Hello everyone! My name is Amanda Giedroc and I’m currently taking the class from State College, PA. I was born and raised there as well. I’m majoring in elementary education and taking classes to be certified to teach ESL students. After I graduate, I hope to teach at the elementary school I went to as a child and to pursue additional certifications in math education. I am taking this course to fulfill a graduation requirement, but also to increase my knowledge about geography. The geography classes I took in high school dealt strictly with looking at maps and pointing out different places. As I result, I have little exposure to the different kinds of geography and how it is impacted by the environment. I am excited to learn about how humans affect the environment and environmental governance.

With the completion of module one, I realized there are many issues that geography would be able to solve. The first issue I thought of was related to the spread of diseases. In my microbiology class, we discuss the importance of containing diseases so they do not infect other people. In my mind, geographers might look at the scale in which the disease has spread. For example, they could look at the amount of people who have become sick at a local level with a specific virus and then at a national level to see if it has been contained. Maps which are projected to look at a tiny area of a city (the London underground system map) might help health officials to target a specific area where the disease started. People would need to report their symptoms to a doctor with their location, so geographers could effectively look at the extent to which it is spread and so they can create a plan to help people feel better.