Course Description & Focus

This course provides a conceptual overview and hands-on experience with Global Positioning Systems (GPS).  Students will learn GPS theory, techniques, and field data methods, use hand-held GPS units to collect and integrate spatial and non-spatial data within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) framework.  We will cover differential correction, importing features and tabular data into GIS, data conversions, building a GIS database, and create maps from GPS data.  

Pre/Co-requisite. Geo 265 or instructor permission.  Audit available.

Course Materials

1| A series of online readings to accompany course materials are announced weekly in class.  Helpful textbook recommendation available.
2| USB flashdrive (recommended 2GB min)

Sample Course Outline

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Week 1.

Introduction to course
Topic:  What is GPS?  Components of GPS and Basics of GPS units

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Week 2.

Topic: GPS Software
Lab 1: Trimble Software and Mission Planning

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Week 3.

Topic: Reference Systems, Accuracy & Precision
Lab 2: Data Collection

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Week 4.

Topic: Post-Processing & GPS Data
Lab 3: Differential Correction

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Week 5.

Topic: Advanced Data Collection
Lab 4: Advanced Data Collection Techniques

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Week 6.

Topic: Navigation and Other Uses
Lab 5: Navigation/ Scavenger Hunt

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Week 7.

Topic: ArcPad - Where do I go from here?
Midterm Exam
Introduce Final Project

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Week 8.

Work on Final Project: Field Data Collection & Lab Processing

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Week 9.

Work on Final Project: Field Data Collection & Lab Processing

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Week 10.

Work on Final Project: Lab Processing & Presentation Prep

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Finals Week.

Final Project Presentations

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