Archive for Anna Versluis
Global Environmental Change Meeting
Dr. Anna Versluis presented a paper at the 2009 meeting of the International Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change in Bonn, Germany. The meeting is a gathering of geographers, political scientists, anthropologists and other social scientists who are studying global environmental change and its ramifications.
Glacial landforms in Minnesota
A group of GEG-105 students visited Glacial Lakes State Park in west-central Minnesota this week. The park showcases some lovely glacial depositional landforms–kames, kettles, and eskers–all created when the last glacier of the Pleistocene Ice Age retreated about 11,000 years ago.
Dr. Bjelland’s Op-Ed Piece Published
Mark Bjelland, Chair of Geography at Gustavus, has an op-ed piece in the current AAG Newsletter, a national, monthly publication of the Association of American Geographers. The title is “Reflections on Geography’s Contributions to the Social Scientific Study of Religion.”
Midwest Undergraduate Geography Symposium
On Saturday, many Gustavus Geography students attended and presented papers or posters at the Midwest Undergraduate Geography Symposium, held at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Association of American Geographers Meeting
The Association of American Geographers (AAG) held their annual meeting March 22-27 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Gustavus geographers Mark Bjelland, Bob Moline and Anna Versluis attended. Mark chaired several sessions on “Reflections on the Geography of Religion” and presented a paper titled Congregations and the Geographies of Religious Diversity. Anna presented a paper titled Highlands [...]
Food to fuel
On a chilly day in January, a group of Gustavus students visited an innovative ethanol plant in Winnebago, MN, to learn more about the process of creating ethanol from corn. We had read a critical account of the American corn industry in Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and now were interested in hearing about [...]
Sewage, sludge and. . .sustainability?
Where does the water go when you flush a toilet or take a shower or wash clothes? Gustavus students visit Saint Peter’s state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility as part of the course The Future of Sustainability. Everything that goes down a campus drain shows up here where it is screened, settled, filtered, digested by bacteria, disinfected [...]
Treading lightly, running on green
Gustavus students and avid runners, Lauren Nelson and Kimberly Rostvold, present ideas on how runners can tread more lightly on the Earth while still running far and fast. Their suggestions include using eco-friendly shoes, racing locally, and recycling worn-out shoes. Other students in The Future of Sustainability presented ideas for greater sustainability in areas such as [...]
Wind power
Gustavus students in the January-term course The Future of Sustainability visited Lake Benton, Minnesota, to gain a better understanding of wind power. Lake Benton is located on “Buffalo Ridge” in southwest Minnesota–a windy area with over 800 wind turbines which calls itself the “wind power capital of the Midwest.” According to the Department of Energy, in [...]
Geocache!
Students in the Fall Geographic Information Science (GIS) class gave geocaching a try on a cold day in November. Like a high-tech treasure hunt, the goal is to use GPS and clues to navigate to a “cache” created by someone else. The cache contains a log of other geocachers who discovered it and maybe a [...]