The Department of Geographic Science
Profile
The College of Environment and Planning of Henan University was founded in 1923. Based on geography, it has four undergraduate majors. The Department of Geographical Sciences is mainly responsible for talent cultivation of Geographical Science Major and Physical Geography and Resource and Environment Major. Among them, the Geographical Science major was set up in 1950. After more than 60 years' development, it has become a major with a certain leading position and influence in China. In 2007, it was approved as a state-level specialty in Geographical Sciences. In 2010, it was awarded as a teaching team of state-level in geographical sciences. So far, the Department of Geographical Sciences has made great achievement in terms of the teaching staff, talent cultivation and the hardware and software construction of teaching and research.
Faculty
The college attaches great importance to the training and construction of teachers in the Department of Geographical Sciences. After years of effort, a teaching team, with a reasonable age, professional title, and knowledge structure as well as a spirit of cooperation and innovation has been formed. There are 25 full-time teachers which includes 4 professors (1 distinguished professor), 21 associate professors (of which 11 are university associate professors), 3 doctoral supervisors, and 22 master supervisors; among them, 11 members have experience of visiting and attending academic exchanges abroad. Members under the age of 45 account for more than 60%, and all have PhD degrees. Full-time teachers have a good professional background and education-related structure. In the past three years, members of the team have achieved outstanding achievements both in education and scientific research.
Student Development
The Department of Geographical Sciences attaches great importance to the quality of talent cultivation and encourages students to actively participate in practical activities such as innovation and entrepreneurship activities, "Challenge Cup", "Creation Youth" entrepreneurial competition and "World Earth Day" and so on. During the 2014-2016 period, a total of 13 projects on innovation and entrepreneurship for university students (including 6 at the national level) were approved. In 2016, it won 1 silver award of the 2nd China Internet + College Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and 1 third prize of the 8th “Creation Youth” College Student Entrepreneurship Competition of Henan University. At the Teaching Skills of Normal Students Majoring in Geography of National University in 2014-2016, it won 1 grand prize, 2 second prizes and 3 third prizes respectively, and it also won 1 grand prize in the Teaching Skills Competition of Normal Students of Henan University during 2014-2016.
Laboratory and practical practice base construction
At present, relying on the National Environmental and Planning Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center, a series of physical geography indoors experimental locations, including the Planetarium, the Yingdong Geological Museum, the Geology and Physiognomy Practice Room, and the Plant Soil Specimen Showroom have been formed. The physical geography practice base including Mount Song, Lianyungang, Mount Jigong of Xin Yang, Mount Taihang and Mount Funiu and the human-economic geography also have been formed. In addition, a geography education and teaching training room was specially set up for students of geographical science. All of these practice resources will provide a good foundation for students to engage in scientific research or teaching in the future.
Furthermore
The teaching team of the Department of Geographical Science is also actively committed to teaching reform and scientific research and has achieved remarkable results. In the recent three years, the teaching team has undertaken a number of teaching research and reform projects of provincial and school-level, published many theses about education and teaching reform, and actively carried out provincial and school-level exquisite courses, MOOCs courses, and professional textbook construction. While earnestly grasping the basic teaching, the teachers of this department also pay close attention to the frontier issues and developments in the field of geography science both at home and abroad, devote themselves to scientific research work, promote teaching with scientific research, and create a platform for students to improve their practical ability and academic level.