SO503 Spring 2008

Lecture Syllabus (4/1/2008)

   

Course home page Labs  Shows & Readings (USNA only)

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

 

1 Mon 01/07/08   Course introduction  
2 Wed 01/09/08   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.
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    3 Mon 01/14/08   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. 
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    4 Wed 01/16/08   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
    5 Wed 01/23/08   Research project opportunities part 1  
      Friday 01/25/08 5th period, Ocean Math Research project opportunities part 2  
    6 Mon 01/28/08   Matlab basics  
    7 Wed 01/30/08   EOS, 22 January issue  
    8 Mon 02/04/08 Time Series
    • Understand the definition of a time series.
    • Know the use of filtering, detrending, and anomaly computation
    • Understand the use of cross correlation.
    • Interpret a correlogram, in terms of time series periodicity and what the lags mean.
    9 Wed 02/06/08   EOS, Indonesia Trench
    • Discuss the Richter scale for earthquake magnitude, and the challenges with the very infrequent large earthquakes
    • Describe the characteristics of tsunamis and challenges they present in danger managements.
    10 Mon 02/11/08 x-week Physics Today, Feb 2008
    • Journals, access and cost
    • Navy Sonars
    • Comment on the issue of scientific knowledge being locked up in commercial publications
    • Discuss the science and the policy issues involved in the Navy's use of sonars for training
    11 Wed 02/13/08 x-week Exam 1  
    12 Tues 02/19/08 Tues, Mon schedule Exam review  
    13 Wed 02/20/08   Sea ice extent  
    14 Mon 02/25/08   Nyquist Sampling

    Time series demo

    1. Use the Nyquist frequency to develop a sampling strategy for a periodic function.

    2. Differentiate cross correlation and autocorrelation, and define lags and the correlation coefficient.

    15 Wed 02/27/08 Paper from Science Marine impacts  
    16 Mon 03/03/08   GIS introduction  
    17 Wed 03/05/08   Searching for data (Web of Science)  
    18 Mon 03/17/08   EOS, Hydrosheds  
    19 Wed 03/19/08   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.
    20 Mon 03/24/08   Scientific graphics
    • Understand the challenge for earth scientists to place multiple dimensions of data on a 2D display.
    • Resist the urge to use "chart junk" to make a graph more complex than needed 
    • Discuss the case study on the shuttle Challenger's O-rings, and how a lack of focus on the graphics presented contributed to the decision to launch
    21 Wed 03/26/08   Image analysis  
    22 Mon 03/31/08 x-week--Military Aps Paper due Forest carbon inventory  
    23 Wed 04/02/08 x-week Exam 1  
    24 Mon 04/07/08      
    25 Wed 04/09/08      
    26 Mon 04/14/08      
    27 Wed 04/16/08      
    28 Mon 04/21/08      
    29 Wed 04/23/08      
    30 Mon 04/28/08 Last day class