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Research Labs & Resources

 

Research Labs

Environmental Lab (Sage 4452)
The focus of this lab is the analysis of lake sediment in order to reconstruct past environmental conditions including vegetation and disturbances such as fire.  Equipment includes a Barrington MS2c magnetic susceptibility core logging sensor, pollen and charcoal reference collections, a variety of microscopes, sediment sieves, and sampling equipment for field work and laboratory core analysis, along with refrigerated core storage.
Human Geography Lab (Sage Hall 4439)
This lab is home to a number of resources to develop human geography research at UW Oshkosh.  The lab provides research space for undergraduate students working with human geography faculty on a variety of projects, including independent studies and faculty-student collaborative grants.  The lab also serves as a reading library for students who can assess a variety of human geography resources in the lab (numerous textbooks, journals, etc). In addition to these functions, the Human Geography Research lab also provides an informal place for majors to meet and study.
Integrated Conservation Lab (Sage 4440)
The Integrated Conservation Lab (ICL) in the Geography Department is organized around the idea that studying conservation takes many forms, and that effective conservation is most likely to come out of an awareness of its complexity. Like geography, conservation combines examination of the physical environment with attention to social systems and the interplay amongst both. In the ICL at UWO, we approach conservation from the perspective that it is based on a diversity of ways of knowing the environment, and ask questions about how those forms of ecological knowledge come into being, are communicated, and used, and to what effect. Current research projects include studying the nontimber forest products being harvested in the city of Oshkosh (student project), examining the long-term persistence of traditional rural biotopes in central Finland (student project), and re-conceptualizing biodiversity through different ways of knowing the environment both materially and theoretically (Barron).
Paleoecology Lab (Sage Hall 4436)
The Paleoecology lab is equipped with standard laboratory equipment, including microscopes, beakers, and scales. The lab also features a fume hood for chemical assays.
Soils Research Lab (Sage Hall 4456)
The Soils Lab is equipped with a variety of state-of-the-art instruments and equipment to collect and analyze soil samples and conduct landscape-scale analyses in field settings. In the laboratory, equipment is available to analyze basic soil properties using either discreet soil samples or soil cores and prepare samples for analysis at external labs. For more information, visit the Soils Research Laboratory homepage.

Teaching Labs

GIS Lab (Sage 4422)
Geography technique courses such as Cartography, Computer Cartography, Introductory and Advanced GIS, and Remote Sensing of the Environment are taught in the laboratory.Urban Planning courses, such as Introduction to Urban Planning and Computer Uses in Urban Analysis, are also taught in the GIS Lab.

The department has the latest equipment for cartography, computer cartography, digital image processing and GIS. The GIS facilities are noted among the best of any university in the State of Wisconsin. The department shares site licenses with other University of Wisconsin campuses for state-of-the-art ESRI products. Twenty workstations are configured in a LAN environment with specialized printers and plotters for the highest quality output.

The laboratory is well-equipped with hardware and software in a local area network (LAN) environment. Twenty-four HP/Compaq computers are used for data servers and workstations. Peripheral devices include digitizers, scanners, laser printers, large and small format color printers and plotters. Primary software packages include ESRI ArcGIS, ARC/INFO, SDE, MapObjects, and ArcIMS; MapInfo/Vertical Mapper; MapViewer, Surfer and Grapher and Microsoft Visual Basic and Office 2007.

The laboratory also supports faculty-student collaborative research projects evolving from grants, contracts, and various other sources. The Geography department also provides GIS training courses for local GIS users.

Geography Teaching Labs (Sage Hall 4408 & 4412)
We maintain two teaching laboratories, which can accommodate up to 32 students each.

Collections & Libraries

Map Libraries (Sage Hall 4402 & 4416)
Our department hosts and maintains two map libraries: Vette/Blust Geography Map Library (Sage Hall 4402) contains a wide variety of maps and aerial photographs, including complete topographic map sets at a variety of scales for the entire state of Wisconsin as well topographic and thematic for many regions around the world; Geography Wall Map Library ( Save & Exit Sage Hall 4416) includes an extensive collection of large-sized wall maps.
Rock and Soil Collection (Sage Hall 4430)

Our department has an extensive collection of rocks, minerals, and soils from around the world. This is a closed collection but it is available upon request. To request access, please contact Dr. Colin Long (longco@uwosh.edu).

  Phone:  (920) 424-4105

  Fax: (920) 424-0292

  Email: geography@uwosh.edu

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Monday - Friday 7:30AM - 3:30PM

 

  Sage Hall 3464 and 4461
835 High Ave.
Oshkosh, WI 54901