This page and its subs-pages act as the syllabi for the following Advanced GIS courses offered through Watershed Sciences:
WATS 4930/6920 is what you should take if you want to get a comprehensive understanding of GIS and advanced spatial analyses. GEOG 1800 is a prerequisite for WATS 4930.
WATS 6915 is the first four weeks of WATS 6920. The course is targeted at graduate students who want a crash course or refresher introduction to GIS, but don’t have the time or need for the full 10 week course. No prior GIS experience is necessary, but the pace is rapid. Its perfect for someone wanting to know how to make some basic maps for their thesis or dissertation, as well as an introduction to building interactive web maps and doing basic spatial analyses.
WATS 4931/6921 is a five week follow up course to WATS 4930/6920, which puts the skills and principles learned in Advanced GIS & Spatial Analyses into practice through student research projects. WATS 4930 is available for capstone credit to Watershed Sciences students. Students will prepare a poster to present in poster session and a mock manuscript for potential publication.
These courses are based on the content from the former WATS 4930/6920 course (4 credits, last offered in Spring 2011), but have been expanded and redesigned to better meet the diverse needs of both our undergraduates and graduates. For undergraduates, we have split a 10 week skills portion (WATS 4930) from a 5 week intensive project portion (WATS 4931), which Watershed Sciences majors can take for Capstone credit. This will allow undergraduates just seeking to expand their skills in spatial analysis and GIS to do so without the extra time commitment demanded by the project. For our graduates, we’ve split the course into three options as part of an expanded offering of ‘Espresso Courses’, which allow students to tailor their programs of study to their specific needs.
We will deliver lectures via a mix of in-person, interactive lectures, versus via self-paced, Pod-Cast lectures you can watch at your leisure. Always check the calendar to make sure you know which dates are in-person, versus which you can watch from home. Below for WATS 4930/6920/6915, those dates that are in person lectures (i.e. in NR 105) are **bolded (n= 11) **and those that are PODCASTS are denoted with an * (n=7).
| GIS Course(s) | Semester Week | Course Topics | Scheduled Lecture Dates | Lab |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4930, 6920, 6915 | WEEK 1 | Introduction/Review of GIS | Jan 10 & 12 | 1. ArcGIS Refersher/Intro & WebGIS (WATS 6915) |
| 4930, 6920, 6915 | WEEK 2 | Abstracting the World to Digital Maps & Working with Data in GIS | Jan 17 & 19* | 2. Coordinate Data, Projections & Transformations |
| 4930, 6920, 6915 | WEEK 3 | Working with Data in GIS | Jan 24 & 26* | 3. Reproducing Maps - Geologic Map |
| 4930, 6920, 6915 | WEEK 4 | Working with Data in GIS - End of WATS 6915 Lectures | Jan 31* & Feb 2 | 4. Digitizing & Editing & Sharing Data - Last WATS 6915 Lab |
| 4930, 6920 | WEEK 5 | Vector Analyses | Feb 7* & 9* | 5. Vector Analysis |
| 4930 & 6920 | WEEK 6 | Raster Analyses | Feb 14 & 16 | 6. Working w/ DEMs |
| 4930 & 6920 | WEEK 7 | Raster Analyses | Feb 23 | (Catch Up) |
| 4930 & 6920 | WEEK 8 | GIS Modeling | Feb 28* & Mar 2 | 7. Building DEMs |
| Spring Break – March 6 -10 | (Catch Up) | |||
| 4930 & 6920 | WEEK 9 | GIS Modeling | Mar 14 & 16 | 8. Morphometric Analyses or Habitat Modelling |
| 4930 & 6920 | WEEK 10 | Collecting Your Own Data | Mar 23 | 9. Blimp & Georeferencing Lab |
| 4930 & 6920 | WEEK 10 | Synthesis | Mar 23 | NO LAB |
| End of WATS 4930/6920 | ||||
| 4931 & 6921 | WEEK 11 | Project Proposals | Mar 28 & 30 | 1. Project Proposals |
| 4931 & 6921 | WEEK 12 | Getting Your Data, & Prepping For Analysis | Apr 4 & Apr 6 | 2. Data Vignette |
| 4931 & 6921 | WEEK 13 | Analysis | Apr 11 & 13 | 3. Analysis Vignette |
| 4931 & 6921 | WEEK 14 | Analysis | Apr 18 & 20 | 4. Analysis Vignette |
| 4931 & 6921 | WEEK 15 | Poster Presentations | Apr 25 & 27 | 5. Project Poster |
* Lectures with a star are podcasts instead of in person lectures
** Podcast & IN-CLASS Demo or Discussion