A.D. Makepeace Company Agricultural Internship

A.D. Makepeace Company in Carver recently approached the university in search of interns for the summer. Many of the opportunities described here are appropriate for geography majors. Please speak with any of our faculty members if you have any questions about pursuing such an internship for credit.

--- Dr. Hayes-Bohanan

Overview: The candidate chosen for this internship will receive extensive training in cranberry crop production techniques; experimental design, execution, and data analysis techniques; and geographical information (GIS) techniques. He/she will assist the principal investigator with a diversity of agricultural research projects concerning irrigation, fertigation, and bee pollination of cranberry plants.

Projects: Projects will include (but are not limited to):

• Monitoring contributions of Phosphorous and Nitrogen from company property to water bodies (lakes, rivers, etc.) in region.
• Monitoring impact of bog temperatures and day length on bud and flower phenological growth characteristics of new cranberry varieties.
• Evaluation of honey and bumble bee hive placement on crop yields.
• Monitoring impact of fertigation amounts and schedules on cranberry tissue and bog soil nutrient concentrations, which in turn will impact cranberry plant growth and yield.
• Development of a database containing company bog “medical records” including yields, pesticide and fertilizer applications, and soil and tissue test results.
• Production and maintenance of an insect, weed, and pathogen reference collection.
• Evaluation of new products impacting soil moisture conditions and cranberry growth.

Duties: Duties may include (but are not limited to):

• Collecting and analyzing soil, tissue, and water samples from company cranberry bogs for pH, nutrient content, and organic matter content.
• Collecting site location data using GIS equipment.
• Developing a GIS database containing fertilizer and pesticide application information, soil and tissue test results, bog yield data, and beehive locations.
• Keying out insects to genus and species (when possible.)
• Preparation/preservation of an immature and mature insect reference collection.
• Performing soil amendment product evaluation trials, using CO₂ backpack sprayers to apply the products.
• Data entry and manipulation, statistical analysis, diagram production, report writing, and oral presentations.
• Assisting with laboratory demonstrations and student exercises in sampling techniques, insect and disease identification, pH and nutrient analysis.
• Attending internal and external research meetings and company-wide meetings.
• Maintaining laboratory equipment and glassware.

Geography Internship 2013

Career Services would like to alert you to the below internship opportunity for students in GEOGRAPHY.

Job ID:	7029
Job Title:	2013 Summer Internship
Organization Name :	Massachusetts Department of Transportation - Office of Transportation Planning
No of Openings:	4
Work Schedule:	14 weeks
Hours per Week:	35
Wage/Salary:	Internship Only: $10.00 - $14.00
Employment Start Date:	6/3/2013
Job Description:	The Office of Transportation Planning at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is currently seeking candidates for paid internships to work on a variety of planning projects. Students desiring introductory work experience or college credit will conduct research, collect and analyze data and prepare draft documents for planning work related to ongoing OTP multimodal initiatives. Summer Internships will be May to August for 14 weeks, full time.
Qualifications:	This will be a rewarding and valuable experience for those currently studying Urban Planning, Transportation Planning, Geography, Transportation Engineering, Civil Engineering, public administration, or related studies.
Application Instructions:	SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS MAY 3, 2013  Please email resume and cover letter to: leeann.wilson@state.ma.us or mail to: Lee Ann Wilson, Director of Administration and Finance Office of Transportation Planning, MassDOT 10 Park Plaza, Room 4150 Boston, MA 20116

Faculty and staff can view this opportunity as well as other internship listings and full-time job openings by proceeding to CareerLink@BSU at: https://www.myinterfase.com/bridgew/faculty/home.aspx, entering faculty as both their Username and Password and typing in the Job ID #.

Please share the above opportunity with your colleagues and students.  Students can create their own username and password at https://www.myinterfase.com/bridgew/student/home.aspx to access all of our listings.

Please note:  All students interested in completing a credited internship should schedule an appointment their Faculty Internship Supervisor,  http://www.bridgew.edu/CareerServices/InternshipSupervisors.cfm, for approval.

Satellite Image Course is Back!

A course originally scheduled for the fall was left off Infobear, but it has been restored. It should be of interest to many current majors, as well as students in related fields. Consider this geotechnology course for your fall schedule. We have not offered it in several years, and are glad to have it back in our toolkit.

Satellite Image Processing Applications to the Environment - 
92884 - GEOG 314 - 001

Class 9:05 am - 9:55 am MWF
Conant Science and Math Center CON285
Sep 04, 2013 - Dec 19, 2013
Lecture Darcy Boellstorff

Why Study Geography?

Tom Miller Two-fer

Just as no geographer should be without a few works by John McPhee on their shelves, any geographer with an interest in Latin America or the American Southwest should be reading the work of Tom Miller. Though neither is trained as a geographer, both write about places with both clarity and depth, quickly bringing the reader to sophisticated insights about the lands they cover.

Bridgewater State University is very fortunate indeed to have a visit from Tom Miller this week, in which he will speak to some individual classes as well as to two public audiences.

On Monday afternoon, April 8, he will address a special session of the Geography Frameworks class, in which he will discuss Revenge of the Saguaro:
Offbeat Travels Through America’s Southwest. In this work, Tom shares both his love for the Southwest and his pithy observations about its less-than-beautiful sides. 

Monday's talk will be at 3:20 in the Conant Lecture Hall (Room 120). Delicious coffee will be served.

On Tuesday afternoon, April 9, he will be featured at this years Latin American & Caribbean Studies keynote speaker, when he will discuss his classic Trading with the Enemy: A Yankee Travels Through Castro’s Cuba. This discussion is based on both extensive research (some of it with the help of BSU's reference librarian Pam Hayes-Bohanan), extensive travel, and personal experience as the spouse of a Cuban.

Tuesday's talk will be at 3:30 in the Heritage Room of the Maxwell Library. Refreshments will be served.

Guest Speaker in Planning

Regional transportation expert Steve Smith of SRPEDD will be a special guest in Dr. Amey's planning class on Thursday, April 4, meeting at 2:00 in room 277. Contact Dr. Amey with any questions.

Feet Across America

Photo: Jeffrey Pickette

If you have not seen as much of Dr. Domingo this fortnight as you expected, it may be that he has been busy with the North America flat map from National Geographic. Most members and friends of our department know about our ongoing Project EarthView, which has been a permanent part of our geography outreach for the past four years or so.

Equally important is the use of National Geographic's flat-map series, which we use for two weeks each year, in cooperation with the Southeast Massachusetts Geography Network (SEMAGNET), an affiliate of the Massachusetts Geographic Alliance. Each map represents one continent in the familiar style used in the magazine, though at a much greater scale. Traveling with the maps are boxes of activities using cones and other materials to bring students onto the maps.

As described in a recent article in the Stoughton Patch, this builds enthusiasm for geography among students and in the broader community. Because each school can keep the map for a couple of days, students can apply that enthusiasm to in-depth learning activities, so that the result is a deeper connection to geography.

If National Geographic would sell these maps, we would seek funding for a full set, and we are pretty certain we would receive it. So far, however, they are only for rent on a very occasional basis. If this ever changes, you can be sure you will be seeing even more of our department in regional news sources. More importantly, students will be seeing more geography in their schools!

SRPEDD Position

The Geography Department has been asked to share a job announcement with recent and upcoming graduates.

The Transportation Planning Technician (TPT) is a full-time employed entry level position at the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District (SRPEDD) in Taunton, supervised by the Transportation Planning Manager, Director of Highway Planning or the Director of Transit Planning.

We have posted the full announcement on the department's Facebook page.

Class of '42 Geography Lecture -- Jeff Anzevino

Wednesday, November 28 at 3:00 PM
Conant Science & Math Lecture Hall (Room 120)

Photo of Geographer Extraordinaire Jeff Anzevino taken by
Dr. Hayes-Bohanan on Jeff's boat this summer. The famous Good Ship Clearwater
is in the background, with the Walkway Over the Hudson beyond.
Read about that visit on Environmental Geography.

A Geographer’s Perspective on
 Revitalizing Hudson Riverfronts

Jeff Anzevino, Scenic Hudson & Marist College

Jeff Anzevino will speak about his role as a geographer and planner in helping to connect the wildly successful Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park (www.walkway.org) with the struggling communities of Poughkeepsie and Highland.

In his role as Director of Land Use Advocacy for Scenic Hudson (www.scenichudson.org), Jeff coordinates initiatives brand Poughkeepsie and Highland in association with Walkway Over the Hudson. He was been a long-time proponent of the adaptive reuse of the abandoned 1888 Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge into the recently opened park that will eventually connect dozens of miles of rail trails across Ulster and Dutchess Counties and will eventually reach New York City.

At 1.28 miles long and soaring 212 feet above the Hudson River, Walkway is one of the highest and longest pedestrian bridges in the world. Jeff will describe how a diverse group of business and environmental organizations have come together to promote Walkway as a catalyst for more livable communities and economic opportunity on either side of the bridge.

Walkway Over the Hudson is at the nexus of an emerging network of trails that connect people to and along the Hudson River.  Establishing these types of connections is one of the strategies recommended in Revitalizing Hudson Riverfronts (www.revitalizinghudsonriverfronts.org), an award-winning riverfront planning guide he co-authored in 2010.

Jeff will explain how a multidisciplinary approach to planning for riverfront development is essential to the protection property, infrastructure and natural resources from rising sea levels and other consequences of climate change. This work has been ongoing for several years, but has attracted particular attention in the wake of Super Storm Sandy.

Biography

Jeff’s love of geography stems from his aunt and uncle who took many road trips across the country and brought him gas station road maps which sparked his imagination of far-off places.  As a kindergartener, “Geography Jeff” was teased by the big kids because he had learned every state capital from a map puzzle. Undeterred by the teasing, Jeff realized he could study geography in college and went on to earn a living while realizing a lifelong dream of using his geographic skills to make the Hudson Valley a better place to live, work, and play.

Jeff earned three related associates degrees (geography, cartography, and community planning) at Montgomery College before earning his BA in geography (cum laude) at the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 1985. (The geography department at UMBC was both the undergraduate home of BSU’s Dr. Hayes-Bohanan and a former employer of BSU’s Dr. Amey.)

He then worked as a planner in Cape Coral, Florida and a GIS manager at RoadNet Technologies, a subsidiary of United Parcel Service in Hunt Valley, Maryland. In 2003 he earned accreditation from the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP).

Jeff has worked as a planner for Scenic Hudson for over 20 years, and in 2010 he was promoted to Director of Land Use Advocacy. He leads a team of three planners helping communities ensure that riverfront development stimulates the economy, connects people with the river, and conserves views and natural resources.

In 1993 Jeff founded the Hudson Valley Bluegrass Association, a 501(c)3 arts and educational organization and owns a small business specializing in maritime art photography.  He is an avid musician, sailor, bicyclist, hiker, kayaker, cook, and gardener. 

He has served as an adjunct instructor of Environmental Planning at Marist College since 2011.

Our Zombie Apocalypse

The Transportation Department at BSU is careful to provide us with clean, well-maintained vehicles for university-related travel. So it really makes no sense to wash a university van off-campus. Unless ZOMBIES are involved, that is!

While driving back from the NESTVAL 2012 conference in Farmington, Maine, we drove through the mill town of  Livermore Falls, where we noticed teenagers in various stages of decay. With vacant looks in their eyes, they slumped along the side of the road with signs imploring us to support a car wash.

We drove on for a short distance before deciding that this was an opportunity that we would surely regret missing, so we returned to the local fire station, where the van was surrounded by a slow-moving crew that worked around the van with deliberation -- never breaking character as the resentful undead. (See more photos from the conference and the car wash on Flickr, and more about the giant globe we brought to the conference on BSU-EarthView.)

In reality, these are teenagers who are very much alive, participating with their parents and teachers in STEM education as part of the Spruce Mountain Area Robotics Team (SMART 3930). The fundraiser at the fire station was in partnership with the American Red Cross and the Zombie Apocalypse preparedness program of the Centers for Disease Control.

While waiting for the van to be washed, we had the opportunity to talk with some of the community members about the geography conference we had just attended, and about some of the careers available to those studying geography. Disaster preparedness is, of course, one of the many areas to which geographers are well suited, especially as the spatial planning for emergency response increasingly relies on such geotechnologies as GIS, GPS, and climate modeling.

We would love to see some of these S.M.A.R.T. students in our geography classes at Bridgewater in the next couple of years!