Wrapping up the term before departure…

The five weeks on campus flew by so fast.  It was pretty intense but very fruitful in terms of covering all the basics and foundations necessary to travel and absorb India as it presents itself.  One of the courses required students to make a final presentation in the form of a poster on a region of India (assigned to them before the summer).  This involved several weeks of research, data gathering, GIS application, spatial analysis and finally presentation of the results.  Here are some of the pictures from the presentation.  This almost wraps up the time on campus.  Next is departure for India.

2011 Fall GIS Presentations

India - Poster Presentation Day

Today our students made a presentation of their GIS class projects in the form of a poster.  It was well worth their time and effort.  In spite of the delay in getting the posters printed, the session went very well with participation by Furman community members.  Individual projects were focused on a variety of themes, but overall, it was clear that an analysis of data from all the projects were necessary to answer any single question in a complete way.  For example, any question related to poverty can only be answered when we closely analyze education, natural resource distribution and the wealth of the state, political infrastructure, environmental quality, and natural hazard potential among other things.  It was fascinating. 
Please check out the posters in electronic form here.

India GIS Poster Session

Click on the photo above to visit the complete album.

Engaged Learning and Integrated Learning Experience at its Best!

Over the past five weeks, the the students have been working very hard to understand India from an interdisciplinary perspective.  Readings for all four classes are from a variety of peer-reviewed journals, published books, government and NGO reports, and textbooks etc.,  All four courses for this term are interconnected and the faculty directors have spent over a years time in bringing it all together.  Getting such an enriching educational experience at Furman doesn’t come without some pains.  Everyday classes, volumes of daily reading, extended hours to complete labs, weekly exams, blog-writing assignments, take-home exams, GIS term projects and finding some sleep when possible have been the routine for both faculty directors and the students.  These pains are nothing in comparison to the pleasures of connecting dots and gaining a broader understanding and a deeper appreciation for the complexities in the human-natural environment interface.  One blog entry can hardly capture the excitement and the myriad of things awaiting us.  We leave in a week, but still have unfinished parts to take care of.  This is just the beginning.  Come back for more.

Students working on developing the framework presented in “India Unbound, by Gurcharan Das” book.

 

 

Group discussion in progress.