Instructor: Dr. Haibin Su, Assistant Professor Office: Manning Hall 136 Tel: 361-593-4089 Email: haibin.su@tamuk.edu Lecture: MWF 11:00 am-11:50 am, Manning Hall 140 Lab: W 1:00-3:50 pm, Manning Hall 127 Introduction to Geographic Information Systems GEOG 2472-001, Fall 2012 Department of Physics & Geosciences Texas A&M University - Kingsville (4 credit hours) Office hours: MWF 9:30-11a.m., W 1-4p.m., R 12:30-3:30pm or by appointment Foundational Component Area This course fulfills the Life and Physical Sciences portion of the general education curriculum. Course Focus: The course introduces the principles, techniques, and applications of Geographic Information Systems through the use of the scientific method. In particular, the course uses empirical inquiry to describe and explain spatial and temporal processes on the Earth by using spatial analytical techniques. Course Content: This course focuses on the study of geographic information employing the scientific method, specifically on the nature of geospatial data, spatial data models, data acquisition, storage and retrieval, as well as analytical functions and visualization methods. It also includes a significant practical component. Course Objectives 1. Critical Thinking: Students will apply the scientific method to investigate key concepts introduced during the term. In-class activities and exam questions will require intellectual and creative scientific curiosity, as well as decision making and problem solving. 2. Communication Skills: Students will develop a clear and coherent organizational structure through both oral and written communication. 3. Empirical and Quantitative Skills: Students will learn to analyze numerical data and observe facts, leading to informed conclusions utilizing in-class activities, including creating drawings and graphs that are legible and accurate. 4. Teamwork: Students will gain the ability to consider different points of view, as well as work effectively with others to support a shared purpose or goal principally through group work. Student Learner Outcome Students, given the completion of the course requirements, will be able to: (1) understand basic concepts and principles of GIS; (2) understand data formats and data management techniques; (3) conduct vector based GIS analysis; (4) gain hands-on experience in the use of GPS techniques. Textbook Lecture 1
Kang-tsung Chang, 2011, Introduction to Geographic Information systems, Sixth edition, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, ISBN: 9780077465438. Lab Maribeth Price, 2011, Mastering ArcGIS, 5th Edition, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, New York, NY, ISBN: 9780077462956. Required. Course Requirements and Policies Class Participation and Attitude Class attendance is mandatory. Students are expected to attend all the lectures and be on time. Students attendance and participation for this course will be recorded and account for 10 % of the final grades. Each time a student misses the class, he/she will lose one percent of the final grade. Any three of the lateness to the class or leaving the class early without permission will be considered as one absence. If the student loses all 10 % of class participation, the eleventh absence will automatically put the grade F for the final grade. Reading the assigned text in advance is highly recommended. This 10 % of grade includes your class attitude too. Exams There will be two non-cumulative and close-book exams: a mid-term and a final. Each exam covers about half of the course. No make-up exams would be given unless students missed an exam for a valid and verified reason, as defined in the Texas A&M University - Kingsville Student Rules. An unexcused absence from an exam will result in a zero point for that exam. Quizzes Quizzes will be given after the completion of each topic. The quiz will be given at the beginning of the class for 10 minutes. Those who fail to come to the class on time will lose the chance to take the quiz unless you have a valid excuse that is described in student handbook. Labs Labs are the most important part of this class. The practical lab exercises provide a way to acquire skills in the applications of GIS concepts and techniques through the use of ArcGIS and ArcInfo packages. The lab is basically following the exercise in Mastering ArcGIS. The detail of lab assignments and task will be posted on class website. Because of time and resource limitations, only the part of the exercise will be assigned as lab exercise. But the lab will cover the basics of GIS as much as possible so that the students can use the skill on real world problems. A penalty of 5% per day will be deducted for late labs. The late lab assignment more than one week will be given ZERO point. Write-ups for lab assignments must be typed, and hand-written work will not be accepted for grading. Group Project The group project is designed to build your skills in mobile mapping and GIS project design. This project will provide the basic skills in ArcPad. Students will learn data selection and download based on their own GIS project plan. Since this will be a group project, and only one report is required for each group. Each group should decide their own objectives, and download the data based on the plan. The group will go out together for real time mobile mapping using ArcPad and Trimble GPS/Pharos GPS. Every member of the group should participate in the project and report. 2
Evaluation and grading Grades will be assigned on the scale of A (>=90%), B (80-89%), C (70-79%), D (60-69%), and F (<60%) and weighted as follows: Mid-term: 15 % Final exam: 15 % Quiz: 15 % Lab assignments: 40 % Class Participation: 10 % Group Project: 5 % Total: 100 % Extra Credit In the middle of the semester, geosciences department field trip is planned. Those students who participate in this field trip and create digital GIS map using mobile mapping techniques under my supervision will get 5 % of final grade as extra credit. Lab Safety Students taking any Geosciences laboratory course are required to take a series of Lab Safety training modules. These are administered through Blackboard. To log on to black board go to the TAMUK Home Page. The Blackboard Logon is on the top menu. Click on this and follow the instructions. Once you are logged in click on the course you are taking and then click on the required modules. You are required to complete ALL of the modules by the 20th class day. Failure to do so will result in your removal from the lab by the registrar's office. You will complete Modules 1) Orientation to Lab Safety, 6) Safety Showers and Eye Washes, 7) Laboratory Ergonomics, 12) Planning for Laboratory Emergencies. If you have completed these modules for another lab such as Chemistry then you are not required to take it again. Copyright Policy The materials used in this course are copyrighted. These materials include but are not limited to syllabi, quizzes, exams, lab problems, in-class materials, review sheets, and additional problem sets. Because these materials are copyrighted, you do not have the right to copy the handouts, unless permission is expressly granted. Disability Statement The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disability. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation please contact the Disability Resource Center (DRC) as early as possible in the term. DRC is located in the Life Service and Wellness building at 1210 Retama Drive, or call (361) 593-3024. Academic Misconduct Statement You are expected to adhere to the highest academic standards of behavior and personal conduct in this course and all other courses. Students who engage in academic misconduct are subject to 3
university disciplinary procedures. Make sure you are familiar with your Student Handbook, especially the section on academic misconduct, which discusses conduct expectations and academic dishonesty rules. Forms of Academic Dishonesty 1) Cheating: Using unauthorized notes or study aids, allowing another party to do one s work/exam and turning in that work/exam as one s own; submitting the same or similar work in more than one course without permission from the course instructors; deception in which a student misrepresents that he/she has mastered information on an academic exercise that he/she has not mastered; giving or receiving aid unauthorized by the instructor on assignments or examinations. 2) Aid of academic dishonesty: Intentionally facilitating any act of academic dishonesty. Tampering with grades or taking part in obtaining or distributing any part of a scheduled test. 3) Fabrication: Falsification or creation of data, research or resources, or altering a graded work without the prior consent of the course instructor. 4) Plagiarism: Portrayal of another s work or ideas as one s own. Examples include unacknowledged quotation and/or paraphrase of someone else s words, ideas, or data as one s own in work submitted for credit. Failure to identify information or essays from the Internet and submitting them as one s own work also constitutes plagiarism. 5) Lying: Deliberate falsification with the intent to deceive in written or verbal form as it applies to an academic submission. 6) Bribery: Providing, offering or taking rewards in exchange for a grade, an assignment, or the aid of academic dishonesty. 7) Threat: An attempt to intimidate a student, staff or faculty member for the purpose of receiving an unearned grade or in an effort to prevent reporting of an Honor Code violation. Please be aware that the University subscribes to the Turnitin plagiarism detection service. Your paper may be submitted to this service at the discretion of the instructor. Other Forms of Academic Misconduct 1) Failure to follow published departmental guidelines, professor s syllabi, and other posted academic policies in place for the orderly and efficient instruction of classes, including laboratories, and use of academic resources or equipment. 2) Unauthorized possession of examinations, reserved library materials, laboratory materials or other course related materials. 3) Failure to follow the instructor or proctor s test-taking instructions, including but not limited to not setting aside notes, books or study guides while the test is in progress, failing to sit in designated locations and/or leaving the classroom/ test site without permission during a test. 4) Prevention of the convening, continuation or orderly conduct of any class, lab or class activity. Engaging in conduct that interferes with or disrupts university teaching, research or class activities such as making loud and distracting noises, repeatedly answering cell phones/text messaging or allowing pagers to beep, exhibiting erratic or irrational behavior, persisting in speaking without being recognized, repeatedly leaving and entering the classroom or test site without authorization, and making physical threats or verbal insults to the faculty member, or other students and staff. 5) Falsification of student transcript or other academic records; or unauthorized access to academic computer records. 4
6) Nondisclosure or misrepresentation in filling out applications or other university records. 7) Any action which may be deemed as unprofessional or inappropriate in the professional community of the discipline being studied. Non-academic Misconduct The university respects the rights of instructors to teach and of students to learn. Maintenance of these rights requires campus conditions that do not impede their exercise. Campus behavior that interferes with these rights will not be tolerated; examples include 1) Interfering with the instructor's ability to conduct the class, 2) Causing inability of other students to profit from the instructional program, or 3) Any interference with the rights of others. An individual engaging in such disruptive behavior may be subject to disciplinary action. Such incidents will be adjudicated by the Dean of Students under non-academic procedures. Ongoing behaviors or single behaviors considered distracting (e.g., coming late to class, performing a repetitive act that is annoying, sleeping or reading a newspaper in class, etc.) will be addressed by the faculty member initially either generally or individually. Cases in which such annoying behavior becomes excessive and the student refuses to respond to the faculty member s efforts can be referred to the Dean of Students. In the case of serious disruptive behavior in a classroom the instructor may first request compliance from the student and if it is not received, an instructor has the authority to ask the student to leave the classroom. If the student fails to leave after being directed to do so, assistance may be obtained from other university personnel, including University Police Department. An individual engaging in such disruptive behavior is subject to disciplinary action. Such incidents will be adjudicated by the Dean of Students under non-academic procedures to determine if the student should be allowed to return to the classroom. Harassment /Discrimination Texas A&M University-Kingsville will investigate all complaints that indicate sexual harassment, harassment, or discrimination may have occurred by the facts given by the complainant. Sexual harassment of anyone at Texas A&M University-Kingsville is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Any member of the university community violating this policy will be subject to disciplinary action. A person who believes he/she has been the victim of sexual harassment, harassment, or discrimination may pursue either the informal or the formal complaint resolution procedure. A complaint may be initially made to the complainant s immediate supervisor, a department head, any supervisory employee, the Dean of Students (593-3606), or the Office of Compliance (593-4758). Regardless of who the complaint is filed with, the Compliance Office will be notified of the complaint so it can be investigated. Six-drop policy The following provision (new in Fall 2007) does not apply to students with Texas public college or university credits prior to Fall 2007. The Texas legislature has enacted a limit to the number of course drops allowed to a student without penalty. After a student has dropped six courses, a grade of QF will normally be recorded for each subsequent drop. If you need additional information on Senate Bill 1231 and how it affects you, please contact the Registrar s Office in College Hall, Room 105. 5
GEOG 2472 Geographic Information Systems Tentative Schedule Lecture Lab Topic 1: Introduction to GIS Topic 2: Introduction to ArcGIS Topic 3: Geographic concept and Map basics Topic 4: Coordinate Systems and Map Projection Topic 5: GIS data structure Vector Topic 6: GIS data structure Raster Mid-term Exam Topic 7: Mobile Mapping Topic 8: Vector based GIS analysis Topic 9: Network analysis Topic 10: Geocoding No Lab Lab 1: GIS Data Lab 2: Mapping GIS Data Lab 3: Presenting GIS Data Lab 4: Coordinate Systems Lab 5: Attribute Data No Lab Group Project Lab 6: Spatial Join Lab 7: Network analysis Lab 8: Geocoding Final Exam (Wednesday Dec. 12, 8:00 a.m.to 10:30 a.m.) 6