[Biology-U-L] Geography 175: Environmental Data Analysis

[Biology Undergraduate List]

*EcoEv and Zool majors:*

This new Geog course is being offered this spring and has been approved 
to apply ***_*by petition*_** *toward meeting major your major's 
requirements as follows:

        * EcoEv:  Area H (Physical Environment)
        * Zool:     Area E (Ecology and Evolution Enrichment)

        (it will _not_ apply toward upper division units for any of the
        other EEMB or MCDB majors)

    ********************************************************

        *Geography 175: Environmental Data Analysis*
        *Instructor: Dar Roberts*
        *Teaching Assistant: Park Williams
        (Flyer attached)
        *


Have you ever wondered why it is warmer on a cloudy night than a clear 
night?, or how
smoke from a fire impacts sun light?, or why some days are foggy and 
others are not?
Have you wondered what makes plants sprout, grow and ultimately senesce 
or go
dormant each season?

If you have, Environmental Data Analysis is the class for you.

What is it?

Environmental Data Analysis is designed to give students a chance to 
create their own
research questions, design their own experiments, download their own 
data, analyze and
plot the data and present their findings to the class. The primary data 
source will be
environmental data measured by three micrometeorological towers deployed 
in the Santa
Barbara area (One at Coal Oil Point, two in Sedgwick Ranch). Students 
will work in the
lab on four environmental modules including:

    . Insolation (Seasonal, diurnal, geographic changes in incoming
    solar radiation)
    . Energy Balance (Seasonal, diurnal changes in short & long wave
    radiation)
    . Temperature in the Environment (Air temperature or soil temperature)
    . Water in the Environment (Moisture in the air or soils)

A final module will integrate many of these measures either to study 
Soil Water Balance
or Evapotranspiration. Supporting materials will be provided through 
weekly lectures, the
class website and other internet references, and suggested reading. 
Students will work in
small groups and present their research results to the class several 
times during the
quarter.

In addition to labs and lecture, the class will go on three field trips 
during the quarter, the
first to visit the three tower sites and receive training in field 
methods, and the other two
to work as a group at Coal Oil Point measuring vegetation composition. 
Field data will be
integrated with tower measurements by students as a final project. Final 
presentations and
a paper will take the place of a final exam.

Numerous interesting research problems can be posed and explored with 
these data.
While I can provide the tools, background and data to help answer your 
questions, the
kinds of questions you choose to ask, will be up to you.

Where and When
Lecture EH 3621: MW 9-10:15
Lab EH 3620: M 11-12:50, M 1-2:50



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