Geographic Information Science and Spatial Reasoning

(GEOG 104)  (A General Education [GE]  Course)

(Click Here to download Syllabus --PDF format)

Overview: 

This course will introduce fundamental concepts of geographic information science (GIScience), including geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), cartography, remote sensing, and spatial statistics.  Advanced geospatial application tools, such as Google Earth, Google Map, and the National Geographic Map Machine will be used to demonstrate these concepts.  Students will learn how to use these geospatial technologies and tools in addressing human and environmental problems.  Students will be able to organize geospatial data, visualize spatial patterns, and conduct basic spatial query and map overlay functions.  

Prerequisites:  Satisfaction of the Entry-Level Mathematics requirement (ELM).

Required Textbooks:

Longley, Paul A., Goodchild, Michael F., Maguire, David J., and David W. Rhind.  2005.  Geographic Information Systems and Science (Second Edition), John Wiley and Sons, Toronto.

Lectures:  Lecture sessions emphasize the principles and concepts of GIScience and spatial reasoning, including spatial analysis theory, GIS operations, Cartography, spatial statistics, remote sensing, and computer technology.  Lecture notes are available on the class website.

Web-based Assignment (Home Works): 

This course will provide a series of web-based GIS exercises for students who may utilize any campus computers in public space or their home computers with high speed Internet access.  Web-based assignments are due at the beginning of the lecture (11:00am) on the lab due day.  Late submission will be docked 20% per day, and will be effective on the due date.  This course also provides the access to the SAL lab (Storm Hall 338) on Friday morning between 11:00am to 12:00pm for students who need to access high speed Internet.

Grading:         Class participation (lectures): 10%;            Web Exercises: 40%; 

                        Midterm Exam: 20%;                                   Final Exam: 30%

For the Mid-term and Final exam:  include 10 multiple choice questions, four problem solving questions (computation), and four short answer questions (4-5 sentences).  For the web-based exercises, there are several GIS modules with on-line demo and exercises.  Each module consists of multiple choice questions, short answer questions, and problem solving questions.  For the Class participation, it will be based on the attendance and the questions/answers during the lectures and on the blackboard.

         Week                 Lecture                         Reading                    Web Exercises

Additional Readings: (Available via the Internet or be distributed in the lecture)

Corvallis Microtechnology, Inc. (1996). Introduction to the Global Positioning System for GIS and TRAVERSE.  URL: http://www.cmtinc.com/gpsbook/index.htm

David M. Mark, Nicholas Chrisman, Andrew U. Frank, Patrick H. McHaffie, & John Pickles, (1997),  The GIS History Project – Summary Paper, at URL: http://www.geog.buffalo.edu/ncgia/gishist/bar_harbor.html

Declan Butler, (2006). The web-wide world.  Nature, 439(16). February 2006, pp. 776-778.

NASA Earth-Sun System Website:  http://science.hq.nasa.gov/earth-sun/

Trimble, Inc. (2006).  GPS Tutorial.  URL: http://www.trimble.com/gps/index.shtml

Virginia Gewin, (2004), Mapping opportunities. Nature, 427(22). Pp. 376-377.  URL: http://www.aag.org/nature/nature.htm

(Example: The National Geographic MapMachine). http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/index.html

  
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Last updated: September 30, 2008.