Senior Assignment (3 credit hours)
GEOG 499 (Prerequisite: GEOG 321; Senior Standing)
All students enrolled at SIUE complete a senior assignment project as a culminating experience of their undergraduate careers. In Geography, the senior assignment is a research project that includes data collection, data processing and analysis, and presentation of the results in the form of an illustrated poster (see poster gallery below) or a research paper (15-20 pages of text). Students should register for GEOG 499 in their second-to-last semester after completing GEOG 321 with a minimum grade of D (note that to graduate, Geography majors must earn a C or better for all major requirements).
During the first semester of senior assignment, you will attend a face-to-face class (see CougarNet for semester schedules). Semester I work includes the development of a research proposal and preparation for graduation. You must complete Semester I before progressing to Semester II and completing your Senior Assignment. If you fail to complete Semester I, you will be required to repeat it in a future semester. During the second semester of senior assignment, you will work with your senior assignment supervisor to complete your project, either in the form of a paper or a poster. Those submitting a poster will also be completing an annotated bibliography. Plan to submit multiple drafts of your paper/poster prior to finalizing it. Once ready, your senior assignment will be graded by your supervisor and another faculty member (the second reader) using the same grading rubric.
Resources:
All Senior Assignments will be graded with a standard rubric.
Papers and posters should be formatted according to Chicago Style (author-date). These resources provide basic information about Chicago Style formatting.
- Annals of the American Association of Geographers Style Sheet
- Taylor & Francis Standard Reference Style: Chicago author-date
- The Chicago Manual of Style Online (Author-Date: Sample Citations)
Information about the Annotated Bibliography
Senior Assignment Poster Gallery
2023
- Charlie Brown - Can you Hear the Sirens? A Spatial Analysis of Outdoor Warning Sirens in Madison County, Illinois
- Kyra Dietz - Weather Impacts on Railroads Across the Continental United States (2017-2021)
- Ian Fyvie - The Risk of Heat Related Deaths and Hospitalizations in Saint Louis, Missouri
- Cory Gannar - A geographic analysis of NFL cities: What other cities could support an NFL team?
- Brock Koelz - Land Use Land Cover at Mt. Hood National Forest
- Turner Reed - Is “White Flight” Still Happening? An Analysis of Demographic Changes in Florissant, Missouri and North St. Louis City, 1950-2020
2022
- Joseph Dungey - Breaking the Barrier: Human Impact on the Great Barrier Reef
- Caylee George - Dividing Illinois into two states: Introducing Nillinois and Sillinois
- George Hayes - Analyzing the Effect of Landcover on Surface Temperature Using a Landsat Thermal Time Series and its Relationship to Income
- Adam McAllister - Geography of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in the United States
- Mitchell McSparin - Does Urban Primacy Matter? A Look into Urban Systems and Economic Growth
- Stefanie Pryor - Analysis of Hurricane Ida’s Impact on Sugarcane in Louisiana using Remote Sensing
- Russell Rodely - Qualitative Skatepark Mapping in the St. Louis Area
- Elizabeth Semande - It’s All Our Fault: Looking at the Spatial Frequency and Trends of Human-Made Technological Disasters in the 21st Century
