Course structure: Geo 599 Fall is the first quarter of a 3-quarter course series designed to foster a progression in student activities from 1) learning background info to 2) discussing issues in detail to 3) doing ecosystem informatics. The course is organized around 5, 2-week modules of four class sessions each. Each module illustrates and applies informatics concepts in a specific ecosystem/natural science problem area. Each module will cover the following aspects of the problem: (1) key concepts and terminology, (2) one or more case study examples, (3) group work involving more intensive study and readings.

Expectations for IGERT faculty teaching the course. The five lead faculty (Jones, D’Ambrosio, Dietterich, Harmon, Thomann) will attend all class meetings as far as possible. Each module will be taught by one of the five lead faculty in the Ecosystem Informatics IGERT. The five lead faculty also will participate in defining, conducting, and evaluating team projects. Each faculty preparing a module should give electronic versions of the readings to Julia ASAP so they can be put up on a website for student access.

Expectations for IGERT faculty advisors: All IGERT faculty advisors will attend the “applications” lecture in each module (5 of the 20 class sessions in the quarter). These lectures are highlighted in bold font on the attached schedule. Each class session (90 minutes) will allow at least 30 minutes of open discussion time; IGERT faculty are encouraged to participate actively in these discussions.

Expectations for IGERT students: Students will be expected to (1) master concepts and terminology, (2) demonstrate their ability to identify concepts in readings, and (3) develop and display their ability to apply the concepts in an individual report and an oral presentation. By the end of the quarter each student will have (4) identified one major and one minor problem area of interest out of the five general areas presented, and will have (5) joined two teams, which will pursue more in-depth applications of concepts in the winter quarter. An objective of the first quarter course is to get these teams formed and on their way. Winter quarter will involve guided teamwork, with project reports and presentations to occur in the spring.

Overview of modules:
(1) Disturbance propagation in stream networks over time and space (Jones);
(2) Scaling and uncertainty in the global carbon cycle (Harmon);
(3) The value of nature and the nature of value (Thomann);
(4) Intelligent feature identification and classification (Dietterich);
(5) Bayesian relational modeling/disease transmission (D’Ambrosio)

Assessment of student learning: Each student’s learning will be assessed based on (1) discussions and summaries of readings; (2) a written report, and (3) an oral presentation.

1. Discussions and summaries (30%): This portion of assessment involves (a) participation, (b) leading a discussion, and (c) evaluating presentations. Each student is expected to participate actively in discussions: asking questions, making comments. Each student will lead a discussion on one reading per module. To prepare the discussion, the student will draft a set of three questions about the material in the reading and circulate it electronically one day prior to the class meeting. Each student also will prepare a one-paragraph evaluation of the presentations of each faculty lecturer and each classmate’s presentation in each module. Written evaluations will be constructive and positive in tone.

2. Each student will draft a 2-page report for each module (40%). The report will (a) summarize the ecosystem/natural science problem and informatics tools that are central to the module, (b) demonstrate understanding of basic concepts by identifying them explicitly as they apply to the problem, and (c) identify the key challenges for informatics emerging from the problem, and potential research that could be conducted.

3. Oral presentation (30%). Each module will involve a short, intense group project. Teams of 3-4 students will tackle initial informatics problems posed by the lecturer on each module. These informatics problems will be identified, and the teams formed, on Thursday of week one of each module. Each student will spend up to 3 hours working on the team project and contribute to a presentation of findings on the second Thursday of each module.

Schedule

Date in bold font indicates that all IGERT faculty advisors should attend this lecture/discussion

Overview of the five modules