Author: Jesse.Rouse

As mentioned in the email I sent out to the faculty during Geography Awareness Week in November, I will attempt to schedule a first meeting for a campus GIS Users Group. There are a good number of folks on campus using GIS, but we have not had much communication since I arrived on campus a couple of years ago…which just happens to be when we got a campus wide software license. Check the campus GIS listserv (gisconnection@listserv.uncp.edu) to put in your two cents worth on the schedule for the meeting and I will be sure to post the day/time and agenda. Primary on the agenda will be to make clear what software we carry licenses for and what open source options you might use to fill in the gaps for your teaching or research needs.

I will be teaching a new class (for me) this semester…check out GGY3770, Geography of American Indians. The course will meet MWF at 10:10. We will look at the peopling of the americas through today and look at human:environment interaction as well as cultural/societal change and tensions in prehistoric and historic periods. Basically a bit of everything space and place throughout the americas.

I will also be working with a small number of students to create a digital reconstruction of the UNCP campus to mark the 125th anniversary of the university. Please contact me if you are interested in taking part in the project.

Once again we have reached Geography Awareness Week (Nov 13-19). We do not have anything specific planned this year for campus, but you can check out National Geographic’s content at http://geographyawarenessweek.org.

Also, be sure to check out GIS Day on Wednesday to contemplate how Geographic Information Systems and related geospatial technologies can impact your work.

I put up a pre-episode that I put together to test hardware and work out kinks before the first episode…you can find the episode and the new site at observingtheearth.com.

As part of my NC Space Grant I will be rolling out a podcast series in early April. The podcasts will focus on Earth Observation data, tools, and examples from across disciplines. There will be a mix of video and audio podcasts but most will be fairly brief (5-10 minutes). Check back for the official launch information.

The new podcast has been taking my focus off of Spatial@UNCP, but I will try to get it back on track, at least 1 a month, as I get a stockpile of Observing The Earth episodes completed.

Cartography, GGY2500, is the first course in our ‘geospatial track’ and provides an introduction to the wealth of geospatial data and technologies that are used almost all disciplines today. The lectures and in-class labs will focus on map reading and interpretation, spatial data, Geographic Information Systems, Remote Sensing, and web mapping technologies as they relate to presenting information through maps. The class will meet MWF at 11:15-12:05 in 1246 Oxendine. Other courses in the ‘geospatial track’ that will be taught in future semesters are Intro to Geographic Information Science and Remote Sensing.

GGY2500 is a required course for the Environmental Science major and Geography Minor and Concentration.