The alumni newsletter of the Department of Geography-Earth Scienceat Shippensburg University

Department “Focuses the Nation” on Climate ChangeOn January 31, 2008, over 1100 Shippensburg University students attended a day-long

event known as “Focus the Nation.” Tim Hawkins organized the event as part of a national teach-in on global warming solutions. Approximately thirty faculty members from various departments throughout the university presented a variety of programs on such topics as water resources, sustainable cities, growing your business green, energy conservation, environmental history, impact of climate change on mental health, the developing world, and climate change and the media. Participants from the Geography Earth Science department included Scott Drzyzga, Tom Feeney, Claire Jantz, George Pomeroy, Jan Smith, Christopher Woltemade, and Joseph Zume. An evening panel discussion focused on practical solutions to climate change. Panelists included Bill Ruud, President of Shippensburg University, John Hanger,

CEO of PennFuture, and Scott Van de Mark, Special Projects Director for The Pennsylvania Environmental Council. Shippensburg University was one of over 1700 institutions which participated in this event! Focus the Nation was officially endorsed by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter sent a personal letter of support to all the participating Pennsylvania institutions.

“Focus the Nation”

Michoacan, MexicoDrs. Paul Marr (Geography-Earth Science) and Agnes Ragone (Modern Languages) took

a group of students from both departments on a field course to Michoacán, Mexico during the summer of 2007. The name Michoacán is an Nahautal word meaning ‘the place of the fish’, in reference to the large number of lakes within the region. Spanish domination and subjugation of the Local Tarascan natives quickly followed that of the Aztecs. With Nuño Baltrán de Guzmán’s march through Michoacán in the winter of 1529 and the plundering of the Tarascan heartland the entire region was transformed as the process of hispanization took hold. Tzintzuntzán, the capital of the Tarascan Empire, began a downward spiral in population and prestige from which it never recovered. The modern Tarascan region offers a unique glimpse of traditional life amid rapidly changing surroundings. Both physical and social isolation have helped to preserve the native culture, but have also created many chal-lenges for the native population. The field course exposed students to a region of Mexico rarely visited by outsiders, and students were able to examine native village life, how the people have adapted to a difficult environment, and how the local people are coping with modernization.

British Columbia, CanadaIn Spring 2007,Kurt Fuellhart and Christopher Woltemade led the Geography – Geol-

ogy Field Studies course in British Columbia, Canada. Nine students participated in the field course, which included several days studying the cultural, urban, and economic geography of Vancouver, BC and several days examining the geomorphology, hydrology, and ecology of Vancouver Island. The trip included study of ethnic neighborhoods, urban architecture, public transportation, forestry practices, natural hazards, watershed management, First Nations cultures, and coastal geomorphology. Other highlights included a boat trip up the Pacific coast to Hot Springs Cove, which afforded opportunities for whale watching and viewing of sea lions, bald eagles, and a wide variety of other marine life.

Down to Earth News

Field Courses

2008

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News from the Department Chair

Greetings Alumni and Friends! As the Geography-Earth Science Department approaches its 75th anniversary this fall, “change” continues to be the theme in the department and university. Our resident climatologist and all-round departmental ambassador, Dr. Diane Stanitski, resigned as of August 2007 to join her new husband in Colorado (we asked her to take all of us but she graciously declined). We wish Diane and John the best of luck in their new life along the Front Range. Her position has been filled by Dr. Joseph Zume, a hydrologist and physical geographer, who recently earned his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. Joseph has hit the ground running, and is adapting nicely to the gelid Middle Atlantic winter climate, after a lifetime of warmer conditions in Norman and his native Nigeria. In addi-tion, Professor Sean Cornell, a geoscientist from the University of Cincinnati, was hired in August 2006 to replace Dr. Craig Oyen, who died in 2005. Sean has been busy with the reinvigorated Marine Science Consortium, guiding an interdisciplinary group of student service volunteers on a trip to the Consor-tium’s Wallop’s Island, Virginia facility during fall break. Meanwhile, we continue to adjust to the comforts of recently renovated Shearer Hall, which now has heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer, rather than the other way around. We moved back into

Shearer Hall in the fall of 2006. If you’re in the area, we invite you to stop by for a per-sonal tour.

Meanwhile, during the last two years, the University has hired a new President, Dr. Bill Ruud; a new Provost, Dr. Barbara Lyman; a new Associate Provost, Dr. Tracy Schoolcraft; and a new Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. James Mike. Changes of such magnitude can be invigorating for departments and students, and our programs continue to thrive at both the Undergraduate and Graduate level. Our more applied focus has led us to phase out the Regional Develop-ment and Tourism major, and replace it with a track called “Human Environmental Studies,” which is a combination of Cultural Geogra-phy, GIS, and Environmental Science. We are in the final stages of guiding this program through the University Governance structure and hope to have the new major in place by the fall 2008. We are also initiating, at the request of the Computer Science Department, a Minor in GIS, to augment our current GIS certificate for departments with a need for more extensive training.

Student-faculty research remains a departmental priority. Indeed, our depart-mental philosophy is that applied research is an integral part of our teaching mission, and cannot be separated from it. Over the last two years, the department has received

more than $700,000 in extramural research and service grants, covering a wide range of geographic topics. These projects help sup-port student research, faculty development, and departmental community outreach. De-partmental faculty and students continue to provide valuable expertise for the south-central Pennsylvania service region, working through the department’s Center for Land Use.

In closing, I want to urge you to take just a few minutes to complete the attached survey form. It’s one of the only ways that we can get a good idea of how we’re doing and what needs to be changed. If there’s something you liked about our program and want to see it maintained, let us know. Conversely, if we need to change something, we’ll never know unless you tell us. The next few years will mark an important transition period for the Geography-Earth Science Department, as we welcome new administrators and settle in to our updated facilities. As with any transition, change is inevitable, yet we are committed to maintaining our strengths in technology and field-oriented practical application. You can help us by providing valuable feedback for the important decisions yet to come. Thank you and best wishes!

William L. BlewettProfessor and Chairperson

GTU News

Gamma Theta Upsilon (Omicron Chap-ter) started off the spring 2008 semester in Shippensburg with the initiation of 19 new members bringing the total membership to 31. The first GTU event of the year focused on raising awareness about the national teach-in entitled “Focus the Nation,” (FTN) an event to inform the public about climate change. Dr. Hawkins organized this campus-wide event for Shippensburg University. The day before FTN, GTU provided free hot chocolate to students passing by Shearer Hall and publicized the teach-in. Other upcoming GTU events planned for the spring semester include set-ting up a booth at the annual Children’s Fair, participating in a yearly stream clean-up in late April, the GTU Banquet and organizing a group kayaking trip.

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Allow us to intro-duce one of our newest faculty members, Profes-sor Sean Cornell. Sean was hired in 2006 to teach the Department’s Earth Science curricu-lum, and is a PhD can-didate in Geology at the University of Cincinnati. At Shippensburg he has been teaching a range of courses in Geology and Oceanography, and, as most of the current students know, Sean is interested in many dif-ferent things. He is a modern carbonate sedi-mentologist and stratig-rapher by training--he studies marine sediments in relatively warm tropical environments. That means he tends to visit places like the Florida Keys and Curacao, Netherlands Antilles—both of these locations are also where he has hosted student field trips before coming to Shippensburg. Knowing Sean’s love of field work, we assume he will soon be developing field courses here at Shippensburg. In fact, in the fall of 2007 Sean was a lead organizer for a service learning field trip to coastal Maryland and Virginia. (See the feature article about this trip in this newsletter.)

Sean’s research is focused on understanding ancient limestone environments recorded in rock strata. This research is multidisciplinary in that he spends a good deal of time investigating sediment producers (i.e. marine organisms), their ecology, and their environments—leading to an understanding of environmental change. Tropical marine organ-isms are excellent barometers for the health of ecosystems in that they react predictably to climate change and other environmental stres-sors. By proxy, if we can understand something about how organisms changed in the rock record, we can gather clues about associated climate change. This may not seem that important but in many cases histori-cal scientists can identify patterns, magnitudes, and rates of future climate change and its impact on the Earth’s biota. Is global warming (human-induced or not) going to result in a 6th mass extinction? This question is still up in the air, but this discussion is a wonderful way to engage students and Sean is doing just that in his sedimentary geology and paleoenvironments courses.

As you can imagine, Sean keeps himself busy. He does manage to find some free time to spend with his wife Angel, a special educa-tion teacher in Carlisle, and their three children, Hannah, Ethan and Jenna. Sean has an open-door policy and a wonderfully enthusiastic personality. Stop by and welcome him to Shippensburg next time you are on campus!

Introducing our Newest Faculty Members

We are excited to announce that Dr. Joseph T. Zume joined our fac-ulty in August of 2007, following the comple-tion of his doctorate from the University of Oklahoma. Joseph is a Physicist-turned Geogra-pher with specific teach-ing and research interests in Hydrology. Before go-ing to the University of Oklahoma for a doctoral degree in Geography, he was a full-time faculty in the department of Physics, University of Jos, Nigeria, where he had taught for five years. While a graduate student at Oklahoma, he taught several areas of Physical Geography, and also worked for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board as a groundwater scientist. Joseph is very excited to be back full-time in the classroom—the place he believes he was born for. He enjoys teaching and helping students discover the path of learning and research. In his first year here at Shippensburg, Joseph has already taught hydrology, atmosphere, and world geography. He will be teaching the geography of Africa in the coming fall.

Joseph’s research interest is primarily in groundwater hydrology but he has secondary interests in near-surface geophysics, climate variability, and water resources economics. His most recent research efforts have focused on the mathematical simulation of alluvial aquifer dynamics in semiarid environments. Shallow alluvial aquifers are the most reliable sources for meeting competing demand for water in semiarid climates. Thus, understanding how they respond to impacts of both anthropogenic demand and climate variability is critical to their sustainable development and management. Joseph’s research also focuses on the environment. He recently used near-surface geophysics (electrical resistivity tomography) to image and characterize leachate migration pathways in groundwater from an abandoned landfill site near Norman, Oklahoma. It is exciting that Joseph’s multi-disciplinary skills have already started benefiting students here at Shippensburg University. He plans to develop an environmental monitoring field course here in the near future.

A native of Benue State in north central Nigeria, Joseph now lives in Shippensburg with his wife, Blessing, and their two daughters, Ngodoo and Nguveren. The Zumes love their new community and believe they have found their ideal home away from home. Besides his professional teaching career, Joseph prides himself as a talented cook, a skill he acquired from his late mother. To find him at home, please look in the kitchen!!! Friends are always welcome.

Professor Sean Cornell Dr. Joseph T. Zume

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throughout Shearer Hall and to install new hardware and software in our GIS teaching lab and Ford research lab. The most recent award allowed us to purchase eleven high-precision GPS receivers and data-loggers. In 2006, Dr. Blewett and I helped Shippensburg University to enter an articulation agreements with the William F. Goodling Advanced Skills Center in York, PA and Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), which allows talented high-school students that have taken GIS courses to transfer those courses and credits to Shippens-burg University. During fall 2007, we rolled out a university-wide site license for ArcGIS/ArcInfo 9.x. and the Department has since become a charter member of the Geographic Information Systems Consortium of the Penn-sylvania State System of Higher Education. We are committed to developing our curriculum in applied Geographic Information Science & Technology to enable our students to compete well in the job and grad-school markets. As always, I encourage our alumni to reflect on their GIS-related education and write to share with us those reflections.

I am currently involved in three research projects: 1) Dr. Marr, Dr. Pomeroy and I are working on funded research (Center for Rural Pennsylvania) and studying the economic and transportation-related impacts of the warehous-ing industry on rural Pennsylvania; 2) Dr. Jantz and I are working on funded research (National Science Foundation) and building a spatial model to accurately predict patterns of urban growth in the Chesapeake Bay watershed; and 3) Dr. Marr, Dr. Sutton (at Western Illinois University) and I are trying to quantify the effects high-relief topography had on miners trying to move gold and silver ores from mines in the Rocky Mountains to foundries in Denver, Colorado during the late 1800s. Yeah, the last one is just for the fun of it.

Last but not least, I started teaching our sum-mer course in Field Techniques. I worked with eight hearty students the first time out - a mix of grads and undergrads - and mapped the ter-rain that once was submerged under the former Chambersburg Reservoir (now empty). We vis-ited the DEP library in Harrisburg to discover what the landscape looked like before the dam was installed (1930s) and investigate why the dam was breached in 2005; we used the GPS and several total stations to survey the “new” stream channel; we investigated the remnant silt cap with soil scientist Dr. John Wah; and they documented the entire project - complete with before/during/after photos and maps. I remain impressed by the work that group accomplished in three short weeks.

Mike ApplegarthAfter receiving my Ph.D. at Arizona State University I began my career at Shippensburg University in 2001 as a physical geog-rapher with inter-ests in soil geomor-phology, arid land geomorphology, re-mote sensing, and image processing. I have completed research using remote sensing techniques and field data to interpret pediment form in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts and predict their occurrence via a statistical model built from corresponding slope morphology and have also worked in soil development on glacial moraine material in the Wind River Range in Wyoming. Recent research includes using remote sensing techniques to assess moraine morphology in Wyoming and using thermal imagery to assess landforms in the Phoenix, AZ region. I regularly teach Image Processing, Remote Sensing, Soils, Geography of the United States and Canada, and Introduc-tion to the Atmosphere.

Bill BlewettI continue to serve as chair of the Ge-ography-Earth Sci-ence Department and will likely stay in that position for the next three years. Running a big de-partment continues to be a challenge with a steep learn-ing curve. Indeed, keeping 15 faculty, 225 majors, and 50 graduate students happy can be difficult, but now that I’ve installed barbed wire outside my office door and have stopped answering e-mail, things have become much more manageable.

Because building strong departments requires being engaged in the academic enterprise, I continue to stay active in university governance. I recently relinquished the Chairmanship of the University Forum (the faculty senate) after four years, although I continue to serve on the Executive Committee of the College of Arts and Sciences Council and the University Growth Committee. I’m now taking some much needed time off to focus on departmental matters.

In between teaching, service, advising, and ad-ministrative emergencies, I try to save time for research and professional development. This past summer my wife, Gretchen, and I spent four weeks in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as part of a University Research Scholarship Pro-gram (URSP) grant. The grant supported the writing of a book on the Geology of Michigan’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which will be published in another two years. Most of my time in the Upper Peninsula was spent meeting with park personnel, taking pictures for the book, and writing several chapters. During the last two weeks we stayed at a cabin on Lake Superior, which was the highlight of the trip. I’ve also contracted with the park service to write another report, this one on ancient shorelines associated with the national parks of the Great Lakes. Most of the work for this article was completed during my sabbatical in 2004, and the report will be published this winter. The booklet will be available for staff training and visitor use at all national parks in the Great Lakes region, including Apostle Islands, Pictured Rocks, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshores, and Isle Royale National Park. In addition, I was a co-author on the article “A Holocene History of Dune-Mediated Landscape Change along the Southeastern Shoreline of Lake Superior” which was recently published in the refereed journal Geomorphology. Dr. Drzyzga and I are currently working on another research project using GIS to help determine the sequence of glacial meltwater channels associated with an important readvance of the ice along the southern coast of Lake Superior. I also con-tinue to enjoy teaching Introductory Geology, Physical Geology, Geology of National Parks, and Geomorphology.

During the three to four hours per week that I’m not at work, I reside with my wife, Gretchen, at the base of South Mountain outside Shippensburg, on a stabilized colluvial apron of Pleistocene age.

Scott DrzyzgaI joined the de-partment in spring 2004 and, with Drs. Alison Feeney and Jan Smith, have worked to develop a rigorous curriculum in ap-plied Geographic Information Sci-ence & Technology. Teaming with Drs. Blewett, Fuellhart and Applegarth, we have received more than $157,000 to enhance classroom technology

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During the Spring 2007 semester, Christo-pher Woltemade and I co-taught the course “Geography-Geology Field Studies in British Columbia, Canada”. As part of the course we traveled to western Canada to study first-hand various elements of the human and physical geography of the region.

Tim HawkinsI continue to con-sult and advise the Salt River Proj-ect in Phoenix, Arizona on issues ranging from sea-sonal forecasts of water supplies for the Phoenix area to anticipated im-pacts of projected climate change on these water sup-plies. Closer to home, I have been involved with Shippensburg students on a number of projects including estimating evaporation rates from local reservoirs, forecasting raptor migration patterns based on weather patterns, conducting an inventory of campus greenhouse gas emissions, analyzing local climate patterns as related to land use, and developing a clima-tology of severe weather in the Cumberland Valley. Recently, I established a real time weather station to supplement the department’s existing facilities. Real time weather informa-tion for Shippensburg can be found at http://webspace.ship.edu/weather/.

On a more personal note, my wife Irene and I had our second daughter during finals week of the spring 2007 semester. All is going well, but don’t expect any more little Hawkins people in the future!!

Claire JantzI am in my third year at Shippens-burg University and am keeping active in teaching and research. This year, I was awarded two new research grants. With Dr. Drzyzga, I was awarded a research grant to evaluate the effects of urban growth on water availability and limits to water supply in the Baltimore, MD metropolitan region. This research is funded through the National Science Foundation’s Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems (CNH)

at a number of sites in the Valley. The data (being collected every 15 minutes, even as you read this!) will give us a better picture of the flow system, the geochemistry, and perhaps landscape evolution. I have also been able to join efforts with Dr. Todd Hurd in Biology to run the first real dye trace in the Cumberland Valley karst. Ideally, we will continue these traces this coming year and continue to test some hypotheses we’ve had about the aquifer system in this region. Exciting times.

After three years I passed the official leadership role of the University’s weather station to Dr. Tim Hawkins. My role was to fill the void when Dr. Rense retired (who could possibly replace Dr. Rense as a weather observer!?) until a new weather-weenie arrived. Well, when Tim made the shift to a more meteorology-type function in the department he got the job. Though not a self-proclaimed “weenie,” Tim has quickly taken the station into the modern era (check-out the real-time site that Tim has created from the weather link on the Depart-ment’s web page).

Outside of Shearer Hall Alison and I are kept pretty busy with our three children (if you missed number three, “Sterling Elizabeth” was born during final’s week 2006). I have also re-cently found myself coaching 5 and 6 year olds the game of soccer. Though I question what we do as being “soccer,” we DO have fun. I hope you are too. Please keep in touch.

Kurt FuellhartI am the depart-ment’s res ident economic geogra-pher with research interests in trans-portation indus-tries and regional economic analysis. My recent work has focused on air transport networks and competition as well as the trucking and warehousing industries in south-central Pennsylvania.

I have also had the opportunity to work with students conducting research. I recently ad-vised graduate student Eric Weltmer on his MS thesis “Population Characterization as a Determinate of Urban Form: A Case Study of Harrisburg, PA”. In addition, undergraduate student Catherine Ryan and I completed a re-search project “A Spatial Analysis of Global Air Transport: The View from the Middle-Atlantic, USA” which we presented at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA.

Alison FeeneyI have been a fac-ulty member in the Department of Geography-Earth Science since 1998 after receiving my Ph.D from Michi-gan State Univer-sity. Over the past nine years I have taught cartography, GIS, and mapping sc ience courses along with general education courses such as World Regional Geography and the Geography of the United States and Canada. Most recently I have been teaching an upper-level interdisci-plinary Honors course entitled “The World of Pirates.” The last four years I have developed several summer online courses, and also taught online during the pilot program J-term.

My research interests focus on interactive mul-timedia, GIS and geographic education, along with applied uses of GIS. Areas of particular interest include the geography of knitting and the geography of pirates. Recently I have been working with Jan Smith and the Pennsylvania Department of Natural Resources to make their campground maps interactive and allow people to make reservations online. So, if you plan a trip this summer, check the Pennsylvania park maps and, more than likely, a Shippensburg student worked on it. I remain an active mem-ber of professional organizations such as the Association of American Geographers (AAG), the North American Cartographic Informa-tion Society (NACIS), the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE), and the Pennsylvania Geographic Society (PGS). Each spring I serve as the local coordinator for the Pennsylvania Geographic Bee. On a personal level I enjoy spending time with my family (Tom and three kids), playing tennis, kayaking, running, and working out in the yard.

Tom FeeneyMuch of my time since the last news-letter has been spent wading in knee-deep water at springs in the Cumberland Valley and trying to talk to data loggers that, well, quite frankly don’t seem to want to talk to me. But, with enough coax-ing I have been able to deploy these instruments

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competition (an extremely competitive pro-gram), and represents a collaboration between Shippensburg University, the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, Princeton University, and the United States Geological Survey. In collaboration with scientists at the University of Maryland, I was also awarded a research grant by NOAA’s SeaGrant program to investigate how urbanization and popula-tion pressures influence water resources on the Delmarva Peninsula.

I continue to work on several on-going research projects, in conjunction with graduate students Gary Lasako and Noah D’Antonio, and with funding from various agencies including NASA, the National Park Service and the Pennsylvania DCNR. In the Upper Delaware watershed, I continue to develop modeling tools to support land use planning and co-organized a series of workshops over the summer to gain feedback from stakeholders in the region. Because of my work on land use and land cover change in the Chesapeake Bay region, I was invited to write an article for the Summer 2007 issue of the Journal of Green Building entitled “Can Smart Growth Save the Chesapeake Bay.” I was also invited to present at a “Smart Growth @ 10” conference held by the National Center for Smart Growth focused on evaluating Maryland’s smart growth programs.

In the summer of 2007, I had the pleasure of accompanying Dr. Marr and several students to Michoacán, Mexico. This experience—and the fact that Dr. Marr doesn’t have enough work to keep himself busy—has led me to pursue the development of a new research program in collaboration with Dr. Marr to study urban dynamics in central Mexico.

Paul MarrAlong with my col-league Christopher Sutton of Western Illinois University, I have continued research in Micho-acán, Mexico with the publication of Changes in Ac-cessibility in the Meseta Purépecha Region of Micho-acán, Mexico: 1940 – 2000 in the Journal of Transport Geography. Dr. Agnes Ragone and I had our research Language Maintenance in the Meseta Purépe-cha Region of Michoacán, Mexico published in Anthropological Linguistics, and offered a combined geography/Spanish language field class in Michoacán during the summer

of 2007. Students spent 11 days traveling throughout rural Michoacán examining hu-man and environmental interactions, and brushing up on their Spanish skills. More lo-cally, I received, along with Drs. Drzyzga and Pomeroy, a $47,000 grant from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania to examine the impacts of warehousing and trucking. We expect to have the project completed by early 2008. My interest in local historical geography led to the recent publication of “The King’s Highway to Lancaster: A Graph-theory Analysis of Colonial Pennsylvania’s Road Network” in the Journal of Transport History. My work using grave marker inscriptions and local church records to reconstruct south-central Pennsylvania’s demographic changes during the 1700s ap-peared in The Middle States Geographer, and I am planning on presenting this at the AAG national meeting in Boston this spring. My work graduate student Jonathan Burchette led to the publication of “The Wiconisco Canal Revisited” in Canal History and Technology. Along with Dr. Drzyzga, I recently completed field work in the gold mining region near Breckinridge, Colorado. We hope to get our analysis of historic transport routes in the gold fields to press soon. Noticing that my plate was Chinette, and not one of the cheaper brands, I piled on more by spending a few weeks in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile examining the collapse of the Chilean saltpeter industry and its impacts on the landscape. Dr. Jantz and I hope to attain funding to conduct further research in the region during the summer of 2008. I continue to teach World Geography, Latin America, Transportation, Medical, and Quantitative Methods, and hope to add His-torical to the list in the near future. To relax, I perform “trout counts” and I’ve determined that either the local streams have no trout in them or that I am terrible at fly fishing… opinions remain mixed as to the correct interpretation of the data.

George PomeroyI continue to teach land use and com-munity planning cour s e s in the department. My teaching interests and supervision of interns dovetail very well with my role as the Direc-tor of the Center for Land Use and my efforts to con-nect ideas in the classroom to the reality of local government planning in South Central Pennsylvania.

Along with my wife Jennifer, I am gearing for another field course in China. In June 2008 we will study and experience urbanization, development, and planning in Shanghai and Beijing. Along with this students will receive a healthy dose of culture, language, history, GEOGRAPHY, and Chinese cuisine!

In terms of research, I have been keeping an active agenda. I recently finished co-editing a book entitled Global Perspectives on Urbaniza-tion: Essays in Honor of Debnath Mookherjee and worked to organize the Ninth Asian Ur-banization Conference held in Chuncheon, South Korea that included participants from over 21 countries.

Jan SmithHi Everyone! I hope all is going well with each of you. I am enjoy-ing my 5th year at Shippensburg University teach-ing World Geogra-phy, Cartography, and several GIS courses. We are all thrilled to be back in Shearer Hall…we appreciate the larger computer labs even more after our two years in the basement of Horton Hall. If you haven’t been back to visit in a while, stop by and let one of us show you around! I often find myself driving around South Central Pennsylvania because I super-vise student teachers during their semester in the classroom. This is a great way for me to stay connected to many of you who serve as cooperating teachers for our students. If any of you would like to serve as a cooperating teacher, please get in touch with me.

In the fall, I was elected to serve as the 2008 President of the National Council for Geo-graphic Education. Fortunately, I didn’t need to spend any time or money campaigning…unlike the current presidential candidates! The NCGE is an organization of K-16 teachers interested in geography education in the United States. Our central office is located in Washington, D.C., so I have learned that drive well…particularly sitting in traffic on the beltway.

Last spring, I was able to take a student, Jim Spatz, to a conference near La Serena, Chile in May. The conference was in conjunction with a research project that I have been involved with for several years in which we are putting together learning modules to engage students from different parts of the world in online

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In 2006, I took my first trip to California, visit-ing Los Angeles, Redondo Beach, Long Beach, Hollywood, Santa Barbara, Sacramento, Napa Valley and Lake Tahoe. I returned to CA to attend the AAG meeting in San Francisco last spring and presented a poster on how to teach conservation to non-majors. This summer I hope to return to CA and also visit good friends around Denver.

My grandson, Alex, is now 3 and is a lot of fun! I schedule as much time with him as I can and enjoy seeing the world through his eyes! I also am looking forward to spring and being out in my garden again. Please stop in and say hello whenever you are in Ship!

Christopher WoltemadeGreetings everyone! The last year has been busy and excit-ing. I continue to work together with students on moni-toring the restored wetland near Burd Run. We now have 3 years of data that show wetland re-moval of over 50% of the nitrate load that would otherwise enter Burd Run. Since nitrate is a key pollutant that contributes to low dissolved oxygen in Pennsylvania streams and the Chesapeake Bay, this small pilot project shows that wetland restoration can be an important strategy for water quality improvement. I have co-authored a paper about this with Jinnie Woodward (MS 2006) that will be published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association in early 2008.

geography discussion activities. At this confer-ence, we worked with students and professors from different regions of the U.S. as well as from different countries in South America. We spent a week working and travelling, although our trip got off to a rough start with a 24 hour delay in Miami. We also both experienced our first earthquake while in Chile! The rumbling and movement was incredible to us, but to those from California and Chile, it was just another minor earthquake (magnitude, 5.3). Expe-riencing the Andes Mountains, the southern hemisphere, and Chilean hospitality for the first time was terrific.

I am sure I speak for everyone in the department---we love hearing from you and finding out what you have been doing since leaving Ship. Please keep in touch and come back and visit!

Kay WilliamsThe last few years have been busy ones for me. I teach Con-servation of Natural Resources, Intro to Biogeography, and Atmospheric Stud-ies, as well as gradu-ate level Problems of the Atmospheric Environment. I stay busy with my service to the department, the university, and the Pennsylvania Geographi-cal Society (PGS) and continue to serve on the Board of the PGS as the Treasurer. As a part of the Departmental Affairs Committee, I have been involved with hiring almost all of our cur-rent department members!! Let’s hope we don’t have any new hires for many years.

I’ve been able to travel to some great places in the past year. Over spring break (March 2007), Kurt Fuellhart and I co-taught the Geography-Geol-ogy Field Studies course in British Columbia, Canada. We traveled with a great group of Ship students, spending half our time in cosmopolitan Vancouver, BC and the other half in the forests and beaches of Vancouver Island.

I also traveled to Alaska in June 2007 as part of the National Science Foundation short-course on glaciers. This provided a fantastic opportunity to learn about glacier dynamics, glacial landforms, and recent impacts of climate change in the area around Anchorage. Just last week I shared some of these experiences via the Geography-Earth Science Seminar Series here in Shearer Hall.

In the classroom, I’m currently teaching the brand-new graduate course “Fundamentals of Geoenvironmental Research” (aka “Fun”). This has given me the opportunity to get to know several of our new students as they work to develop their research interests.

Finally, I’m excited to share with everyone that Andi and I have a new Greater Swiss Mountain Dog puppy, “Porter” (short for “Investigative Reporter”, his true profession). He’s now 9 months old, about 90 pounds of excited energy, and would love to meet and greet you all. You can follow his progress on my web page at: webspace.ship.edu/cjwolt

Keep in touch! Christopher

Departmental Career Day 2007More than 200 students attended the department’s annual Career Day on Thursday,

November 8, 2007 in the Ceddia Union Building Multi-Purpose Room. The all-day event attracted over 30 separate employers, many of them represented by departmental alumni, from a wide array of agencies, consulting firms, and non-profit groups. The day began with two morning presentation sessions dedicated to GIS skill sets and re-lated career topics. Speakers included Ron Hermany, the GIS Coordinator for DCNR; Jennifer Engle, a Program Analyst for the Coastal Zone Management Program; Jenn Granger, a Senior Project Manager for McCormick Taylor Inc.; Stephanie Martins, a planner with the Maryland Department of Planning; Kirk Stoner, Director of Planning for Cumberland County; and Carlos Suarez, Acting Director for the Hawaii and Pacific Islands Area for the National Resource Conservation Service. The day ended with an advising session for undergraduate students who are preparing to apply for graduate school. Our next Career Day is scheduled for Thursday, November 13, 2008 in the CUB. If your organization is interested in hiring our students for jobs or internships, we urge you to contact departmental secretary Judy Mentzer at 717-477-1685 and arrange for a table. If you’re in between jobs or just wish to test the employment waters, we invite you to stop by and speak with participants.

8 Down to Earth News 2008

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Faculty secure over $700,000 in grants!

Bill BlewettUnderstanding ancient shorelines of the Great Lakes National Parklands, National Park Ser-vice, 2007 ($7,500).

(With Scott Drzyzga) Technology Fee Revenue Grant, 2007 ($67,100)

Geology and Landscape of Michigan’s Pic-tured Rocks National Lakeshore and Vicinity, Shippensburg University Research and Scholar-ship Program, 2007 ($17,252)

(With Scott Drzyzga) Technology Fee Revenue Grant to purchase classroom technology for Shearer Hall, 2005 ($39,500).

Kurt Fuellhart(With Paul Marr) Geographic and Economic Assessment of Trucking and Warehousing in South-Central Pennsylvania. Shippens-burg University Center for Land Use, 2006 ($10,000).

Tim Hawkins(With A.W. Ellis) Hydroclimatic History for the Salt and Verde Watershed. Salt River Proj-ect, 2007 ($16,417).

The Impact of Land Use Change on Climate Change in the United States. Shippensburg University Research and Scholarship Program, 2007 ($14,460).

Climate Change and Land Use Change in the Cumberland Valley, Pennsylvania. Fac-ulty Professional Development Council of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, 2006 ($5,290).

Hydrologic Report for the June 5 and June 7, 2003 Flood Events at the Wollaston Property, 35 Field View Court, Greencastle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Expert document pre-pared for Franklin County Court of Common Pleas / Civil Action No. 2003-2584. O’Connell and Silvis, LLP, 2006 ($4,625).

(With K. Goetz, and D. Klinger) Simulating Evaporation off Small Drinking Supply Reservoirs. Miklausen-Likar Science Research Fund, Shippensburg University Foundation, 2006 ($450).

Claire Jantz(With Scott Drzyzga and others) Collaborative Research: Dynamic Coupling of the Water Cycle with Patterns of Urban Growth. NSF Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Dynamics of Coupled Natural-Human Systems, 2007-2010 ($175,389)

(With G. Moglen and J. Reilly). Developing a decision support system for the Delmarva Peninsula: A tool to integrate alternative growth scenarios and environmental impact assessments into local land use planning. Maryland SeaGrant, 2007-2009 ($232,311).

Forecasting Land Use Change in Delaware and Sullivan Counties, NY. Delaware County Planning Commission, 2007 ($13,000).

(With M. Mronzinski, E. de Coulstoun and D. Forney). Forecasting Land Use Change in Pike & Wayne Counties, PA. Pennsylvania DCNR Community Conservation Partnership Program Grants, 2006-2008 ($25,000).

Paul Marr(With Scott Drzyzga and George Pomeroy). Economic and Transportation Impacts of Warehousing in Rural Pennsylvania. Center for Rural Pennsylvania ($47,180).

Jan Smith(With Alison Feeney) Mapping-Service Learn-ing Project. Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of State Parks State of Pennsylvania, 2007 ($9,500).

(With M. Solem, Association of American Ge-ographers) US-Chile International Workshop: Expanding Geography Education Networks in the Americas. National Science Foundation, 2006 ($8,200).

(With Scott Drzyzga) Community Build-Out Analysis of Selected South Central Pennsyl-vania Municipalities. Center for Land Use, 2006 ($6,800).

Christopher Woltemade(With Melissa Mimna). Effects of impervious surfaces on maximum stormwater runoff temperatures: Modeling and field monitoring of the SU campus. Shippensburg University Graduate Research Program, 2007 ($450).

National Science Foundation “Chautauqua” Faculty Development Short Course: “Glaciers in Alaska.” Shippensburg University Center for Faculty Excellence in Scholarship and Teaching, 2007 ($1,848).

(With W. Reese) Analysis of Nutrient Removal Capacity in a Re-constructed Riparian Buffer: Burd Run. Shippensburg University Graduate Research Program, 2007 ($500).

(With E. Yearick) Craig’s Marsh: An Inves-tigation into the Benefits of a Constructed Wetland. Shippensburg University Graduate Research Program, 2007 ($480).

Hydrologic influences on nitrogen removal in wetlands. Shippensburg University Research and Scholarship Program, 2006 ($12,075).

(With J. Woodward) The ability of wetlands to reduce nitrate concentrations in agricul-tural areas. Shippensburg University Graduate Research Program, 2005 ($659).

GEOGRAPHY-EARTH SCIENCE ALUMNI SURVEYSpring 2008

The Geography-Earth Science Department at Shippensburg University updates and compiles a directory of past gradu-ates of the department every two years. We are also interested in your opinions of departmental courses and degree programs. The information you provide will help us make changes that will improve our department. Thank you for taking time to complete this survey. If possible, please return the survey by April 30, 2008.

General InformationName:Permanent Address:

Telephone: Home ( ) Work: ( )Email Address:

Year of Graduation: Major: (Check one) Earth-Space Science Geography-Liberal Arts

Urban-Rural Studies Comprehensive Social Studies Geoenvironmental Studies (undergrad) Geoenvironmental Studies (graduate) Geographic Information Systems (GIS certification)

What have you been doing since your graduation from Shippensburg University?

Would you prefer to receive a digital copy of the newsletter in the future? Y N

Comments About Your Major1. Did you get a job in your major or do you presently have a job in your major field of study? (Check one) Yes No

2. Overall, how well did the courses taken in the department prepare you for your present job or the job you hope to attain in the near future? (Check one) Well Prepared Adequately Prepared Poorly Prepared

3. Below is a list of important skills and content areas. Please indicate how frequently you use each skill and how helpful our program was in developing the skill. (Circle each appropriate response.)

FREQUENCY OF USE Very Somewhat LittleImportant Important Importance

HELPFULNESS IN DEVELOPING SKILL Very Not Helpful Helpful HelpfulSKILLS

ComputerData Collection and ResearchProblem SolvingAnalytical and QuantitativeCommunication

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1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3

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Additional written comments are welcome:

4. How would you rate the quality of your internship or student teaching experience with regard to the following categories? Are you evaluating: Internship Student teaching experience (Check one) (Please go to the next category if you did not have an internship or student teaching experience at Shippensburg.)

Enhance your professional growth Excellent Good Poor Learning new skills and knowledge Excellent Good Poor Preparation for present job Excellent Good Poor Fairness/consideration of on the job supervisors Excellent Good Poor Others (please comment)

Geography-Earth Science Faculty1. Please give an overall rating to the departmental faculty you have been exposed to in your work at Shippensburg University. (Check one)

Excellent Poor

Quality of teaching 5 4 3 2 1 Quality of advisement 5 4 3 2 1 Willingness to provide help when asked 5 4 3 2 1 Knowledge of subject 5 4 3 2 1 Student/professor interaction 5 4 3 2 1 Others (please comment)

2. What do you consider to be the major strengths of the Geography-Earth Science Department?

3. What suggestions for improvement do you have for the Department? These may be general suggestions or the may relate specifically to cirriculum, teaching, and/or interships.

Additional comments welcome:

Thank You

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FREQUENCY OF USE Very Somewhat LittleImportant Important Importance

HELPFULNESS IN DEVELOPING SKILL Very Not Helpful Helpful HelpfulCONTENT AREAS

AtmosphereEnviromental Land Use PlanningGeology - SoilsHydrologyGIS/ CartographyEconomic - Regional

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Move Over Weather Channel

A near real-time weather web page was developed by Tim Hawkins and can be accessed at webspace.ship.edu/weather. The page contains current weather data, historical climate data, a webcam to view current conditions, and links to forecasting and data resources. To date, the page has received over 10,000 hits. The weather data are also displayed in real-time in a display case in Shearer Hall.

12 Down to Earth News 2008

Alternative Fall Break 2007

During Fall Break 2007, students, faculty and staff traveled to the Atlantic Coast and Chesapeake Bay for a service learning oppor-tunity in conservation in honor of Rachel Carson’s 100th birthday (and Centennial Celebration Events Nationally). This unique and exciting trip was organized by a team of faculty and staff that spans several academic departments and programs: Professor Sean Cornell (Geography-Earth Science), Nicolette Yevich (The Women’s Center), Dr. Sara Grove (Political Science), Dr. Claire Jantz (Geography-Earth Science) and Dr. Deborah Cornelius (Sociology).

In addition to the campus collaboration, we partnered with several organizations (US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Marine Science Consor-tium, Assateague Coastal Trust, the Natural Resources Conservation Service) and others) to do service projects and actively engage students in learning about conservation. Whether through scientific, social/cultural, archeological, or political perspectives we immersed students in learning something about the issues behind conservation and the connections and responsibilities they have here in central Pennsylvania to what goes downstream to the Chesapeake Bay and around the world. The proposal for this trip was so compelling that we received funding on the order of $10,000 from the President, the Provost, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Dean of Student Affairs

In the end, we had almost 40 students who participated—and they all found it to be a rewarding experience. The trip started with a visit to the Baltimore Aquarium to take advantage of exhibits that showed the connections between upland streams, the Chesapeake Bay, and the open ocean. From there we went to the Marine Science Consortium at Wallops Island, Virginia where we lodged for the duration of the field experience.

During the next few days, we kept busy with service and learn-ing activities. We spent time exploring ecosystems in and around the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge—places that Rachel Carson spent a good deal of time studying and writing about. We served as volunteers at the annual Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge Celebration, and helped to clean up the historic Assateague Light

Down to Earth News 2008 13

New Department ScholarshipsTwo new departmental scholarships have been established since 2006. The first is the Craig Oyen Scholarship, designed to provide travel

funds for students enrolled in geology field courses at Shippensburg University or for student travel to professional conferences. The award was established by Craig’s parents to honor Dr. Oyen’s memory and support geology field study in the Geography-Earth Science Program. More recently, faculty emeritus Dr. Jane Ehemann established the Ehemann Scholarship Fund to honor outstanding junior and senior un-dergraduates majoring in Geography-Earth Science. Alumni wishing to contribute to these funds may do so by contacting the Shippensburg University Foundation at 717-477-1377. The department wishes to thank both the Oyen and Ehemann families for their generosity and support of Geography-Earth Science at Shippensburg University.

House for its 140th commemoration. We cleaned up a marsh near Tom’s Cove beach and had some time left over to relax in the surf. We went out on the Chesapeake Bay in oyster boats to investigate and learn about the health of the native oyster populations. On our return trip to Shippensburg, we visited a “best practices” dairy farm in St. Thomas (Franklin County), hosted by the Myers family and the Franklin County Conservation District. After spending a few days on the coast, this final stop showed us that conservation starts at home and we do have a local role in conservation for the future.

This was truly an amazing trip that gave students opportunities for reflective time, collaborative learning, and time to develop creative portfolios of artistic or written works that helped to document their experiences. Many of the field trip participants contributed to a special Field Notes Blog (http://seaaroundusfieldnotes.blogspot.com/), spe-cially created by the US Fish and Wildlife Service for our students. In fact, this trip was such a success that the US Fish and Wildlife Service is considering making this type of partnership program an annual event in Rachel Carson’s name, to carry on her ideals of science, education, and advocacy. What is so exciting is that Shippensburg has set the example for this program.

Award Winning StudentsOn December 6, 2007, Jennifer Long and Jessica Saienni won the PSTA

William B. McIlwaine Science Teacher Award. This award was presented in Hershey Pennsylvania at the annual Pennsylvania Science Teachers Associa-tion conference. The award recognizes full-time undergraduate or graduate students studying to become teachers, and/or K-12 full-time teachers who have completed no more than two years of teaching. This award, established to promote and recognize the outstanding teaching of science in grades K-12, is bestowed annually. Along with the recognition plaques, Jennifer and Jessica were given a two year membership to PSTA. Jen and Jess were the only 2007 recipients of the McIlwaine Award. Both Jennifer and Jes-sica are currently student teaching and will soon complete their graduate degrees in Geoenvironmental Studies. The department is very proud of their accomplishments!

Alternative Fall Break 2007

14 Down to Earth News 2008

Recent Geography-Earth Science Graduates

Fall 2005Heather Baum (BS)Denver Bird (BS)Jennifer Boyer (BS)Gregory Coldsmith (BS)Thomas Ebeling (BS)Katharine Fatton (BS)Chad Finkenbinder (BS)Ashley Gibbs (BS)Abigail Goldberg (BS)Ryan Howard (BS)Nicholas Imbrigiotta (BS)Jennifer Long (BS)Jessica Saienni (BS)Chester Sattizahn (BS)Joshua Smith (BS)Margaret Spishock (BS)Jonathan Taylor (BS)Bryan Withiam (BS)Nicole Emswiler-Eshelman (BSED)Zachary Leathers (BSED)Stephen Osmanski (BSED)Johnathan Burchette (MS)Kelly Kurtas (MS)Jonathan Lorio (MS)Jeannette Mcbryan (MS)Steven Shirmer (MS)Carole Simon (MS)

Spring 2006Paul Bankes III (BS)Laura Bickford (BS)Robert Bolles (BS)Michael Brinley (BS)Douglas Carmody (BS)Timothy Dougherty (BS)Brooke Dreese (BS)Brandon Gery (BS)Michael Goldberg (BS)Rodman Gourley (BS)Nathanael Gulnac (BS)Ryan Hale (BS)James Halmi (BS)Jamie Heimbach (BS)David Hogentogler (BS)Daniel Hunter (BS)Jordan Mcmillen (BS)

Kristin Noll (BS)Kyle Shenk (BS)David Sollenberger (BS)Jerome Vinciarelli Jr (BS)Spencer Waybrant (BS)Derek Williams (BS)Kallie Drenning (BSED)Dustin Estep (BSED)Robert Hopkins (BSED)David Moyer (BSED)Amanda Redcay (BSED)Bryant Siegfried (BSED)Matthew Stagon (BSED)Christopher Ackley (MS)Michael Cioffi (MS)Logan Dunn (MS)Jennifer Engle (MS)James Oshea (MS)John Piekara (MS)Joseph Sassaman (MS)Aaron Ward (MS)

Fall 2006Brian Beaumont (BS)Toni Belskey (BS)Jacob Brion (BS)Denver Brydon (BS)John Clever (BS)Daniel Gemmell (BS)Kristopher Goetz (BS)Jonathan Horner (BS)Patrick Kielty (BS)Roberta Kline (BS)Ethan Lehr (BS)Todd Napolitano (BS)Ashley Oyer (BS)Joseph Rathvon (BS)Ryan Wahl (BS)Gregory Willi (BS)Billie Cole (BSED)Sujitha Akiti (MS)Julie Barddippner (MS)Prasanthi Boppana (MS)Brandy Vos (MS)Eric Weltmer (MS)Josh Wilson (MS)Alex Moffet (BS)

Spring 2007Catherine Burroughs (BS)Tara Byra (BS)Kristin Condravy (BS)Lee Demi (BS)Eric Derr (BS)Jeremiah Greenland (BS)Skylar Group (BS)Kathryn Hess (BS)David Klinger (BS)Micheal Mcadaragh II (BS)Colin Meanix (BS)Jason Miller (BS)Michelle Nelson (BS)Robert Pagel (BS)Joseph Pepper (BS)Matthew Pouss (BS)Lance Robison (BS)Alex Rohrbaugh (BS)Catherine Ryan (BS)Meagen Stouffer (BS)Eric Thompson (BS)Nathaniel Turnock (BS)Cortney Wallace (BS)Brett Witmer (BS)Scott Crandall (MS)Therese Erskine (MS)Tara Gettig (MS)Michael Yankovich (MS)Elijah Yearick (MS)

Summer 2007Jared Boger (BS)Jason Harrington (BS)Michael Owen (BS)Kyle Ryan (BS)Kevin Smith (BS)Meredith Gibboney (MS)Aaron Knapp (MS)Michael Ross (MS)

Down to Earth News 2008 15

Shearer Hall Renovation

The multi-million dollar renovation of Shearer Hall was completed in summer 2006. After being completely gutted and replaced with new wiring, plumbing, air conditioning, heating, flooring, and paint, Department faculty and all their stuff moved out of Horton and Gilbert Halls and headed for Shearer. And Judy with all those files! Those buildings served us well, but all are happy to be back. On your next visit back you will notice that classrooms 107 and 109 have been turned 90 degrees so that your back is to the windows, that a new wet lab has been cut into the back of the soils lab, and that the ceilings don’t go into the stratosphere anymore. Faculty have also attained roughly $150,000 to support smart classroom technology for each classroom, and to provide continuous replacement of computers in the GIS and Ford labs. Re-pointing of the exterior brick and finishing up the landscaping this summer 2008 should bring the project to a close. We hope!

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Department of Geography-Earth ScienceShippensburg University1871 Old Main DriveShippensburg, PA 17257-2299

If you have an article or suggestion for our next newsletter, please contact Judy Mentzer at jpment@ship.edu or call the department at 717-477-1685.

SAVE THE DATE October 24-25, 2008

Shippensburg University Homecoming Weekend