Instrumentation for a G.I.S. Laboratory to Enhance Undergraduate Education

正在开发一个地理信息系统(GIS)实验室，以在大空间尺度上演示生态学原理和过程，并促进本科生的跨学科研究。地理信息系统技术为用户提供了输入、编辑、叠加、分析和显示任何具有空间成分的信息(如河流、道路、植被覆盖类型、动物运动和位置、高程)的手段。因此，地理信息系统是研究空间模式和关系的有力工具。新的实验室补充了现有的环境生物学实验室和实地研究，但提供了调查景观和区域环境对当地生物群落和功能的影响的技术。该实验室配备了8个奔腾-PC工作站、数字化平板电脑、扫描仪、彩色打印机、数字化数据集和必要的软件包。多个工作站为参加高级生态和自然资源管理课程的学生以及验证景观生态假说的学生研究团队提供了访问地理信息系统技术的途径。该实验室还配备了移动全球定位系统接收器和天线，以便学生能够准确地记录和存储学习地块和边界的位置，以便随后进入地理信息系统。

A Geographic Information System (GIS) laboratory is being developed to demonstrate ecological principles and processes on large spatial scales and promote interdisciplinary research by undergraduate students. GIS technology provides the means for users to input, edit, overlay, analyze, and display any information that has a spatial component (e.g., streams, roads, vegetative cover types, animal movements and locations, elevations). As such, GIS is a powerful tool for studying spatial patterns and relationships. The new laboratory complements existing laboratory and field studies in environmental biology, but provides the technology to investigate the influence of landscape and regional environments on local biotic communities and functions. The laboratory is being equipped with eight Pentium-PC workstations, digitizing tablets, scanner, color printer, digitized data sets, and requisite software packages. Multiple workstations provide access to GIS technology for students enrolled in upper-division ecology and natural resources management classes and for student research teams testing hypotheses in landscape ecology. The laboratory is also being equipped with a mobile Global Positioning System receiver and antenna, so that students can accurately record and store the locations of study plots and boundaries for subsequent entry into the GIS system.