Have you ever wondered how globalization is reshaping the earth? Perhaps you are curious about other cultures. Or perhaps you are interested in how mountain ranges like the Andes are formed and how that affects where and how people live? These topics, as well as global warming, flooding, monsoonal rain, earthquakes, volcanoes, and landforms, are all topics that are explored in Geography.

Geographers are curious about what they see around them. Geographers study the processes that shape and form the landscape, including those that build up the Earth's surface (earthquakes and volcanoes) and those that wear it down (weather, water, ice, wind, and waves). In addition to the physical landscape, geographers study how humans shape and alter the environment.

Studying Geography sets the stage for understanding the environment that we interact with everyday. From the fog that forms on cool winter mornings to navigating our way around Sonoma County, geography is an integral part of our everyday lives.

At Santa Rosa Junior College, we offer the following Geography courses:

Geography 3 (Regional Geography of the World)

Regional Geography studies the human and physical landscapes of major world regions such as South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, or South Asia. This class focuses on the distribution of culture, religion, language, and politics, and how these human characteristics interact with the physical environment. A major theme of the course is globalization, and how this is changing the world around us.

Geography 4 (Physical Geography)

Physical Geography explores the processes that create and shape the physical environment. This includes weather, pollution, global climate change, the distribution of climate, plants and animals, and soils around the world and the processes that shape the earth's environment.

Geography 7 (Cultural Geography)

Cultural or Human Geography is the study of where and why human activities occur where they do. Topics include population patterns, human migration, folk and pop culture, language, religion, ethnicity, politics, agriculture, urban areas, and resource use around the world.

LINKS

Google Earth :   earth.google.com
California Geographical Society:    calgeog.org
Association of Pacific Coast Geographers:  apcgweb.org
Association of American Geographers:    aag.org