Geographic Information Systems minor
Office: 20 Houghton Hall
(716) 673-3884
Ann K. Deakin, Coordinator
Email: geographicinformation.systems@fredonia.edu
Website: http://www.fredonia.edu/department/interdisciplinary/
The objective of the Geographic Information Systems minor is to provide an interdisciplinary educational experience that prepares undergraduate students to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) within their chosen fields of study. A GIS is a computer-based system, comprised of both hardware and software that enables the collection, integration, analysis, and graphic display of geographically referenced data. It is estimated that as much as 85 percent of a government agency’s data is geographic, including, at a minimum, street addresses, political boundaries, postal codes, and latitude and longitude coordinates. Private sector organizations also work with an overwhelming amount of similar kinds of data in their day-to-day operations. With so much geographically based information, GIS has become essential to the effective operation of both public and private organizations.
The minor will prepare students for careers or graduate study in virtually all areas of the public or private sector where GIS is increasingly in use and critical for efficient management, comprehensive policy analysis, cost-effective decision making, and GIS display and processing. The curriculum in the minor is multidisciplinary in content and interdisciplinary in approach, drawing on a variety of disciplines and departments. Service learning is incorporated into several GIS courses and can be a focus of the GIS practicum experience. Students are strongly encouraged to attend a regional and/or state GIS conference with the GIS faculty and other students in the minor.
Required Courses for the minor
Students are required to take 25 credit hours (a minimum of 15 credit hours outside of their major) from among the following courses:
A. GIS Core Courses: 16 credit hours
B. GIS Elective Courses: 9 credit hours
Students with the natural sciences focus should take GIS 350 Remote Sensing and Image Processing and two additional courses as advised by the coordinator.
Examples of possible electives include:
Students with the social sciences focus should take GIS 360 Mapping the Social World and two additional courses as advised by the coordinator.
Examples of possible electives include2:
| BUAD 325 | Principles of Marketing | 3 |
| ECON 380 | Environmental/Natural Resource Economics | 3 |
| GIS 401 | Special Topics in Geographic Information Systems | 3 |
| POLI 311 | Fundamentals of Public Administration | 3 |
| SOC 215 | Introduction to Public Health | 3 |
| Statistics as advised | |