EEES 2500: COMPUTER APPLICATIONS in ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Spring 2011 Tuesdays in ROOM 3051 BOL
Section 01: 1 to 2:40 PM Section 02: 3:20 to
5:10 PM
Dr. Don Stierman,
Instructor (updated
04/26/2011)
Office hours (3086H BOL) 10 - 11 M, 10 - 12 W
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.
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. 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 this week ("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 recently purchased a 2 Gbyte travel drive for less than $10 (plus tax). I recommend you get one ASAP to use for this class.
I also recommend you back up your travel drive frequently (copy to hard drive of your personal computer or write it to a CD or DVD). Every year someone leaves his or her drive in the lab and it is not always recovered. You can always buy another thumb drive but prior work and data can be hard to recover.
This semester we will use the Distance Learning Web site for submitting assignments. Navigate to http://www.utoledo.edu/menu/current.html and select Blackboard Login, On the Learning Ventures page Select a System (select Blackboard9 - Bb9) and the GO. Your username and password are the same as those you use to sign on for utoledo email. Under Tools is Course email.
This is a large class and some students are slow to learn how to best balance document size and document quality, and my standard email box gets quickly filled with megabytes of student work on top of the memos from administrators, advertisements, Spam, messages from my wide circle of colleagues and occasional offers to divide millions of dollars left behind in a bank account in Nigeria. If my utoledo mailbox is overly full I cannot send messages until I clean it out, which is not always convenient.
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 IT 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).
Do not delete files until you are certain that you will not need them again - possibly not until after the Final Projects. Data organized one week might be needed later in the semester. For example, your PowerPoint assignment will be to create a presentation showing what you have learned up to that point in this class.
Virtual lab! Would you like to know more? This should allow you to log into BO 3051 virtual computers from any computer with Web access. You can complete assignments from home even if your personal computer lacks the software. This will NOT replace your presence in class to observe my demonstrations (where to click).
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 if I am going to grade them before the week-end. I am very busy Mondays through Wednesdays and will probably have little time for grading early in the week. Assignments that arrive later that the next class 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 PM sharp! It is not fair to students ready to roll at 9 to wait while I help a latecomer to catch up. The nature of these lessons is such that, if you miss the first 10 minutes, the class is so deep into the application that you will be unable to get involved until my demonstration is over, at which time I will help you get started. Habitual tardiness is unprofessional and will not be tolerated.
DO NOT GET BEHIND! Complete your weekly projects while demonstrations are still fresh in your memory. I list office hours on a calendar (link on homepage), please come for help during posted office hours, or, when you have a project up and in progress but hit a snag. I am generally available if my door is open, the best time to teach is when the student needs help, and most problems take just a couple of minutes to work through.
Topical outline
January 11: Getting started: 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 18: Introduction to Excel (spreadsheet).
January 25: Moving up in Excel.
February 1: Introduction to Surfer.
February 8: More about Surfer.
February 15: Introduction to Adobe Illustrator
February 22: More Adobe Illustrator
March 8: no class, Spring Break
March 15: Digital camera and flatbed scanner (demonstration), and, Photoshop.
March 29: 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 5: Introduction to Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
April 12: Raster graphics and New Themes
April 19: Spatial queries (will use earthquake catalog!)
April 26: Take-home final project begins.
May 4: Final projects due at noon.
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 ArcGIS.
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 ArcGIS 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.
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.
10. Thou shalt not bring dishonor upon the Department through intemperate or foolish posts.
Failure to abide by these rules might
(as I've been informed by one Network Administrator) cause
Ming the Merciless to crash the planet
Mongo to into the earth.
I have been unable to verify this
rumor but why take a chance?
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 in the WebCT assignments mailbox.
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.
I will post grades in the Blackboard grade book as I grade your work. The only way to fail this class is not show up or not submit assignments. I have high expectations, having seen what students are capable of. You may use the Blackboard Discussion (Forum) feature to request advice on 'how do I - ' or share tricks you have learned. Every semester at least one student teaches me one new trick. I am by no means a master of each and every software application included in this class. Learning is a life-long process, and the more we work with many of these software packages, the more competent we become.
If you need to contact me urgently, use my standard email (link from my name at the top of this page), never the Blackboard messages. I use that location for assignments only and usually open it only once a week.
In 2009 a student who had recently completed this class interviewed for a 6-month project: using GPS and GIS to organize data on state parks in Pennsylvania. This job required knowledge of Excel, Access and ArcView, as well as experience with GPS (no, not the talking screen on a dashboard, but a real hand-held computer that stores information on features the user supplies as a location is being documented). This student got the GPS experience by doing field work with faculty and using GPS in an upper division class. This student got paid for this internship and credits this class (EEES 2500) with providing the knowledge required.
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.