FREC 480: GIS in Natural Resource Management
COURSE SYLLABUS--Spring 2008

The class meets Tuesdays & Thursdays 12:30-3:15PM in the Geography Dept. GIS lab, Room 218 Pearson Hall

The 10 Commandments of GIS

Grading:  This course is entirely lab-based; there are not quizzes or exams.  100% of your course grade will be determined by the completeness and correctness of your lab projects.  All lab projects are to be submitted as web pages; I will teach you basic web authoring techniques during the first three weeks of class.  These are not group projects; they are individual projects.  You may consult with other students on how to tackle specifric aspects of your project, but all projects you submit must be entirely your own work. The final project is to be done outside of class. I recommend that you choose a topic and get started on it by mid-semester.

Course Objectives: Develop basic spatial analysis skills using vector and raster geographic information systems. This course teaches GIS concepts, functions and applications via hands-on training with ArcGIS v9.

Prerequisites: prior microcomputer course or thorough familiarity with microcomputers is expected.

Texts, Etc.:  There is no textbook to buy, but you should buy a 1GB or larger USB jump drive for storing your coursework.  Get a skinny one; the frames on some computers make it tough to get fat ones into all USB ports.  You will be responsible for keeping track of your work files.  You will be posting your projects on UD's copland server, and will need additional disk quota to store everything. Request a disk quota change to obtain least 50MB of quota on the "usra" file system through IT/NSS (you will have to log in for authentication).   It will take 24 hours for your additional quota to appear. (To check your quota allocation and usage, type "quota -v" at the copland prompt.)