Intermediate Geographic Information Systems

Mount San Jacinto Community College, Menifee Valley Campus

Fall 2005

Course Code: GEOG 120/4071 cross listed as GIS 120/4078, 3 units             

Second 8 Week Session, October 13 - December 17         

Thursday 6:00-9:50 p.m., Lecture Room 1010

Saturday 12:00-5:50 p.m., Computer Lab Room 652

Instructor: Dr. Cyndi Nance Internet: www.msjc.edu/gis

Phone:  (951) 672-6752 x2556 Email: cnance@msjc.edu

Office: Room 111

Office Hours: Thurs 2:00-5:00 p.m., Room 111

Online Monday 2:00-5:00 p.m. via email

Required Text: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, Longley, Goodchild, Maguire, second edition 2005

Required Materials: Scantron Forms 882-ES

Storage media – preferably USB drive device, flash memory stick or CD Writeables (not rewrite)

Recommended Preparation: Introduction to GIS (GIS115/GEOG115)

Recommended Concurrent Course Enrollment: GIS 080

A half unit GIS Practicum Course with times to be announced during Open Labs in Room 652 is recommended.  If you do not have the software or a computer for doing the assigned exercises and practicum, you may choose to enroll in this lab course to complete your GIS assignments.

Course Description:  This Intermediate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course prepares students for advanced geographic analysis.  Students will integrate geographic concepts and techniques used in spatial analysis, network analysis and 3D analysis with both raster and vector data.  Advanced GIS analysis of spatial statistics, network routing and 3D surface modeling are emphasized.

Course Objectives:

1. Design a GIS project for analysis of raster and vector data.
2. Construct GIS database and maps by assembling acquired, converted and reprojected spatial and nonspatial data.
3. Manipulate database and themes to produce a series of maps that address the research questions of a project.
4. Apply appropriate cartographic protocols.
5. Quantitative analysis of spatial statistics.
6. Apply spatial applications of 3D surface modeling, network routing and spatial analysis.
7. Describe and present the results of GIS analysis.

Course Structure: Each week will consist of approximately four hours of lecture and demonstration and six hours of computer laboratory applications.  Lecture will focus on network analysis, spatial analysis and surface analysis applications, with emphasis on Spatial and 3D Analysis applications for surface modeling.  Assigned virtual campus reading and exercises and instructor designed practicum (practical applications) will challenge students’ working knowledge and understanding of Geographic Information Systems. 

Attendance/Participation: Roll will be taken each class session.  Students are responsible for their attendance and for requesting from fellow students or me any information presented during their absence.  Experience demonstrates that absence and tardiness contribute to academic failure.  The withdrawal date (“W” on transcript) is posted in the Enrollment Office.  After the withdrawal date poor class performance will result in failure (“F” on transcript).  Students enrolled in the course are expected to attend all class meetings, from beginning to end.  

If you arrive late, leave early, go to the snack machines, or sleep in class, you will be marked absent.  If you are absent for two or more class meetings or the first class meeting, I may drop you from the course.  Telephones and pagers are not needed in this class; turn them off or leave them at home.  In a college class, discussion works best when one person speaks at a time.  Whispering to your neighbor is inappropriate.  Please do ask questions and contribute to class discussions. 

Grading System:  A mid-term and final exam (not cumulative) will test student comprehension of lecture, text material, or videos.  The exam format (scantron) consists of true or false decisions, multiple choice answers, and matching of definitions with terms.  If you know that you are going to miss an exam, please make arrangements with me prior to the exam to take the exam at another time.  If you must miss an exam, you may make it up during my office hours within one week of the exam date.  Without an official excuse for absence on the date of the exam, 10 percent of the make-up test score will be reduced for each week after the original exam date.  No make-up exams will be given two weeks after the original exam date.  The final exam must be taken during finals week at the scheduled time.  

All assignments are due in class on the date indicated on the following course schedule and no assignment will be accepted late or incomplete.  The final grade for the course will be determined by individual achievement as follows:

Total

Two Exams 100 points each 200 points

Virtual Campus Courses (choose one)

Spatial Analyst 50 points 25-50 points

3D Analyst 50 points

Geostatistical Analyst 25 points

Instructor Designed Practicum (5) 25 points each 125 points

ArcUser Articles (5) 25 points each 125 points

Total Possible Points: 500  Points

MULTIPLY TOTAL POINTS ACHIEVED BY 0.20 EQUALS 

STANDARD GRADE SCALE: 90-100=A, 80-89=B, 70-79=C, 60-69=D, <60=F

Extra Credit Potential, 25 points: ArcUser Exercise article of your choice, related to course topics –  check with instructor first for adequacy of article.      

Instructor Designed Practicum (125 points):  Practicum are designed to challenge students skills in spatial analysis beyond the “canned” data.  Each practicum is worth 25 points.

Virtual Campus Courses (50 or 25 points):  Students can choose one of the following for credit.  You must earn a certificates of completion for Virtual Campus Courses: Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst or provide proof of completion of the one module for Geostatistical Analyst.  These courses are used for both text and exercises, and test student understanding of concepts and terms.  Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst are worth 50 points each, Geostatistical Analyst consists of only one module and is worth 25 points.

ArcUser Exercises (125 points):  ESRI’s publication “ArcUser Magazine” provides software updates and applicable exercises.  I have assigned 5 articles to test student application skills for 25 points each.  Additionally, students may choose an article of interest to them, related to the course, for 25 points extra credit.  

ASSIGNMENTS

Instructor Designed Practicum data will be made available in class:

Practicum 1: SDTS and DEM/GNIS Basic Spatial Analyst Applications

Practicum 2: Geoprocess/Buffering, Exploratory Spatial Analysis

Practicum 3: Spatial Analysis, Model Builder and Raster Cell Application

Practicum 4: Merge DEMs/3D Terrain Modeling and Model Builder Application

Practicum 5: Create 3D Data and 3D Modeling (ArcScene and ArcGlobe)

ArcUser Assignments are available online at: www.esri.com .

Arc User Article 1: “Registering Images in ArcGIS,” by Mike Price, Jan.-Mar. 2002

Arc User Article 2: “Modeling the Wildland/Urban Interface,” by Mike Price, April-June 2003

Arc User Article 3: “Modeling Doppler Radar in ArcGIS” by Mike Price, January – March 2004

Arc User Article 4: Modeling Bauxite Thickness and Volumes in ArcGIS”, April-June 2004 and 

“Deriving Subset Volumes with Grid Masks” by Mike Price, July-Sept. 2004

Arc User Article 5: “3D Geologic Modeling in ArcScene” and “Using ArcScene Fly Tool” by Mike Price, October – December 2001

Reference Material and Optional Virtual Campus Course Assignments:

Virtual Campus (VC) course exercises and data available online at: www.esri.com .

Virtual Campus Course 1: Learning ArcGIS Spatial Analyst 9

Virtual Campus Course 2: Learning ArcGIS 3D Analyst 9

Virtual Campus Course 3: Geostatistical Analyst (only 1 module free)

HOW TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE

Be in class and on time.  Going to school is a job: treat it like one.

Ask questions in class, before class, and after class.  Participate in class discussions.

Take notes on lectures, films, readings, and class discussions.  

Keep your notes organized.  Organize your notes immediately following every class session.

Read the chapters that correspond to class topics during the week in which the topic is discussed.

Prepare for class review sessions prior to each exam.  Use the exam reviews.

Keep track of your total accumulation of points.

If you are thinking about dropping the course because you are having trouble, please see me!

If you are having trouble, please see me!!

If you do decide to drop the course, please complete the process through enrollment services.

The key to your success as a student is TIME MANAGEMENT!!!

For every unit you are enrolled in you should expect an average of 3 hours per week dedicated to the subject over the 18 week semester.  Thus, a 3 unit course may require 9 hours per week for in class lecture and out of class preparation.   Because this is an 8 week session, you can expect to spend 18 hours per week on this course.

Classroom Etiquette:  According to the rules and regulation of student conduct (Section 605.04B Board Policy): Cheating, plagiarism, or other forms of academic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary sanctions.  If you cheat on a test (look at someone else’s paper, make your paper available to someone else, etc.) or if you plagiarize on an assignment, you will receive a zero for that work.  If you do it again, you will be dropped from the course and reported to college administration.  

In a public place of higher education it is the instructor’s responsibility to maintain a safe and mutually respectful learning environment.  Disruptive or disrespectful behavior towards other students or myself will not be tolerated.  Therefore, the first incident of disruptive or disrespectful behavior will result in dismissal from the class.  The second incident will be referred for disciplinary action by college administration.  The third incident may result in expulsion from the college. 

College Computer and Internet Access Policy: No downloading of elicit material from the web (such as pornography).  No downloading of limited use software without licensing agreement.  Improper use of data license agreements will be reported to college administration.

 Fall 2005 COURSE SCHEDULE

Intermediate Geographic Information Systems

Lecture/Assigned Readings Chapter Exercises/Practical Applications

The contents of this page are subject to change. 

FILE MANAGEMENT:

On the c: drive (or your personal storage device) create a student folder for yourself.  Use “your name” or an alias (do not use spaces in any file or folder names).  Warning!!, do not have any sense of false security that your data is safe on computer lab hard drives!!  Back up your work on to a storage device.

Every file you create or modify should be stored in your personal folder.  As a part of your grade, you will turn in screen captures displaying your file organization.   I will be checking your folders and file names to assess your file organization skills!!

IMPORTANT:  Poor file organization results in most of the chaos and frustration that is experienced when learning a new software program.  Further complicating the organization process, is the fact that many files are “automatically” created by Spatial and 3D Analyst without interfacing with you as to where to store files or what to name them.  Many of these files have “generic”, nonspecific names and are easily overwritten, erased or misplaced if not organized initially and maintained.  Therefore, you MUST set your working directory to your student folder and the appropriate subfolder and check that the working directory is set every time you open Spatial or 3D Analyst, create a new map document or move to another computer.

Screen Captures: 

A screen capture is a copy of your monitor’s display.  The screen capture is stored in virtual memory and can be pasted into a MS Word document or graphic program.  Depending on your computer (and every computer seems to be different), you can obtain a screen capture by either pressing the “prnt Scrn” button or various key combinations, such as Ctrl-C.  Then, you can paste the temporary screen capture file into MS Word (for instance) or a graphics program, using either the pulldown Edit and Paste or Ctrl-V.  You should save your screen capture documents, and back them up to a storage device.  You may need to print them elsewhere and in any case you may need proof at a later date that you completed the assignment.  

For every assignment you complete you will turn in two screen captures: 1) showing the last view in your ArcGIS display and 2) ArcCatalog showing folders and files used for that assignment.  Please be sure that the screen capture does not show desktop icons – I want to be able to see as much of your work as possible in the screen capture.  Please write your name in ink in the upper right hand corner of the screen capture and be sure to state which assignment you are submitting.  Please staple all pages together. 

The practicum provide instructions throughout that tell you when to capture a screen shot of your work to turn in to me.  You do not need to answer the questions in the instructions, and do not need to turn in the instructions.  I will only be grading the screen captures. For every practicum, you will minimally turn in one screen capture of the last view displayed on your monitor in ArcGIS and a screen capture of the ArcCatalog showing files created and used during the application.  

For the ArcUser extra credit exercise, you will simply capture and print the last screen visible on your monitor once you have completed the exercise, as well as a printout of ArcCatalog showing file and folder organization.  

For the Virtual Campus courses, you will print the Certificate of Completion for the course you have chosen for the assignment.  The certificate proves that you have completed all quizzes and done the exercise.  Therefore, you do not need to turn in screen captures for this assignment.