1. GSP 470/570 Advanced Geospatial Analysis and Modeling
By Dr. Jim Graham
The Power of Believing You Can Improve

2. This Class
This is a split graduate/undergraduate spatial modeling class in natural resources
This will be one of the most challenging classes you’ll probably take
You’ll leave with a background in modeling and critical thinking that few GIS professionals ever achieve
The material in the class has been combined from previous courses at Colorado State and OSU

3. Introductions Who are you? What is your major/thesis topic?
What do you want to achieve in your career?

4. Class Info We’ll use Canvas for assignments and grades.
A link to the web site for materials is on the home page in Canvas

5. What is a model? An abstraction of reality
We cannot describe all the details
They are never perfect
Help us to answer questions for problems we cannot test directly
spectorlab.cshl.edu

6. Why do we model?

7. Modeling is Huge!
Modeling is a huge, rapidly growing, and exciting field
My background is in habitat suitability modeling with large datasets, primarily for plants
There will be new topics we’ll work with to learn together
Welcome to research!

8. Class Goals By the end of class you will be able to:
Build your own models in R
Articulate the theory, capabilities, and weaknesses of modeling
Select appropriate modeling approaches
Continue to learn about modeling in your field
This is going to help you solve problems (and it looks great on a resume)

9. How the class works
Read the material on the web site and other recommended readings as needed before the lectures/discussions
Lectures will cover the material but will focus on key concepts
Ask questions on material you don’t understand so we can discuss them
Quizzes will test your understanding of the key concepts

10. Learning Style Our learning styles vary: How do you approach problems?
Learning Styles Inventory
We’ll need to adapt to each other’s learning styles
How do you approach problems?
You can do well in this class!
Brains are like a muscle, the more you practice, the stronger it gets

11. What do you need from me? Break into groups of 2-3
Select the top 3 things you need me to do to help you be successful
Select someone to add them to the list on the board

12. From Spring 2019:

13. Professionalism
We’ve seen a decline in professionalism in students over the last 20 years
This has led to challenges in interviewing and maintaining positions
Points will be deducted for:
Being late or leaving during class without a valid reason
Not participating
Talking while someone else has the floor

14. To Be Successful Show up for class and lab (on time) Do the readings
Spend time getting to know R (play time!)
Use your resources to get help! Me
Other students
Books, articles
And the web

15. How to do the readings: I recommend:
Read it once fairly quickly
Go back and read key parts and think about them
Try the code examples
Ask questions about key parts that are unclear
Play with the concepts in R until comfortable with them
PS: this has taken me years

16. For $1500 You’re Getting: 2 lecture/discussion sessions per week
1 lab session per week
Office hours with the professor
Plus additional time as needed
Teaching Assistant(s)
The library with labs and additional help
Access to computer labs and software
To work surrounded by people who want you to be successful and need your help too!

17. Projects
You are responsible to present and turn in a completed project at the end of the semester
There will be incremental project updates during the semester:
Project Plan
Data collection update
Analysis update
Rough draft
Final project presentation

18. Graduate Students Each lead a project team
Lead a discussion on a selected article
Include citations to scientific literature in their reports
Peer-review another group’s project

19. Start Now! Define your project Start your introduction Find the data!
Can be part of your research but must have new content over existing deliverables
Start your introduction
Start looking for papers
Create summaries (annotated bibliography)
Add to citation manager (EndNote)