Author: mbjellan

Dressed as the early Saint Peter settler Captain Dodd, Dr. Bob Douglas led new international students on a tour of the Saint Peter area. As always Bob’s tours take students to the Minnesota River landing where it all began. Bob’s tour focused on the downtown and  the town’s historical geography. 

Geographer Dr. Will Graf will be the featured speaker at the October 7 evening banquet during the 2009 Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College. Dr. Graf is the University Foundation Distinguished Professor of Geography at the University of South Carolina where he also chairs the Geography Department. Will Graf will speak on the state of…

Now you can check on the Saint Peter weather from the comfort of your home. The Geography Department has operated a campus weather station for decades. Students use the data for projects during GEG-108: Weather and Climate and for research projects on solar power, wind energy, hydrology, and plant growth in Saint Peter.  But in…

Mac Cafferty (‘00) is the Environmental Resources Manager for the City of Lakeville, MN and was quoted in a July 29, 2009 StarTribune article about efforts he has led to restore meanders to the Vermillion River in order to improve trout habitat. Mac has been involved since 1999 in efforts to restore natural meanders to…

Damon Rich, an artist/urban designer has created an exhibit on the foreclosure crisis for the Queens Museum in New York City. He used a geographic information system to compute the foreclosure rate block by block for the entire region. Then, he used an old 9,000 square foot model of the city and placed plastic symbols…

Four Gusties worked together at the AP Human Geography reading held at the University of Nebraska. Their task was to grade the free response questions on 59,000 AP Geography exams. Geography is a required high school subject in Texas and the State of Florida pays for all AP exams so many of the exams were…

While on a Teagle grant-related visit to Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, Dr. Bjelland got a chance to visit their well-regarded Geography Department. Augustana’s Geography Department has strong ties to Gustavus–it was a sister Swedish Lutheran college, the undergraduate home to Dr. Bob Moline, and the place where his brother Norm Moline has spent…

Seven geography majors graduated in the May 31, 2009 ceremony: Julissy Acosta, Allison Bohn, Jill Fagerstrom, Eric Gunderson, Angela Magnusson, and Elliot Peterson. Three geography majors completed the geography honors degree with a thesis and graduated with Latin honors: Angie Magnusson graduated summa cum laude, and Allison Bohn and Jill Fagerstrom graduated cum laude.

The GEG-243 class enjoyed a beautiful day out on the Blue Earth River and learned about issues in river management. The Rapidan Dam is 99 years old, has 70 feet of vertical drop, and an average flow of 840 cubic feet per second. While it continues to generate enough electricity for 2,000 to 3,000 homes,…

Gustie geography graduate and world geography teacher Christian Gilbert has posted many beautiful pictures and travel details from his recent climb of Mount Aconcagua–the highest peak in the Americas and the highest in the Southern Hemisphere.  Check them out at: http://web.me.com/worldgeography8/Aconcagua/Home.html