Extra credit: Geography Week!

  November 14, 2016 was the start of Geography Week, held every fall at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire. Throughout the week there are many events including a resume workshop, internship panel, Geography Bee, GIS Day, and several talks held by Alumni.  I was fortunate enough to be able to make it to both GIS day and a talk held by an Alumni by the name of Tunga Chuluunbaatar. 

   GIS day is an event held for several hours where students have the opportunity to give presentations on work that has some kind of geospatial aspect to it, They are doing in various geography classes or research.  I listened to several individuals explain what they are doing in classes such as Quantitative Methods, and Geography Field Seminar.  I also listened to Alex Kleinschmdt talk about his research with Professor Harry Jol over the summer in Lithuania.  Through the use of Ground Penetrating Radar, the team was able to locate a tunnel the Jews used to escape a concentration camp.  My soils class also had someone talking about the work we are doing using LIDAR and GIS as well as other equipment.   I also did research over the summer with Professor Gary Running helping archeologists from the University of Minnesota-Moorhead locate where there could be native American artifacts.  We also used LIDAR and GIS as well as other techniques.  Overall, the event was a great way to showcase what other geography classes are doing as well as various research opportunities that are available for student research! I thought GIS day was a great learning opportunity, and it was neat to see what other students like myself are doing.

   Another event I attended was a talk presented by Tunga Chulunnbaartar.  She graduated from the University of Eau Claire and shared with us her work in Mongolia. In her presentation she shared how they are making multiple maps in a community that is largely cut off from essential needs such as water.  Through communicating with the residents and public officials Tunga and her team were able to make maps and show the community what is needed. For example, they noticed that many students were getting into accidents and hit by vehicles.  Tunga explained to us how her team went into that area, and through talking with the community, public officials, schools, etc. they were able to come up with a solution of how to reduce the number of accidents.  It was a simple solution of having the students go out the back door instead of the front.  They were also able to locate where water access was the most needed.  Another thing Tunga talked about was the amount of garbage built up over time because people didn’t know when the trash would be picked up.  The garbage companies never came through the day.  By showing people maps, and organizing times where garbage would be picked up, they were able to reduce waste!  Overall, Tunga is doing some amazing things with GIS, and communication.  I guess I didn’t realize just how much GIS is used everywhere.  I think geography week is a good event to make people more aware that geography is used more than people think!