© 2008 University of Idaho
 All rights reserved.

Instructor

Eva Strand
Assistant Professor Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management
College of Natural Resources
Phone: (208) 885-5779
Email: evas@uidaho.edu

Teaching assistant: Andrea Kuchy
        Graduate Student in Rangeland Ecology and Management
        College of Natural Resources
        Phone: (208) 885-4946
        Email: akuchy@vandals.uidaho.edu

The instructor will be available in the Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.uidaho.edu) Chat room for NR402 during office hours (see individual lessons schedule for chat hours).

Course Objectives

This course reviews basic GIS concepts such as data types, file formats, coordinate systems, analysis techniques, and map display. Later in the course we cover more advanced concepts such as GPS/GIS integration, on-screen digitizing, overlay analysis, conditional probability assessments, and raster modeling in relation to natural resource management. The course focuses on laboratory exercises with the goal of giving students hands on experience in using GIS, particularly in natural resource applications.

Required Books

Karl Chang, Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, 3^rd Edition (McGrawHill, 2005).

You will have a short homework assignments due each week described at the end of each GIS lab exercise. The assignments generally consist of maps or tables created in the lab exercises.  

Quizzes

All the standard quizzes in the course are open book, open notes, but not "open neighbor"! Even if you live in the same location as a classmate, you must do these alone. There are two quizzes in NR402. The quizzes have three section: 1) multiple-choice, 2) terminology, 3) Questions that requires writing. The first quiz covers  vector data, map projections, and GPS and the second quiz covers raster data, scale, and accuracy.

In addition to the quizzes the course also includes a series of multiple-choice self-assessment practice quizzes which are not graded. You can take these quizzes as many times as you wish to test your GIS knowledge acquired within a lesson.

Final Project

Through this course you have been introduced to a few examples of how GIS can be used to solve problems and answer questions in natural resource applications. The initial exercises were well defined with detailed instructions on how to perform the analysis and interpret the results. In the later exercises you completed exercises with less guidance and began to produce short reports stating your objectives, GIS data, analysis methods and results.

The final project will give you an opportunity to apply what you have learned in this class to a GIS analysis application of your own choice using self-selected data.

Recommended procedure for the final project:

1. Develop a research or management question that  you can answer using GIS.
2. Find the data you need. You can use data from this class, data from the organization you work for, data from the Internet or data that you create yourself.
3. Decide what GIS analysis methods to use.
4. Perform the analysis and create appropriate maps and tables
5. Write a short report (3-4 pages double spaced) including the following
   1. background and objectives
   2. description of data layers you have used and their source, scale and accuracy
   3. GIS analysis methods (use some detail here but not every key stroke)
   4. results and discussion
   5. Maps, tables, charts etc
   6. References (citation of literature references and GIS data layers used)

Threaded Discussion 

You can use the Discussion in Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.uidaho.edu) of this web-based course to post questions or ask for help with the hands-on exercises. Please post under the 'Technical help' discussion topic. I will respond to postings in the Technical help section at least 3 times per week (Mo, We, Fr). This is the preferred way of communication rather than emailing the instructor. If one student has problems with an exercise it is likely that others will have the same problem. There is no discussion component in the course and your participation in the threaded discussions help section will not be graded. 

Grading

Homework	50
Quizzes	20
Final project	30
Total	100