EEES 2500: COMPUTER APPLICATIONS in ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Spring 2008: 9:00 to 10:40 -  Tuesdays in  ROOM 3051 BOL
Dr. Don Stierman, Instructor  (updated 04/21/2008)

The objective of this course is to introduce EEES students to software we use routinely in our professional activities.  Students will be expected to use this software in several future courses.  Bookmark this page! 

Links to exercises will be activated just before class time each week.  Prerequisite: EEES 1010, EEES 2100 or permission of instructor.  Environmental Science majors who have taken EEES 2010 will probably qualify, although most data sets and exercises are based on geological problems.

Important notice!  I've set up a gradebook on WebCT -

https://utwebct.utdl.edu:2154/webct/public/home.pl

log in (same username and password you use to log into utnet email or UTAD) and check your grades! 

Please read my grade scale - it is not the traditional A - B - C - D - F.

There is no textbook, in part because no single textbook exists that covers most of these topics and in part because most students think they already spend enough on textbooks.  However, each student MUST have an active e-mail account for submitting completed assignments.  I prefer UTAD but so long as your service supports large attachments we will not have any problems.  If you do not use UTAD and have problems, they are your problems, not mine.  In addition, each student must dedicate a USB Flash Drive (250 Meg or larger recommended) to course-related file management and bring this electronic disk to each class meeting.  Note - you will not need this data storage until after Spring Break ("H" drive will hold data files used during the first weeks of this course) so watch for sales on USB storage at OfficeMax, Best Buy or other commercial outlets.  I've purchased 500M traveldrives for less than $10 (after rebate).  They make excellent stocking stuffers (for those who locate this syllabus before mid-December).  

What is the "H" drive?  Each UTAD account has access to 250M disk space on the server.  Do NOT save your work to the desktop "C" drive - you will not be able to access that information from a different desktop, and, from time to time EIT erases unauthorized files from cluster desktops.  Check "My Computer" and you should see your "H" drive.  You can access this storage from any computer where you can log into UTAD.  This plus your USB storage should be used to keep your files.   It might be useful to store data from this class in one location and, of course, your "H" drive folders can always be copied to the USB memory stick (or whatever).  Last year some students had H-drive problems (thank you, EIT Services).  Do not delete files until you are certain that you will not need them again - possibly not until after the Final Projects.

Evaluation: Your final grade will be based on weekly assignments (60%), professional conduct in computer use (20%) and a final project (20%).    Assignments are DUE at NOON on the Friday following each class.  Assignments that arrive late will be penalized 1 letter grade per week.  Submissions that do not meet minimal standards will be returned, to be resubmitted after they are improved and revised (no grade reduction so long as there is clear evidence of effort and revision is submitted within 1 week).

Words to the wise:  Be at your computer, logged on, with that day's lesson displayed, at 9 AM sharp!  DO NOT GET BEHIND!  Complete your weekly projects while demonstrations are still fresh in your memory.  I will post office hours, please come for help during posted office hours, or, when you have a project up and in progress but hit a snag.

Topical outline  

January 8: Getting started. See additional instructions for Week 1 below.  Also Microsoft Word (beyond basic word processing: equation editor, tables, images and word art).  The demonstration will focus on expanding your Word bag of tricks.

January 15: Introduction to Excel (spreadsheet).

January 22: Moving up in Excel.

January 29:  Introduction to Surfer. 

February 5: More about Surfer.

February 12: Introduction to Adobe Illustrator

February 19:  More Adobe Illustrator

February 26: WEB resources (we will not make this one up, those who did it will get the extra credit).

March 11:  Digital camera and flatbed scanner (demonstration), and, Photoshop.

March 18: PowerPoint

March 25: Introduction to Access.
    Is it true that the new version of Microsoft Office combines Excel with Access?  Of course, the new application is called Excess.

April 1: Introduction to ArcView

April 8: ArcView II - adding and classifying earthquake data.

April 15: ArcView III: data resources and making your own maps.

April 22: Take-home final project begins.

No in-class final during Finals Week, all the marbles are on assignments to date and the take-home final projects.

Outcomes: Students will learn to use Excel to organize, process and display data.  Students will learn, when given a data set, to plot contour maps and surface representations through using Surfer.  Students will learn to properly edit, label and display such graphics and to print hard copies of optimized results.  Students will learn to write documents using Microsoft Word, to use a variety of fonts and styles, to insert special symbols, and to format their composition.  Students will learn to send and receive files and messages via networks.  Students will learn to draw and color simple maps using Illustrator, to edit and improve maps through use of a variety of line types and fill patterns, and to print hard copies of optimized results.  Students will learn basic operations of database software Access and geo-referenced database ArcView.  Superior students will learn to integrate applications.  

Each week you will receive an assignment specifying what you are to submit as evidence of your progress.  The Final Project will require you to use elements of Excel, Word, Surfer, Illustrator and/or ArcView to process and display data sets downloaded from a location TBA.  I will display solutions to Final Projects on the Web as images, but you will have to know the basics of the software in order to make your images look like my images.  All links to weekly instructions will remain active during Final Project so you will be able to look up and refresh your memory - if you've done it before, you will be able to do it again.

Professional conduct  

1.      Thou shalt use the cluster for scholarly endeavors – thus willst thou live long and prosper - and shalt not consume thy precious hours in the computer cluster playing games.  

2.      Thou shalt check spelling and preview documents and graphs on screen, and print not thy errors, lest thy haste become evident to the entire world as thy paper is wasted.  

3.      Thou shalt share thy gifts of wisdom and knowledge – but not thy files - with thy neighbors so that all may develop skills and achieve excellence.  

4.      Thou shalt follow all instructions issued by the Network Administrator, whose words are more sacred than mutterings of even thy Professor in matters of thy account and the Network, and inform him of breakdowns and problems.  

5.      Thou shalt not print and immediately recycle what can be read just as well on the monitor.  

6.      Thou shalt not soil thy keyboard with dirt, food or drink.

7.      Thou shalt not open or download files that might infect thy workstation or the Network.  

8.      Thou shalt not display on screen that which thou wouldst hesitate to show to thy mother or potential employer.  

9.      Thou shalt be punctual and attend class faithfully.  

 Week 1: bookmark the syllabus page on the Web.  Answer the questions posted on the Web (link above, date of lecture) and send me your responses on a Word document attached to e-mail.   Trivial (optional) question of the day #1: Which U.S. President was born on January 9?

Technical trivia:  you must save and close a document before attaching it to email. Attempting to attach an open file to email usually has bad results.  Do not include a period (.) in the file name.  My security filter deletes attachments with more than one period.  Assignment1.doc will probably get through, Assignment.1.doc would not.  Please include "EEES 2500" in the Subject line so I quickly spot it despite a ton of Spam from Nigeria and Eastern Europe.

 Most weekly assignments are to be delivered to me attached to e-mail.  I have special folders set up.  Note that each email message is tagged with its data and time.

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Background image: Naib Krantz adjusts his thumper, not realizing that he had already succeeded in summoning Shai' hulud.  Trivial (optional) question of the day #2: Name the novel that inspired the background image for this Web page.