and physical phenomena in space and place. Through the pursuit of a degree in Geography, you will better equip yourself to navigate the past, present, and future spatial patterns of humans and their settlements, cultural and economic traits, and natural environment and resources. Students who successfully complete the program should expect to have gained specific professional skills related to mathematics, statistics, mapping, graphics, charts, and communication and a broad, diverse foundation for a wide range of future career endeavors.

Learning Outcomes

Broad Progam Learning Goals

• Spatial Reasoning:
  • Students will develop an ability to see meaning in the arrangement of things in space.
  • Students will be able to locate major physical and human geographic features on a world map.
  • Related learning outcome 2. Students will be able to interpret geographic patterns using core geographic concepts.
• Research Practice:
  • Students will become geographical problem-solvers capable of using qualitative, quantitative and/or spatial methods of research appropriate to their level of training.
  • Students will be able to identify the geographic contexts relevant to an inquiry.
  • Students will be able to acquire and manipulate data relevant to a geographic inquiry.
  • Students will be able to assess the results of a data-driven geographical inquiry.
• Relational Understanding:
  • Students will develop an ability to see meaningful relationships between people, places, and the environment.
  • Students will be able to analyze human-environment interaction(s) for a specific case and for specified social and/or environmental conditions.
  • Students will be able to identify, collect and process digital spatial data using industry-standard tools.
  • Students will be able to employ appropriate geospatial analysis methods and interpret the results.
• Communication Skills:
  • Students will become clear and effective communicators.
  • Students will be able to communicate clearly and effectively in an oral format.
  • Students will be able to communicate clearly and effectively in a written format.
  • Students will be able to communicate clearly and effectively with geovisualization methods.

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