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Department Faculty Updates (continued from page 3) mysteries of Glacial Lake Algonquin, which existed in the Great Lakes basin approximately 12,000 years ago. Dr. Blewett and I conducted weeks of fieldwork in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula regarding some newly discovered ancient shorelines, and we developed new hypotheses about moraine development in the region. We’re going back to the “UP” during Summer 2012 to virtually excavate a massive pro-glacial delta with some new Ground Penetrating Radar technology. Also, my latest manuscript about the ancient lake is in press and will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Paleolimnology. Dr. Claire Jantz and I are still working together. We’re beginning to wrap up our five-year effort (National Science Foundation) to build new knowledge about the Baltimore metropolitan area, and to better understand how urban growth is changing the region’s water supplies. We took graduate student Michael Maret and undergraduate students Ben Ritter and Gus Frederick to Seattle, WA, to present new findings at the Association of American Geographer 2011 Annual Meeting; each did a great job. To follow up, Claire and I just submitted a new research proposal that seeks to answer fundamental questions regarding future urban growth, land cover change and water quality conditions across the entire Chesapeake Bay Watershed. In October 2011, students Scott Evans and Deb Whitmoyer, and I, attended the 6th Annual NW Pennsylvania GIS Conference. The conference was filled with presentations and talk about the Marcellus Shale gas play and the related demand boom for GIS-related products and services. Scott and Deb both presented work they accomplished in our Applied GIS course. I should note that we ran Applied GIS a little differently than usual last year, for we visited with the National Park Service’s map production staff in Harper’s Ferry and learned how to achieve high-quality map designs using ArcGIS, Adobe Illustrator, and the National Park Service’s map/brochure style sheets. Our students made some stunning map products in that class. In January 2012, I became a Certified Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP). Former students of GIS III (aka Advanced GIS) should recall beginning their application processes in college so that adding to and amending their applications will be easy as each develops the required years of professional on-the-job experience. I’m pleased to share that alumna Katie Howard (nee Hess) also became a Certified GISP in January. For those keeping track, our GIS and Ford Labs are running ESRI ArcGIS for Desktop 10 (ArcInfo), ESRI Business Analyst, the latest version of ERDAS Imagine, Surfer 10, and Trimble GPS Pathfinder Office 5.2, among many others. Also, we upgraded our fleet of Trimble GPS/GNSS hardware. We now have two survey-grade GeoExplorer 6000s and a dozen mapping-grade GeoXM units to support classroom instruction, student research, and our summer Field Techniques course. Last but not least, I’d love to hear from you. Anything you can share with us about your experiences at Ship or in the current GIS job market will help us to better help our students. sadrzy@ship.edu. Allison Feeney Hi everyone. As in the past I continue to teach GIS and cartography courses, continually updating skills with the changing demands of technology and the limitless possibilities geography has to offer. The past two years I have been working with students interested in the Atlantic trade, with particular focus on Bermuda. My own research has been examining historic maps created in the first 100 years of settlement of the New World, and analyzing the accuracy of these early maps in a GIS. Last summer I went with a graduate student, Stewart Beattie to Bermuda, who was using GIS to map shipwreck data, and this fall break I took ten students from an honor’s course, “The World of Pirates” to Bermuda. While there, we stayed in the historic Naval Dockyards, mapped features for a 3D tour, visited with an underwater archaeologist, snorkeled the coral reefs, and saw many of the islands cultural and physical landscapes. Closer to home I have been working with another graduate student who is mapping the street trees in the borough of Shippensburg. While this initial phase is part of his graduate research, he intends to establish a GIS for the borough and the university to collaboratively map, study, and manage the urban trees. I also continue to work with student organizations such as the adventure club and ski club where I can express my love for outdoor activities such as whitewater rafting, kayaking, skiing, and tennis. Tom Feeney Well, my office is no cleaner than the last time you were here in Shearer Hall! I have had no difficulty at all filling up Dr. Benhart’s old office with assorted stuff. I’d like to think it is all there ready to go to class or in the field at a moment’s notice, but you know better. The classes seem to be boiling along as maybe you once remember them. I continue to work away at making Hydrogeology a “realworld” class, as I’m still waiting for that perfect 37º F day with light rain to run that SLUG test. And, I’m working to incorporate some geophysics into the Environmental Geology class thanks to the combined efforts of Drs. Cornell, Zume, and Woltemade into bringing that equipment to the Department. On the research side, I continue to monitor the hydrology of springs in the region, with a major effort being placed on the Cleversburg Sink Cave system. The system is not far away, and is adjacent to the mighty Burd Run channel just a few miles upstream from campus. Some really neat stuff is coming out of there that might indicate (that’s a strong statement!) that some Burd Run water could be flowing to an entirely different watershed. Wouldn’t that be something! Unfortunately, we have to wait for just the right hydrologic conditions to test this idea. Some students and I are also making trips into the cave on a regular basis to collect water samples to evaluate how the speleothems (cave formations) in there are forming. Stay tuned! I continue to help Dr. Hawkins collect weather data at the station to satisfy the weather-geek side of me, and I have done a bit of work to help the Shippensburg Borough Water Authority site a new water supply well. As some of you may recall, we have had great success in the past siting very productive wells for the Borough, but going to the trough too often may be creeping up on my batting average. Please drop me a note and let me know how you are doing. 4 Down to Earth News 2012
Department Faculty Updates Kurt Fuellhart I continue to teach courses in human geography including Cultural Geography, Geography of the U.S.A. and Canada, and Economic Geography. My research involves the geography of air transport services and other regional economic issues. I have recently co-authored conference papers for several international meetings including the International Conference of the Hong Kong Society for Transportation Studies (2010) in Hong Kong, SAR, China, The Association of American Geographers Conference (2011) in Seattle, Wash., and the Air Transport Research Society Annual Conference (2011) in Sydney, NSW, Australia. Tim Hawkins Hi everyone! I continue to teach and research in the fields of meteorology and climatology. I am on sabbatical during Spring 2012 working on two projects. The first builds on some previous work by examining the role that three-dimensional computer simulations and three-dimensional tangible models have in student learning of challenging meteorological concepts. I’m working with Jan Smith and we’ve initially found some interesting differences in student scores depending on whether students use a 2-D or 3-D model as well as some interesting sex-based differences. My other project involves building a hydrologic model of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. With a functioning model, I hope to examine the impact of projected climate change and land use change in the coming decades on the runoff to the Bay as well as the hydroclimate of the watershed. I will also be able to use the model in my classes and for future student research. I still very much enjoy working with students on research projects. Some recent student projects include: climate change along the Appalachian Trail, modeling the impact of green roofs on buildings, and examining Shippensburg’s urban heat island. I continue to maintain the weather station on campus and somehow got roped into being department chair for the Fall 2011 semester while Dr. Blewett was on sabbatical. I think I was the only person still standing in the room after everyone else ran away when they asked who wanted to be chair….I hope you are all doing well and would love to hear an update from you! Claire Jantz I can’t believe I have been at Shippensburg University for almost seven years. Time flies when you’re having fun, right I manage to keep myself occupied on a variety of teaching and research projects. I am excited about a new NASA-funded research project that will focus on mapping and monitoring of wetland dynamics for improved resilience and delivery of ecosystem services in the Mid-Atlantic region. I also have two research proposals in review to continue on urbanization research in the Mid-Atlantic region, and to study settlement patterns and environmental change in the Andes using remote sensing techniques and field-based data collection. My fingers are crossed for a favorable outcome with those proposals, both of which have been submitted to the National Science Foundation. The work I have done to write and, occasionally, win funded research awards was recognized in 2010, when I was awarded the Provost’s Award for Extraordinary Service. I still teach several classes, including World Geography, Conservation of Natural Resources, Land Use, Urban Geography, and a graduate course on the Science of Land Use Change. A lot of my research feeds directly into my classes and into research I do with students. I am so proud of some of the student research projects I have advised that I recently launched a new page on my website to publish student white papers. Please take a look at http:// webspace.ship.edu/cajant/student_white_papers.html and see some of the great research students are doing in the field of land use and land cover change. I continue to serve as the department’s internship coordinator, and last academic year helped to place over 80 undergraduate and graduate students. It is rewarding to see our students develop academically and professionally at their internships, and I invite you to read about some of our featured internships on our website (http://www.ship.edu/Geo-ESS/ Internships/). And, please keep us in mind if your agency or company is seeking interns. In my free time, my husband and I continue to keep honeybees as a hobbyist beekeeper and to participate in NASA’s HoneyBeeNet as citizen scientists (http://webspace.ship.edu/ cajant/research_honeybeenet.html). We have also brought a third dog into our household, a rescue that I brought home from field work, and the pack keeps us busy with dog school, hiking, and tennis ball. Paul Marr This semester I have been reacquainting myself with the department, having just returned from a one-year sabbatical. Spent some of my time taking a much needed break, with the rest being devoted to proposal writing, pushing some back-burner research projects up to the front burner (where they were immediately overcooked), and preparing manuscripts. Former state archaeologist Stephen Warfel and I were able to get another PHMC grant for excavations at the Fort Morris site. The dig will begin in May 2012, with our goal being to locate the fort’s palisade wall and ultimately determine the layout of the fort, its size, and its position on the landscape. I was also able to get a few manuscripts out the door: one written with Dr. Jantz entitled “Aymaran Village Abandonment on the Chilean Dry Puna”, which we sent to Mountain Research and Development Journal, and the other (and my personal favorite) was “Geography of the British Motorcycle Industry: 1896-2004”, which was sent to Transport History Journal. The Aymaran village abandonment paper resulted in the development of research proposals to NOAA (not funded) and NSF (which will be submitted in January, 2012). Dr. Jantz and I hope to be working with a Chilean agronomist, an Aymaran linguist, and the Woods Hole Research Center to investigate the mechanisms that have led to depopulation on the dry puna of northern Chile. Dr. Jantz and I are also in the process of developing a field study course in northern Chile that would take students from the coastal mountain range and the abandoned nitrate mines, through the Atacama desert, and up into the Andes Mountains. I think this would be an amazing opportunity for students (continued on page 6) Down to Earth News 2012 5
Page 1 and 2: 2012 The alumni newsletter of the D
Page 3: Department Faculty Updates Mike App
Page 7 and 8: Department Faculty Updates On a mor
Page 9 and 10: GEOGRAPHY-EARTH SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
Page 11 and 12: Field Courses Honorable Mention Sea
Page 13 and 14: Field Courses Grants/Publications (
Page 15 and 16: PA Alliance Brings Giant North Amer

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