GIS Training Program for Population Scientists

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The GIS Training Program in Population Science has two main goals. The primary goal is to jump-start the adoption and use of spatial methods in population research among the current cohort of young population scientists and the secondary goal is to provide the infrastructure for continuing diffusion of such methods during and after our proposed Population Science and GIS workshop series has been completed in 2006. To achieve the primary goals we propose to provide standardized, intensive training in a demography-tailored GIS course for 80-100 young demographers via four 2-week workshops (20-25 participants per workshop) over two years (September 2004-August 2006). The workshops will primarily target interdisciplinary pre-doctoral students studying demography at NICHD-supported population training centers, and the wider Association of Population Centers (APC). We also expect to attract other graduate students in demography related disciplines (including agricultural economics, anthropology, economics, geography, public health, rural sociology, sociology) as well as young faculty, and researchers employed in population agencies. The Population Science and GIS workshop will provide: (i) a basic introduction to GIS, spatial analysis, spatial statistics, mapping, and visualization; (ii) a strong focus on applications in population research; (iii) coverage of the most important basic issues of spatial methods, including problems of inference, spatial dependence, spatial heterogeneity, scale, uncertainty, and the ecological fallacy; (iv) opportunities for participants to work with their own data; (v) activities that foster peer-to-peer interaction, through group projects and small-group discussions; and, (vi) social activities that foster peer-to-peer interactions and help to build a community of scholars. To achieve the secondary goal, we will supplement the existing website resources and most importantly adapt the course materials generated for and during the workshop for self-paced training via web based delivery. This proposal brings together faculty from the Population Research Institute (PRI) at Penn State and the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS) at the University of California at Santa Barbara as well as drawing on faculty from two of the top four departments of geography in the United States. The Penn State and UC Santa Barbara partnership builds upon shared expertise (GIS instruction, geography, workshop and conference management) and complementary expertise (demographic science, distance learning, and digital libraries).