From Professor Naesse:
- I love teaching Cultural Geography (GEOG 185). This was my first geography class as a student and it is why I became a geographer. When we look at our environment, everything in our landscape represents some process that is occurring, and this is what I love to investigate in cultural geography. For example, Little Saigon is a great example of migration, diffusion, assimilation and an ethno-burb. The now shuttered Laguna Hills Mall tells us about changes in the urban environment. These defunct shopping malls are being recycled into office spaces and schools. The diffusion of Siracha, the evolution of Motown, and the spaces of Fatherhood are fun ways to explore cultural processes. Our cultural environment is always changing and by observing and analyzing those changes, we receive insight into economic, political, and social developments. Students work hard in my class doing group assignments, reading academic journal articles, and completing a final project. But, we also have a lot of fun with guest lecturers, student presentations, and a potluck which investigates agriculture. Ultimately, by learning about other people, we learn about ourselves.
- For me, Physical Geography (GEOG 180) is the quintessential class for understanding how geography works. We start with the question: “Where is it?” and then “Why is it there?”. To answer those questions, we have to look at patterns and inter-relationships. My class begins with understanding basic patterns and processes in physical geography such as temperature, wind and pressure cells, and precipitation. Once we know these distributions, we can start to look for inter-relationships to explain the locations of climates, plants, soils, and natural disasters. Finally, we look at broad patterns of landforms on the earth's surface. The most exciting thing for me about physical geography is that students no longer see clouds, or rivers, or beaches. Instead, what they see when they leave this class is the processes that are at work in our physical environment.
From Professor Quinn:
- One of my favorite classes to teach at Orange Coast College is World Regional Geography (GEOG 100). I like to teach this class because we have the ability travel to different countries around the world without even leaving the classroom. Every semester, I share photos and stories of some of the places that I have traveled to in the past and so that students can get a sense of what these places are like in real life. Students also share their own stories of the places that we discuss in class and it makes it more fun. On more than one occasion, I have had students tell me at the end of the semester that this was one of their favorite parts of the class. One of my primary goals in the class is for students to expand their horizons and to get them to travel to other countries in order to see some of these places for themselves.
- Another one of my favorite classes to teach at Orange Coast College is the California Geography (GEOG 150) course. I like to teach this class because we discuss different aspects of California including the geomorphic regions, geology, weather and climate, biogeography, water resources, population, migration, ethnic groups, cultures, economic geography, and applied geography. One fun activity that we do in class is visit the Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve. This location is great because we coordinate with staff and docents from the nature preserve and they discuss some of the topics that we mentioned in class. During this excursion, students have the ability to apply geographic concepts as they learn more about the geology, history, biogeography, and environmental issues in a real-world setting.
