Unformatted text preview:

http://www.geo.utep.edu/pub/bkonter/geol_5215 GEOL5215COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN THE GEOSCIENCES -- FALL 2008 -- INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Bridget Konter OFFICE: GEOL. 305 OFFICE HOURS: Mondays & Tuesdays 3-4, or by appointment PHONE: 747-6118 EMAIL: [email protected] WEBPAGE: http://www.geo.utep.edu/pub/bkonter COURSE LECTURE DAY/TIME: Thursdays 8:30-10:20 LOCATION: GEOL. 4th floor computer lab COURSE REF. NUMBER: 11511 and 15796 COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course will consist of weekly lectures and “hands on” computer exercises designed to expose you to common software and computational methods frequently utilized in the geological sciences. Lecture topics will include introductory Unix applications, webpage design, general MS Office and Adobe suite tips/tricks, and computational techniques using MATLAB, GMT, and visualization (Fledermaus, GRASS) software. The course will also focus on the development and presentation of 2 projects: 1) Software Manual Project and 2) Visualization Project. For the Software (Sw) Manual Project, you will be required to write a user’s manual for a software package of your choosing. For the Visualization Project, you will be required (don’t worry, it will be fun!) to develop a visualization scene (a 3-D interactive map) of a research area of your choosing. WEEK DATES LECTURE TOPIC DUE DATES/ ETC. 1 Aug. 28 Intro to Department Computing 2 Sep. 4 Unix basics 3 Sep. 11 Word & Data Processing Project topics (2) due 4 Sep. 18 Presenting and Publishing 5 Sep. 25 MATLAB Sw Manual outline due6 Oct. 2 GMT 7 Oct. 9 Sw Manual work day GSA week 8 Oct. 16 Visualization I (Fledermaus) 9 Oct. 23 Visualization II (GRASS) Visualization outline due 10 Oct. 30 Surfer 1st draft Sw Manuals due 11 Nov. 6 Google Earth & ARC GIS Sw Manual critiques due 12 Nov. 13 Sw Manual presentations 13 Nov. 20 Visualization project work day Final Sw Manual due 14 Nov. 27 Thanksgiving Holiday No Class! 15 Dec. 4 Visualization presentations 16 Dec. 11 Finals week No Class!http://www.geo.utep.edu/pub/bkonter/geol_5215 GEOL5215 CLASS WEBSITE: http://www.geo.utep.edu/pub/bkonter/geol_5215 Check the class website often for updates and announcements. The website is a key part of the class and will be the venue for a lot of important class business. TEXTBOOK: No text will be used for this course. Handouts will be given in class when applicable. ATTENDANCE: Attendance is expected each week. As class meetings will be mostly “hands on” practice, it is highly recommended that you not only bring your body to class, but your mind and your concentration as well! If you need to miss a class, please let me know ahead of time. It will be your responsibility to collect notes from a fellow classmate. PLEASE BE ON TIME! GRADING: WEBPAGE DESIGN & MAINTENANCE 10% HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS 30% SOFTWARE MANUAL PROJECT 30% VISUALIZATION PROJECT 30% WEBPAGE: An integral part of this course will be the development and maintenance of a personal webpage. Your webpage will be hosted on the Department server at http://www.geo.utep.edu/pub/username. You will use this webpage to 1) showcase YOU, 2) showcase your research, 3) communicate (and archive) computer exercises and materials in this course. Your webpage should be professional and organized, but should also reflect your creative side as much as possible. For this class, your webpage will serve as a type of “computer journal”, where you will post each completed computer exercise to your own personal computer class page. More details on how to do this and grading criteria will follow. HOMEWORK: Homework assignments will be assigned weekly. Each assignment will be due the following week at the beginning of class. You will be required to post each completed assignment to your website, where I will then grade each assignment and provide any necessary feedback. Free-homework-pass: Your lowest graded homework will not be counted in your final grade tally. This means that you have ONE no-questions-asked excused homework, so use it wisely. Working together on homework: Studies have shown that students learn best when they work together. I encourage you to work with each other on assigned homeworks. However, each student must turn in his or her own assignment, using his or her own words. Any student who fails to follow this rule will receive zero credit for homework assignment.http://www.geo.utep.edu/pub/bkonter/geol_5215 GEOL5215 SOFTWARE MANUAL PROJECT: For the Software Manual project, you will write a user’s manual for a software package of interest to you. It can either be for software we currently have available in the Department that is poorly documented, or can be freeware/shareware that you have found on the internet that you would like to get installed and running during the semester. Tentative benchmarks for this process are described below: • DISCUSSION OF POSSIBLE SOFTWARE MANUAL PROJECT TOPICS: SEPTEMBER 11 • SHORT (1 PAGE) OUTLINE OF MANUAL PROJECT DUE: SEPTEMBER 25 • 1ST DRAFT MANUAL DUE: OCTOBER 30 • MANUAL CRITIQUES DUE: NOVEMBER 6 • PRESENTATIONS: NOVEMBER 13 • FINAL VERSION OF MANUAL DUE: NOVEMBER 20 The 1st draft of your software manual will be due Thursday, October 30th at the beginning of class. You must provide both a paper copy and post a pdf document of your manual on your webpage. Each person in the class will then be assigned to read/critique 2 other manuals. I will also read each manual and provide comments for improvement. Software manual critiques will be given back to you the following week, November 6th. Short oral presentations (~10 minutes) of your software manual will be given on November 13th. You will use the feedback/questions from both your critiques and presentation to revise your manual, with a final version to be turned in by 5pm on November 20th. You should shoot for a manual that is roughly 10-15 pages, complete with figures, examples, and text following the guidelines below. At a minimum, your software manual must contain the following: 1. Table of Contents 2. Introduction: explain what the software does, how it may be useful in


View Full Document

UTEP GEOL 5215 - GEOL 5215 Syllabus

Download GEOL 5215 Syllabus
Our administrator received your request to download this document. We will send you the file to your email shortly.
Loading Unlocking...
Login

Join to view GEOL 5215 Syllabus and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or
We will never post anything without your permission.
Don't have an account?
Sign Up

Join to view GEOL 5215 Syllabus 2 2 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or

By creating an account you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use

Already a member?