User:Geog211

Geography of Environmental Systems Laboratory

• Course Website

This course WIKI has been set up to serve a single point reference for the Geography of Environmental Systems Laboratory at the University of Maryland. Not only will it contain any pertinent information related to GEOG. 211, it will also provide step by step guide for conducting the labs.

Setting Up the Course-Website on Elms

1.How to request an ELMS course space?

 Each time a course is taught, a new course space must be requested for it. To request a course:

  1. Go to http://www.elms.umd.edu (don't login)
  2. Click on the Faculty Resources tab.
  3. Click on the Course & Organization Request Forms link.
  4. Type in your directory ID and password to access the form.
  5. There are 3 type of ELMS spaces: Course, Other Spaces, and Organization spaces (note: "Other Spaces" include non-credit courses, workshops, test, and master spaces)
         * To request a term-based COURSE space:
               o Click on the “Request Course” link.
               o Select either "Single Course space" or "Multi-Course space."
               o Click on the Semester for which you are requesting the course space for.
               o Select the course for which you want a course space created. (Note: if you don't see the course listed, please scroll down on the form and click on the "an unlisted course" link.)
               o Click the “Submit” button.

2. How to add a TA to the course?

A TA is automatically added to a course if that person is listed in UMEG as such. If your TA cannot access your course or the course gradebook, contact the Scheduling Officer in your college/department to have your TA assigned to your course. If, however, you do not need to give the TA access to the Gradebook, but only be able to add and modify course materials or perform other activities, you could add him/her as a Course Builder. To accomplish this, please email elms@umd.edu with this request.

3. How do the students get access to the course?

Once the ELMS course has been created and students begin registering, they will be given access to the course automatically.

If you want to control the availability of your course, do the following:

  1. Go to the CONTROL PANEL
  2. Under Course Options, click SETTINGS
  3. Click on COURSE AVAILABILITY
  4. Select Yes or No.
  5. Click SUBMIT

Number of Labs

The course generally consists of 9 labs in all.In special circumstances, when we have additional time we also run the 10th lab.

Recommendations from Previous TA's

GEOG211 Lab classes Fall 07 - Notes and suggestions

Overall Suggestions for the GEOG211 labs from Fall 2007 (in no particular order)

1. Syllabus. There has been some confusion as to what the Attendance policy in the Fall 2007 syllabus means (….attendance is mandatory….). It should be clarified to say whether “mandatory” means an F grade if any class is missed (or not). 2. The system of each TA teaching all lab sections for three weeks for the entire class was much better and less stressful than teaching one or two sections of every lab. every week. Also gave all students chance to meet all TAs and get uniform treatment. This allows TAs to be allocated to labs according to their knowledge of the topic. 3. Similarly grading GEOG201 – each TA grading one essay question for the entire class was much better, both in grading and maintaining uniform grading standards. 4. Every lab should be tested using at least 1 week before class. This allows for adjustment of the content, checking software and gathering equipment, all with time to change the lab instructions by 1 week before the lab. Complete the entire lab as each student will, using a student usn and pwd. As well as finding any problems, this will provide a grading scheme for the lab reports. 5. Office hrs should be held in the lab, so any computer-related issues can be resolved. 6. It helps if one web site or ELMS Blackboard (if used) manager is appointed, so all materials are posted on schedule and in uniform format. 7. Access to machines in open lab. Use admin and password to set up accounts for all students half hour before the lab starts. All machines will need to be restarted. Check with Geography Computer administrators for user names well before the first class. In Fall 2007 they were: usn: geog001 – geog030, password: Abc@123g 8. Reboot the computer if you have first lab of the day as the computers are updated during the night. 9. If the password does not work even when it is correct, reboot the computer. 10. Assign user names (geog001 to geog030) systematically around the lab so that you don’t have to try all the 30 user names if one computer shuts down in the middle of the lab. 11. Print some extra lab exercise docs as a few students might come without it. 12. All labs from previous semesters should be made unavailable to students on Blackboard (they do not have to be deleted) if changes may be made later in the semester. 13. Make sure to take the attendance as there have been some instances of people switching their sections without informing the TA’s and producing lab reports when they did not attend the lab. 14. TA names must be allocated to the courses by Bob Crossgrove so they can have access to ELMS Blackboard. This should be done 2 weeks before the start of the semester. 15. Uploading exercises to ELMS Blackboard . Use the control panel in Blackboard, make a new folder with the lab number and upload the file. Also upload the file with a link next to the lab name under ‘Syllabus’ using the Control Panel menu. All exercises uploaded to Blackboard at least a week before the lab. 16. PCI Geomatica image processing software works fine but it becomes very slow when there are many users and is not very user friendly. It will help if the TA is familiar with PCI Geomatica Visualization, Algorithm Librarian, Spectral Library tools.

Answers to the questionnaire for the TAs after Fall 2007:

1. How is the syllabus? Anything unclear? Should more things be mentioned/ deleted? the syllabus is good but needs to be updated.

2. Were you teaching one/two sections of every lab, or teaching all lab sections for three weeks for the entire class, or both? Which one do you think is better? Or which one is better?

I did both ways. Teaching all lab section was better.

3. How was the grading assigned? Is that one TA for one lab assignment of the entire class? Grading was assigned to the TA who taught the respective lab.

4. Any problem with the software and/or the equipment you had encountered? mainly the image viewing softwares, since there are many and the students wouldnt know which is the most appropriate one.

5. What was the format of office hour? Any suggestion for improvement? The TA's decided on their own office hours and were responsible for their own labs.

6. Were all the lab questions posted on ELMS before hand? Any problem with that? The lab questions were posted a week before it was due. No major issue except some printing issues with mac users.

7. Any problem for students using the lab computers? Suggestion? The computers give a little problems as so many people try to open arcgis at the same time. making them wait for few minutes and retrying again solves the problem

8. Did you take attendance for the class? Any problem with attendance? yes, no problems with attendance.

9. Were all the assignments uniformly submitted online? What's the suggestion on submitting the assignment? the assignments were submitted inhand. submitting it online would be a better idea.

10. Any technical issue that you encountered and have ideas to improve that?

sometimes the students alter the default setting of arcgis and therefore it takes a bit to realize if the student from next group is finding it difficult to follow the instructions.

11. Is there any other suggestion that you want to mention? Altering the sequence of lab 2(gis) to later part .

1. How is the syllabus? Anything unclear? Should more things be mentioned/ deleted? -There were no complaints about the syllabus, and all necessary information was provided. One potential improvement would be the addition of TA emails and office locations, in addition to their names.

2. Were you teaching one/two sections of every lab, or teaching all lab sections for three weeks for the entire class, or both? Which one do you think is better? Or which one is better? -I taught 2 sections of 211. I think that this is preferable to teaching all sections for three weeks, as that would be an enormous strain for the TA during this time, even with the additional free time afterward.

3. How was the grading assigned? Is that one TA for one lab assignment of the entire class? -Each TA was responsible for their own lab grading, and exams were done with one TA grading one essay question out of six or so available questions for all the exams.

4. Any problem with the software and/or the equipment you had encountered? -There were no problems with software or lab equipment.

5. What was the format of office hour? Any suggestion for improvement? -I held one hour in my office, in addition to meeting with students who made appointments; this was either to go over an exam or lab, or to clarify any unfamiliar material. I can not think of any improvements to the format at this time.

6. Were all the lab questions posted on ELMS before hand? Any problem with that? -Lab questions were always posted to ELMS one day before the lab, and there were no problems with this arrangement.

7. Any problem for students using the lab computers? Suggestion? -A couple students occasionally had login issues relating to their directory ID/password; however, this was easily rectified with help from Karim and OIT. One improvement might be to have students double check that they can log on to the lab computers prior to the first lab.

8. Did you take attendance for the class? Any problem with attendance? -Attendance taking was unnecessary, as the labs that were turned into me during class served as a record of attendance. There were no problems with attendance, as the format of the lab required completion within the class time allotted, and so there were few habitually absent students.

9. Were all the assignments uniformly submitted online? What's the suggestion on submitting the assignment? -All assignments had to be printed and turned in by the end of the lab, and so there were no online submissions accepted. This is a fair policy, and this is also a good way to ensure that students attend lab regularly; I would not deviate from this current policy.

10. Any technical issue that you encountered and have ideas to improve that? -My only issue was during the stream lab, where it rained for one section and it had to be cancelled. Many students were unable to make up the lab during other section times, and this is something that could be improved by leaving open a potential make-up stream lab date in case of a weather-related incident.

11. Is there any other suggestion that you want to mention? -The were very few issues during the semester for my sections, though one potential improvement would be to ensure that the students all have umd print accounts, as I had a number of students who did not have this account and ended up turning labs in late as a result. This could perhaps be emphasized more.

1. How is the syllabus? Anything unclear? Should more things be mentioned/ deleted? Everything should be good, I updated both last year.

2. Were you teaching one/two sections of every lab, or teaching all lab sections for three weeks for the entire class, or both? Which one do you think is better? Or which one is better? I taught two 211 sections, was the head 211 TA and assisted with 201. I think that it is better to teach the same sections throughout the semester, but I havent tried it myself only secondhand from other students.

3. How was the grading assigned? Is that one TA for one lab assignment of the entire class? We each graded the labs with key and rubric.

4. Any problem with the software and/or the equipment you had encountered? Should be updated as of last year, though some of the questions are too easy now because of the indepth explaination and guidance.

5. What was the format of office hour? Any suggestion for improvement? 1 hour/week at different times/day. Should try to hold office hours before or after labs/ lecture

6. Were all the lab questions posted on ELMS before hand? Any problem with that? No, we posted weekly

7. Any problem for students using the lab computers? Suggestion? Sometimes they were unable to log in or use programs because they were maxed out on storage space. Maybe a manditory housecleaning of the storage at the beginning of the semester.

8. Did you take attendance for the class? Any problem with attendance? Attendance from turning in labs, if late or absent marked.

9. Were all the assignments uniformly submitted online? What's the suggestion on submitting the assignment? No, assignments should be able to be turned in online, currently they are printed and turned in on paper. Please figure this one out, it would make it so much easier, and energy conserving!!!

10. Any technical issue that you encountered and have ideas to improve that? Download, upload editable documents for assignments, update a few labs to more present day, relevant material.

11. Is there any other suggestion that you want to mention? The TA's NEED to run the labs before they teach the lab to ensure that they know what they are doing!!

Other suggestions: Lab 1: The first lab is very important, as it should introduce the students (most of whom are not geography majors) to the foundations of physical geography. As it stands now, the first lab is outdoor orienteering and map-reading. While this is a good and practical idea, I think the first lab should be more conceptual and address the different aspects of physical geography that will be covered in the course, from climate change and weather to geomorphology and LULCC. I think the students should be encouraged to brainstorm together about different aspects of physical geography as it relates to their daily life, this could involve surfing the web for different definitions and images of physical geography. A class discussion should be led by the T.A. which would inlude introductions - name, major, why you are taking the course, which topic on the syllabus you are looking forward to the most, what geography means to you etc... Since this would be more of a discussion than a technical lab, grading could be based on attendance (which could have the effect of increased attendance throughout the rest of the semester). The T.A. should also mention that the remainder of the labs will be computer-based.

The Stream Lab - Some of the equipment (one of the meters) is broken, the lab calculation instructions for measuring discharge are very confusing.

All of the other labs ran smoothly and seemed relevant to lecture.

Every lab should be due at the end of the class, and late labs will be deducted 20% per day.

One lab session (at the end) should be reserved for making up a missed lab earlier in the semester.

If completed labs could be submitted online to ELMS, this would make life SO much simpler for the T.A.'s - as it stands, many students don't have Terrapin Express and show up to class without their printed labs... A stricter enforcement of the printed lab policy might work, but could also just increase the amount of problems/excuses for the T.A. to deal with.

The exams were well-written and fair - the T.A.'s should have a copy of each exam at least one week before the exam itself, so that they are aware of the emphasis of the questions and can better assist the students in studying.

The optional extra credit opportunity of constructing a power-point presentation at the end of the semester was beneficial to the students and should be announced toward the beginning of the semester.

I had three labs per week for geog201 and helped out with 211 throughout the semester (grading, proctoring, etc). I felt as though the syllabus was very concise and useful. There weren't any students in my labs that had questions regarding it. I think spliting up the labs between the TA's is the best way to teach 201. You become familiar with your students and start to have a bond with some. Before each lab, the four TA's came together and went through the lab and answers. We all did our own grading for each lab.

>>7. Any problem for students using the lab computers? Suggestion? About a handful of students had trouble logging onto the computers in the geog lab but once they sent an email to geog-help someone came down to fix the problem right away. In the meantime, I would let them sign in under my name so it never really caused a problem. >>8. Did you take attendance for the class? Any problem with attendance? On the most part, everyone attended all their labs. We dropped their lowest lab grade so many students did not come to the last lab. A few students/athletes did not show up all the time and if they did not schedule a retake then they received a zero. >>9. Were all the assignments uniformly submitted online? What's the suggestion on submitting the assignment? Each TA posted each lab on ELMS prior to the lab so each student could print it out. >>11. Is there any other suggestion that you want to mention? I do think that all the TA's should go over each lab before it is handed out (as we did) so everyone knows what they are doing/teaching. I also think that it is important for the TA's to brief the class before hand on the material.

ORIENTEERING AND TOPO MAPS (anupam.anand@gmail.com)

1. Readings and other preparation for lab placed on the web for students The readings were placed on ELMS Blackboard for a ready reference.

2. Papers distributed to students in the lab. The lab was divided into two separate exercises. Orienteering and Topo map. A team of five students were given a common orienteering exercise where the second part was to be done individually.

3. List of software and digital data (and present location) • Acrobat Reader The maps were converted in .pdf format and were placed in the instruction folder. U:\g211\Fall07\ USGS_Map_1.pdf and U:\g211\Fall07\Campus plan.pdf

4. List of any equipment (and present location) • Compass • Ruler These can be found in the wet lab.

5. Instructions to TA on preparation of the lab, directories to use, pwds for access etc. The TA has to log in each individual using the Usename: geog001…..030 Password: Abc@123g

6. Suggestions for changes. • Make sure that each team gets their initial point right as many of them are freshmen without much knowledge of the campus locations. • Strongly recommend the use of measuring tape instead of steps for the orienteering distance. • In a bad weather situation (rain, snowfall etc.) special arrangement should be made. I particularly faced this problem during the makeup lab when there was a snowfall outside. (Prof. Prince had a novel idea of using zip locks as a cover).

CLOUD AND MOISTURE (anupam.anand@gmail.com)

1. Readings and other preparation for lab placed on the web for students The readings are placed on the blackboard for a ready reference. Also attached separately with the mail. 2. Papers distributed to students in the lab. The students were asked to bring hardcopies to the lab. 3. List of software and digital data (and present location) • Acrobat Reader • MS PowerPoint

The slides for the exercise was placed in the folder U:\g211\Fall07\image_lab3.ppt

4. List of any equipment (and present location) No equipment used

5. Instructions to TA on preparation of the lab, directories to use, pwds for access etc. The TA has to log in each individual using the Username: geog001…..030 Password: Abc@123g

6. Suggestions for changes. • Students are not permitted to write to the courses disc, so the.pdf and .ppt files cannot be opened directly by the students. The files must be copied to the desktop and then they will open

WEATHER ANALYSIS (anupam.anand@gmail.com)

1. Readings and other preparation for lab placed on the web for students The readings were placed on the blackboard for a ready reference. Attached herewith the mail. 2. Papers distributed to students in the lab. The students were asked to get the prints of the lab exercise already posted on the blackboard. 3. List of software and digital data (and present location) • Microsoft picture manager • Kodak image viewer

The images used for the exercise were placed in the folder U:\g211\Fall07\surface and U:\g211\Fall07\mb500 

4. List of any equipment (and present location) No equipment used

5. Instructions to TA on preparation of the lab, directories to use, pwds for access etc. The TA has to log in each individual using the Username: geog001…..030 Password: Abc@123g

6. Suggestions for changes. • The .jpg files cannot be opened directly from the instruction folder therefore the TA has to instruct the students to copy the folder to their desktop and then open them. • In some cases the computer won’t recognize the file format therefore the files have to be opened manually (right click –open with---Microsoft Picture Manager).

GIS (Matthew Borr)

Software/Digital Data: Data: U Drive-g211/GIS (Must copy to local hard drive in order to open map) Software: ESRI ArcMap

No equipment needed.

Lab was successful. Taught introductory GIS technology (ArcMap) well. May make minor changes to question ambiguities for next semester.

STREAM FLOW & HYDROLOGY (Matthew Borr)

Digital data: I provided some measurements at: https://elms.umd.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_16106_1

Equipment: 3 pairs of waders (presently in Matt’s office)

1 Streamflow meter (presently with Sage Sheldon) Measuring tapes, rulers, etc. all in a box in Matt’s office

Streamflow was difficult in regards to measuring because drought conditions severely dried the stream flow. Methods to measure flow using the meter were demonstrated. I gave “dummy” data for the students to perform calculations with. If the stream is dry again, may want to construct a better dataset.

PLATE TECTONICS (Matthew Borr)

Reading/Lab: https://elms.umd.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_16106_1

http://geology.com/plate-tectonics.shtml

http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/tectonics.html

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Tectonic_plate_boundaries.png

Plate Tectonic lab was successful. Although the science behind plate tectonics is not easy to demonstrate or observe in a lab setting, I feel the students gained knowledge. There is a question that is somewhat ambiguous. I will change it for next semester.

REMOTE SENSING & GEOMORPHOLOGY (Anu Swatantran - aswatan@umd.edu)

(data : Instruction U:/ geog211/RS& Geomorphology)

The exercise needs some modification. Most of the students have no clue about remote sensing; it is hard for them to understand the difference between image bands and colors used for display. In the notes it is stated that the red color is generally used to display the infra red wavelength. More than 50% of the class understood it as red band being the most useful for vegetation, inspite of my explanation about the electromagnetic spectrum and reflectance of vegetation in different wavelengths

The first image used in this exercise has a 7, 4, 2 false color and students do not understand this because they haven’t seen a Landsat image in the first place. Maybe the first part of the lab exercise should introduce them to satellite images and how to change band combinations. All the other questions in the exercise were quite easy with most of the answers being there already in the notes.

I tried explaining the concept of true color images and false color composites using the Mississippi Delta image. Some of them followed it while most of them confused themselves by reading random sentences in the notes.

LAND USE LAND COVER CHANGE (Anu Swatantran - aswatan@umd.edu)

(data : Instruction U:/ geog211/LULCC)

I have re-written most of the questions. There is still some problem with displaying images for Q3. (Relating precipitation, temperature and cloud cover with deforestation), will try to correct that. The image change detection exercise is a little complicated and the students needed a lot of help from the instructor. This exercise takes longer than usual because there are many images to be opened and interpreted and geomatica becomes very slow. Can be modified/re-written

GLOBAL VEGETATION DYNAMICS (Anu Swatantran - aswatan@umd.edu)

(data : Instruction U:/ geog211/Global Vegetation Dynamics)

In this exercise I asked students to create animations for NDVI and comparing it with precipitation, fires etc. it works fine most of the times, but if the website is slow the animation takes forever to load. I will save the animations as quick time video files in the geog211 folder for backup.

Previous TA's and their Contacts

Fall 05, Justice, TAs: Goldstein, Baruah Spring 06, Kinerney (now retired), TAs: Craig, Keen Fall 06, Kinerney, TAs: Halverson, Scott Spring 07, Dubayah, TAs: Halverson, Sheldon Fall 07, Prince, TAs: Farris, Swatantran, Anand, Borr Spring 08, Dubayah, TAs: King, Martini, Anand, Borr Fall 08, K. Martini, TAs: Spring 09, E. Ellicott and C. Justice, TAs:

External links

• Geography Department Website