Mid-Year Symposium

Undergraduate Research and Creative Work

 Rondileau Campus Center 

Monday, December 9, 2013

8:30 AM—3:30 PM

Geography is going to be well-represented at this symposium. Plan to visit throughout the day to learn about exciting research being done by students in all disciplines. Of special interest are poster sessions involving students from two of our geography courses.

From Dr. Clark's Physical Geography (Honors)9:05-9:55

#41 Carolyn Sessler “Turf v. Grass Playing Field: Does Temperature Matter?”

#42 Eva Ratcliffe “Average Temperature in Mansfield, MA Taken over s 2 Week Period”

#43 Sarah Cummings “Soil Temperatures for Vegetable Gardens (Zone 6A)”

#44 Dennis Corvi “A Demonstration of the Lapse Rate and Its Effect on Cloud Formation”

#45 Amy Pistone “Titicut Reservation Temperatures”

 #46 Nathan White “Temperature Change at Different Soil Depths”

#47 Ashley Lonergan “Temperatures in the Conant Science Building”

From Prof. Maribett's First-Year Seminar
11:15-12:05

#31 –  #48 Alexis Ambar, Holly Anderson, Hector Cintron-Ortiz, Trevor Goehring, Kaitlyn Grafton, Alexa Hambly, James Lind, Vanessa McGrath, John Morton, Karen Ormaza, Katherine Pickard, Courtney Pierce, Eva Ratcliffe, Joseph Rosso, William Taft, Nick Viola, Tyler Walton, Tatiana Williams

“Big Perma: Should we be practicing Permaculture here at BSU?”

Environmental Symposium

12^th Annual Undergraduate Symposium on Sustainability and the Environment

Saturday, December 7, 2013
Bridgewater State University

Conant Science & Mathematics Center

Guest Speaker: Dr. Peter Saundry, Executive Director of the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), Washington, DC.  The NCSE is a non-partisan organization of scientists, environmentalists, entrepreneurs, and policy makers working to improve the scientific basis of environmental decision-making.

National Council for Science and the Environment:  http://www.ncseonline.org/

Peter Saundry Bio Sketch:  http://www.ncseonline.org/peter-saundry-phd

Undergraduate research posters related to sustainability and the environment, in all disciplines are welcome! Geography has been under-represented at this event in the past, so please get your abstracts ready!

Abstracts must be submitted by Monday, November 25^th through the Symposium web page (the URL will be added HERE by November 6). Please note that the project can be proposed, in-progress, or completed work, and may also include classroom projects by individuals or teams of students.  

The Symposium provides an informal forum for the discussion of campus sustainability and environmental issues that cuts across multiple disciplines.  Each fall we host 40-50 undergraduate posters and over 100 students, faculty and guests representing public and private colleges and universities from the New England region. 

The $15 registration fee will be waived for all BSU students and faculty.  A continental breakfast and lunch are included. 

Geographer Meme

Read more about this meme on my Environmental Geography blog.

Changing Andean Microclimates

Today we received news from Dr. Rob Hellström, who poses here with a new instrument station in the Peruvian Andes. It is on the shore of Lake Cuchilla, at base of melting glacier about 4700 meters above sea level (15,300 ft or so), itself an indicator of climate change. Three stations where installed every 200 meters down to the base of a massive previously glaciated valley called Quillcayhuanca and data from all of the stations will be downloaded next summer to analyze microclimate impacts on water resources.  

Dr. Rob Hellström will be installing instruments tomorrow in the nearby valley of Llanganuco, where he is  upgrading an existing weather network.  All this is part of a much larger water resources project with teams from McGill University and his alma mater The Ohio State University.

He reports being almost fully recovered from mild altitude sickness and ready for next excursion tomorrow in Llanganuco Valley. Explore the region below. The photo was taken at 9 degrees 24.841' South, 77 degrees 21.296' west.



View Larger Map

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.