Geog 104 Schedule of Topics (*)

Standing orders: (1) Read 10 pages of Thrower per class, i.e., 30 pages per week. (2) Assignments are due one week after they are assigned.

Week Topic, Readings, and Assignment
1 Introductions of course, requirements, instructor & students
Reading: S. S. Hall "Latitude, Longitude, Infinitude: Scientific Mapping and the Reinvention of Geography" ; A. M. MacEachren "The Roles of Maps"; ; Thrower (Skim all, and start)
Assignment: Compare Some On-Line Maps.
2 Earth Models: measuring and representing its size and shape. latitude, longitude, and scale.
Reading: Robinson and Sale Elements of Cartography (3rd ed) ch 2; Wikipedia "World Geodetic System" Thrower
Assignment: Checking Eratosthenes, Cassini and Newton in Google Earth Earth shape and distances in Google Earth.
3 Location, Direction and Distance on the Earth (Bees do it.)
Reading: Robinson ch 2, 10; Thrower
Assignment: compass and pacing exercise
Add GPS location element
4 Map Projections: concepts, properties and examples
Reading: Robinson and Sale (3rd ed) ch 10; Flater "Understanding Geodetic Buffering"; Thrower
Assignment: Distance, shape and area distortions on world map projections.
5 Intro to QGIS (making a choropleth map of world population density)
Reading: Thrower
Assignment: QGIS, choropleth maps, classes, and projections
6 Topographic Maps and Symbology
Reading: USGS National Map Website; Thrower
Assignment: Reading contours and slope, route planning and hillshading on topographic maps: Topo Map Use
7 Map Coordinate Systems: UTM, SPCS, National Grid,
Reading: Robinson 3rd ed. ch 10; Thrower
Assignment: Conversion between Coordinate Systems
8 Remotely Sensed Imagery: Photographs, Scanners etc w/ image geometry.
Reading: Rindfuss and Stern "Linking Remote Sensing and Social Science: The Need and the Challenges" ch 1 in NRC's People and Pixels; S. S. Hall "Ground Truth: Landsat Maps and the Remote Sensing Revolution" in Mapping the Next Millenium; Thrower
Assignment: Image Interpretation in Google Earth and Bing.
Mid-Term about here
9 Remotely Sensed Imagery: Photographs, Scanners and More
Reading: Cowen and Jensen "Extraction and Modeling of Urban Attrbutes Using Remote Sensing Technology" ch 8 in NRC's People and Pixels; Thrower
Assignment: SKIP---Extracting data as .kml from Google Earth & integrating it with other data in QGIS here DO Photogrammetry and Image Classification instead.
10 GIS Analysis in QGIS
Reading:
Assignment: Congressional Gerrymandering? using QGIS geometry functions.
11 Making it look good!
Reading: Robinson and Sale Ch 11 "Cartographic Design";
Assignment: new -- QGIS or inkscape and SVG?
12 Scale, Resolution and Space in a Digital World
Reading: Robinson and Sale Ch 6(1/2); Goodchild and Proctor 1997 "Digital Scale";
Term project idea proposal due.
13 Space more generally: absolute, relative, relativistic, other
Reading: TBA on Space;
Assignment: MDS and lived spaces
14 Map representation: Truth v Statement: Ontological Status of Maps and Social implications and Recap
Reading: S. S. Hall "Elephants for want of towns"; J.K. Wright "Map Makers are Human";
Assignment: keep going
Term project draft due.
15, 16 Student Project Presentations
Reading:
Assignment: be done!
Finals Final Exam (Scheduled as per the University Calendar): Friday, 10 May 2013 2:15-4:15 PM in our normal classroom
* --- We'll try to hold to this but may need to adjust as we go.