Integrating GPS and GIS Tools into Liberal Arts Ecology Courses

项目摘要COE学院生物系运营着一个空间生态实验室，该实验室为参加实验室入门课程的本科生和参加该系暑期研究项目的学生提供自主GPS和DGPS功能以及桌面地理信息系统(GIS)软件。一年级学生学习操作GPS手机，在实地研究中捕获空间数据，并使用ArcView软件对专题地图进行分类和测试假设。本课程项目在此基础上展开，通过四门附加课程中通过查询地理信息系统软件分析的技术丰富的实地实验，建立对大规模生态过程的概念性理解。两门课程增强了生物学专业学生在更复杂的实验环境中使用GPS手机捕获空间数据的能力，以及使用地理信息系统软件在更大的数据集中发现、分类和解释空间和环境趋势的能力。这些工具将取代现有城市生态学课程中对城市鹿种群进行实地研究的传统方法。一门名为空间生态学的新课程介绍了包括RTK在内的差分校正，以及基站和网络控制在实现高质量GPS解决方案中的作用。这些技能将与ArcView和S一起用于城市、农业和自然环境的景观调查。该提案支持购买高质量RTK调查所需的设备和软件，并向社区和学校团体运送演示材料。第一年的研讨会课程名为生物多样性，将向初学者介绍地理信息系统，特别是如何向地理信息系统数据库提出问题并解释其中的模式。生物多样性课程将使用商业上可用的数据集进行基于调查的调查，这些调查使用桌面地理信息系统来发现趋势并测试关于物种多样性的空间(特定生境、区域和纬度)模式的假设。《利用GPS和地理信息系统开展田间生态活动》是一门专为在职高中教师开设的课程。该课程包括在当地公园和保护区的实地考察中使用GPS手机，在ArcView地理信息系统中制作分类地图，并支持将课程材料运送到学校环境中。

Project SummaryThe Biology Department at Coe College operates a Spatial Ecology Laboratory that provides access to autonomous GPS and dGPS capability and desktop Geographic Information System (GIS) software for undergraduate students in an introductory laboratory class and for students who participate in the department's summer research program. First-year students learn to operate GPS handsets, capture spatial data in a field study and use ArcView software to classify thematic maps and test hypotheses. This curriculum project expand on this starting sequence and builds conceptual understanding of large-scale ecological processes through technology-rich field experiments analyzed by queries of GIS software in four additional courses.Two courses enhance the abilities of biology majors to use GPS handsets to capture spatial data in more complex experimental settings and to use GIS software to discover, classify and interpret spatial and environmental trends in larger datasets. These tools will replace traditional approaches to field studies of urban deer populations in an existing Urban Ecology course. A new course called Spatial Ecology introduce differential correction including RTK, and the roles of base stations and network control in achieving high quality GPS solutions. These skills will be used in landscape-level investigations in urban, agricultural and natural settings with ArcView and S+. This proposal supports purchase of equipment and software required for high quality RTK surveys and transport of presentation materials to community and school groups. A FirstYear Seminar course called Biodiversity will introduce novice students to GIS, specifically how to pose questions to and interpret patterns in a GIS database. The Biodiversity course will use commercially available datasets for inquiry-based investigations that use desk-top GIS to discover trends and test hypotheses about spatial (habitatspecific, regional, and latitudinal) patterns of species diversity. Field Ecology Activities using GPS and GIS is a course designed for in-service high school teachers. The course covers use of GPS handsets in field studies at local parks and preserves, production of classified maps in ArcView GIS and supports transport of course materials to the school setting.