Geography & Earth Science
This web site is designed to serve my students, colleagues and others who are interested in an introduction to Geography, Earth, Atmospheric, and Environmental Science. You will find some information about me and example syllabi that will illustrate the general nature of my courses. You may also look through a list of interesting Internet resources for current satellite, map and other data sets.
Click on Geog 35 (on the left) for this semester's field trip information.
In addition to teaching my classes, we have unveiled a major update and 3rd edition of Rediscovering the Golden State: California Geography this year. It is published by John Wiley and Sons and is available as a hard copy or eBook at http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118452046.html . We are also developing a supporting web page without rivals: Visualizing California: Finding a Sense of Place and Purpose in the Golden State at www.rediscoveringthegoldenstate.com .
Each year, dozens of our students majoring in geography and environmental studies transfer to and then eventually graduate from top universities and many become employed in those or related fields.
Our big event for the Fall 2012 semester was a long weekend using Kings Canyon National Park as our base camp. We explored and studied the glacial topography, waterfalls, weather and climate, plant communities (including the largest trees on earth), and some human history of the Sierra Nevada. Our day-long hike into the wilderness and to Mist Falls and our encounter with an acorn-grazing and beehive-hunting black bear ranked high among our many memorable learning adventures. Our one-day trips included the natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains and our cultures of L.A. trip. During Spring 2012, we explored and studied the natural history of Morro Bay and the Central Coast for one weekend. There was a total of nearly 100 students that included Life Science, marine biology professors Ed Tarvyd and Garen Baghdasarian and other faculty and staff that included birders such as Roger Cobb and company. We also explored the natural history of the Santa Monica Mountains at the top of Castro Crest above Solstice Canyon. Our traditional one-day Eat Your Way Through L.A. tour introduced our students to more than 11 different cultural neighborhoods that help make L.A. the most diverse city in the world. We also continued into the 10th year of our Environmental and Urban Issues Lectures Series.
Fall 2011 kept our geography faculty and students busy within our wide variety of courses on campus. Our field experiences included an amazing weekend in the San Jacinto Mountains and surrounding desert. We experienced temperature variations of more than 60 degrees as we learned about the natural and human history of the Peninsular Ranges, including a long hike into the mountain wilderness to Suicide Rock, and many informative stops on our road trip that included 1000 Palms Oasis on the San Andreas Fault in the baking Coachella Valley. We also spent a weekend helping the National Park Service with their bee surveys in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Spring 2011 Explorations and Learning Opportunities
Besides our regular geography courses, we always offer some exceptional field learning opportunities for our students.
This spring 2011 we will use four Saturdays to demonstrate the diversity
of southern California landscapes and learning opportunities within a
one-day radius. These will include one coastal, one mountain, one desert
and one urban trip, each within one Saturday. Click on Geography 35
above for more details. In addition to our geography and environmental studies courses, students
have been invited to participate in some special learning projects and field trips that
have included
cultural L.A., and
in various national parks with the National Park Service (thank you
Susan Teel). Our students also produced two excellent films documenting
our discoveries. Click Geog 35 above for my most recent field course.
Fall 2010
In addition to our variety of regular geography classroom and
laboratory learning experiences, our Fall 2010 field experiences
included a survey of the Santa Monica Mountains' highest peak (Sandstone
Peak), and a trip over the San Gabriel Mountains to Vasquez Rocks and
Devil's Punchbowl. We also joined our friends and colleagues in Life
Sciences to Morro Bay and our Central Coast to learn about coastal
processes and marine biology. I was also lucky to lead other activities
that included another successful Eat Your Way Through L.A. Cultural
Field Trip for faculty, staff and students and another session for the
Topanga Docents.
In summer 2010, two of my most rewarding travel adventures kept me in the USA, but offered very different learning opportunities. After exploring some Sierra Nevada high country wilderness, I jumped into the excitement of New York City and State, including visits across Long Island and to Niagara Falls. Shorter trips to coastal, mountain, and desert locations within California included my first Padres game in downtown San Diego's PetCo Park.
During the spring 2010, our students learned within our traditional classroom and laboratory settings, but we also studied in the Santa Monica Mountains and worked with the National Park Service at Joshua Tree National Park. In 2009, we were in the Yucatan studying geography and anthropology with 32 students during the winter. I was fortunate to work on my research projects during spring. Summer 2009 began with a memorable learning experience with my colleagues in Turkey, followed by continued research in California that included separate trips to the Sierra Nevada and northeastern parts of the state. In addition to my regular geography courses during the 2009 fall semester, we returned to Channel Islands National Park with Susan Teel and the National Park Service at the UC Research Station to study rare birds and other island ecology that make Santa Cruz Island unique. We also returned to our field work in the Santa Monica Mountains.
For more summaries of past field experiences, click here... (Read More).