SO503 Spring 2007

Lecture Syllabus

   

Course home page

We will use EOS as the source for many of the readings for the course, and this will be updated as the semester progresses.

Fri 1/5/07   Course introduction  
Mon 1/8/07   Visit these web sites, and come to class ready to discuss the functions of a scientific society:
  • Discuss the role of scientific professional societies in holding meetings, publishing papers, and publishing newsletters.
  • Describe the funding of scientific research with grants, and the difference between "hard" and "soft" money.
  • Understand the role of "big science" versus individual research projects.
  • Know the major funding agencies for earth sciences: NSF and ONR, and the difference between NRL and ONR.
  • Wed 1/10/07   Scientific writing and presentations
  • Discuss the importance of priority in scientific research, and the role of refereed and peer reviewed journals.
  • Understand the importance of abstracts, and the need for clear, concise, and informative abstracts.
  • Describe the importance of oral and poster presentations for scientific research. 
  • Wed 1/17/07   Anatomy of a Scientific Paper
    • Discuss the parts of a scientific paper
    • Discuss the citation style used in science, and the preponderance of journal articles in the references cited
    • Discuss the weaving of geology, biology, climatology, and GIS in this paper's tracing of past climates and snakehead distribution.
    • Paper analysis checklists
    Mon 1/22/07   EOS for 16 Jan 2007
    • Discuss what is in EOS, and how it relates to research in the earth sciences
    Wed 1/24/07   Oceanography Dept Research Opportunities  
    Mon 1/29/07   EOS for 23 Jan 2007
    • North Korean nuclear test
    • Tonga volcano
     
    Wed 1/31/07   Remote sensing
    • Understand the relationships among wavelength, bandwidth, radiometric resolution, spatial resolution, and signal to noise ratio, and how these vary with position in the electromagnetic spectrum.
    • Discuss the tradeoffs involved with increasing spatial resolution.
    • Discuss the reasons why remote sensing concentrates on certain parts of the electromagnetic spectrum
    Mon 2/5/07   Arctic sea ice from Navy subs (EOS, 30 Jan)  
    Wed 2/7/07   Global Climate Change report  
    Mon 2/12/07 X_Week Surveying flash flood response in mountain streams (EOS, 6 Feb 2007)  
    Wed 2/14/07   Background reading on computer fundamentals.
    • Differentiate lossy and lossless compression
    • Discuss the types computers uses to store data: ASCII and binary, real/floating point and integer;
    Wed 2/21/07   Time series class  
    Mon 2/26/07   Time series part 2  
    Wed 2/28/07   EOS 27 Feb 2007
    • Sea level rise and population
    • Hurricanes in 2006
     
    Mon 3/5/07   Guest lecture #1 Students will turn in a one paragraph summary of the lecture at the start of the next class.
    Wed 3/7/07   Guest lecture #2 Students will turn in a one paragraph summary of the lecture at the start of the next class.
    Mon 3/19/07   EOS, 6 and 13 March 2007
    • Award citation and response
    • Wikipedia
    • Mayans and climate
    • Discuss the purpose of awards in science, and what you can learn from the citation and response.
    • How does (or does not) Wikipedia compare with a traditional refereed journal
    • What evidence supports a link between climate and the major crises in Mayan civilization?  What techniques did the paper use to make this point?
    Wed 3/21/07   Guest lecture #3 Students will turn in a one paragraph summary of the lecture at the start of the next class.
    Mon 3/26/07   Satellite Drifter data  
    Wed 3/28/07   Oral presentations in science
    • Discuss the importance of substance over gimmicks in scientific Power Point presentations.
    • Discuss the importance of the slide contents to the presenter and the audience.
    • Consider the amount of text that should be on a slide, and the relative balance between text, graphics, and blank space.
    Mon 4/2/07 X-week Exam 2  
    Wed 4/4/07   Aircraft emissions

    Korea nuclear weapons verification

     
    Mon 4/9/07   Graphics in science  
    Wed 4/11/07   Urban societies and sea level rise  
    Mon 4/16/07   Grad school basics

    Scientific writing style

     
    Wed 4/18/07   Radar altimeters
    • Discuss the parameters we can measure with a radar altimeter (sea surface height or geoid, significant wave height, and wind speed), and what in the radar return we use to measure each.
    • Discuss the differences between traditional measurements of bathymetry and the use of satellite altimetry.

     

    Mon 4/23/07
    Wed 4/25/07   Course Review: Papers due COB the last day of classes  
    Mon 5/7/07   Final exam