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Department of Geography and Earth Science

We offer students excellent undergraduate and graduate programs of study in geography, earth sciences, sustainability, and the mapping sciences.  Our undergraduate programs are designed to give students an appreciation of the natural and human environments of the earth, how they are coupled, and how they interact. Our students develop skills in collecting, recording, and analyzing geoenvironmental data. They become involved in laboratory work, field investigations, and environmental exercises that help students sharpen their critical-thinking and technological skills and to arrive at solutions based on evidence and inductive reasoning.

Our Interdisciplinary Nature

The Department of Geography-Earth Science has an interdisciplinary nature for our faculty members come from diverse backgrounds and have had professional and entrepreneurial experiences before joining academia.

Our faculty members are currently working on solving real problems in the Cumberland Valley, the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the Delaware River watershed, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Europe, Latin America, South America, and Asia. Accordingly, our programs and courses focus on the importance of location, the reasons why places and regions are different physically and culturally but linked economically.

The unique quality of our department is its object of analysis - the earth's surface. Its purpose is to understand how that surface is structured and differentiated and how people have affected, affect, and will affect the landscape.

Undergraduate Programs and Minors

Professional Certificates

  • Students will appreciate using geographic perspectives which will serve as a basis for life-long learning
  • Students will develop proficiency in communication and analytical skills as applied in the geosciences.
  • Students will develop proficiency in one or more of the geotechniques: GIS, Cartography, Remote Sensing, Image Processing, Quantitative Methods, or Field Techniques.
  • Students will participate in an applied capstone internship experience and/or field studies course.
  • Students will develop mastery of substantive disciplinary knowledge focusing on the six elements of geography outlined in the National Geography Standards: Geography for Life.

Contact the Geography & Earth Science Department

104 Shearer Hall, 1871 Old Main Drive, Shippensburg, PA 17257 Phone: 717-477-1685 Fax: (717) 477-4029