Instructor:   Nicole Willard
Phone:   341-2980  x2885
Office Hours:  Mon-Fri  8:00am-5:00pm, Evans Hall room 103

Text:
There is no text required for this course.  Because there is no text for this course  attendance becomes critical.  If you are unable to make it to class it will be your  responsibility to get the notes from someone who did attend class.  Reading material
will be handed out in class.

Course Description:
This course will familiarize the student with what Geographical Information Systems  (GIS) are.  We will look at the diverse ways in which GIS is being used today.  We  will cover
the basic principles and examine the current technology available today for  desktop GIS.

Requirements:
There will be one test that will cover concepts and terminology at the midterm.   You  will be assigned an article that relates to GIS and will be expected to write and  present a review of that article to the class.  The review will consist of three typed  pages and you will be given 15 minutes to present your review and answer any  questions from the audience.  You will get an introduction to two different desktop  GIS software's.  No computer knowledge is required but basic understanding of  Windows will be helpful.  Two projects will result
from working with this software, a digitizing project and a geocoding project.  I will elaborate on these projects as we  progress through the course.  If time permits we will work on a thematic project but  it will not count as part of your grade, it will be for your knowledge only.  Listed  below are the course requirements and their total percentage of your grade.

    Test..............................100pts......................25%  of the grade
    Article Review...............50pts......................15%   "   "    "
    Review Presentation.....50pts......................10%   "   "    "
    Digitizing Project.........100pts......................25%   "   "    "
    Geocoding Project.......100pts......................25%   "   "    "
    TOTALS                      400pts                    100%

Attendance:
I will take attendance every evening however, attendance will not count directly as  part
of your grade.  In the event you border a higher grade at the end of the course I  will
review your attendance and if you have attended 14 of the 16 classes I will bump  you up to the higher grade.  Otherwise your grade will remain as is.