The course begins with a historical survey of the continent, starting with its great civilizations and continuing through its experiences through colonialism, independence, the cold war, and globalization. This section of the class examines how these major events have played out throughout the different regions of Africa, south of the Sahara. A single subject or set of related subjects not ordinarily covered by the geography department. Please see the current Schedule of Classes for topics to be emphasized. Emphasis on tools of data collection and analysis, on processes that contribute to distributions, and on conservation of biotic resources.
Field trips consider local and regional patterns of plants and animals.
Readings, discussions and lectures will delve into such topics as conversions between projections and coordinate systems, vector data structures and algorithms, raster data compression, conversion of data to digital format, error management, visualization of spatial databases, and management of GIS project. Students will also complete a semester-long project that integrates the principles of GIS in a sophisticated GIS software package. The class will emphasize a student research project and will include classroom discussions during the course of the semester. A single subject or set of related subjects not ordinarily covered by the geography department. Offerings will vary depending on visiting faculty, experimental courses and educational needs.