ES 551 Requirements

  1. Two, web-based, take-home exams, a mid-term and final, covering material from web lectures, textbook, and laboratory exercises. Each exam includes approximately half of the semester. Exams will be placed online for students to download on Friday and due the following Tuesday. Each exam is worth 25% of final grade.

  2. Weekly laboratory exercises using materials supplied by instructor. Labs are normally due after one week; late labs may receive a grade penalty. Labs represent 25% of grade.

  3. GIS mapping project. Each student will develop a map project of some kind, which involves creation, modification, transformation, analysis, and appropriate display of a GIS database. Projects are open to any subject matter or geographic region, as determined through consultation with the instructor. Project reports shall be given in the form of a poster presentation (paper, pdf or PowerPoint) or webpage. Project is worth 20% of final grade.

    Student webpage instructions.

    On-campus students may present projects in any of the formats noted above. Plan a well-organized 10-minute presentation. Distance-learning students must prepare a webpage presentation. Presentations are due by May 7th. Late projects may receive a grade penalty.

    Note: The project must be original and unique work created by the student's own effort and submitted for ES 551 only. Project results, images, text or other components may not be utilized for other earth science courses without prior approval by the instructor.

  4. Class participation is determined by e-mail messages to the instructor. Such messages are expected from all students on a weekly basis and should deal with lectures, lab exercises, projects, and other comments relevant to the course. On-campus students are also expected to attend occasional earth science seminars during the semester. Participation is 5% of the total grade.

  5. The ESU academic dishonesty policy is followed in this course--see grading scale.

ADA statement: Emporia State University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students need to contact the Director of Disability Services and the professor as early in the semester as possible to ensure that classroom and academic accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. All communication between students, the Office of Disability Services, and the professor will be strictly confidential.

Return to mapping syllabus.
ES 551 © J.S. Aber (2008).