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Lab Syllabus Lab assignments Lab policies Survival Skills For This Course The Format of the Labs Help and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) GIS/Geography Resources Online

Lab 1 -- Intro to ArcGIS Lab 2 -- GIS Data Models Lab 3 -- Geodatabase Design Lab 4 -- Spatial Analysis Lab 5 -- Interpolation Lab 6 -- 3-D Visualization

Data
    Most data used in the Lab assignments will be linked and downloadable from the individual Lab web pages. Otherwise, the location of data will be announced by your section TA.

Points
     Lab assignments will be worth 25% of your 176B grade, and 100% of your 176BL grade.  Each lab will be worth a set amount of points, depending on number and difficulty of lab questions, and the time allotted for completion of the lab.

Due Dates
     Lab assignments are generally due at, or before, the start of section one week after they have been assigned (i.e., if you lab section meets on Tuesday, your assignment is due by the following Tuesday at the beginning of section).  In the instance that more than one week has been allotted for the completion of a lab, this will be announced.   See your TA regarding where you should turn in your assignments.

Late Assignments
     Late assignments will be accepted, however a penalty of 10% per day will be assessed (including weekends).  Assignments will not be accepted more than 10 days late.

Format
     All assignments must be type written or word processed.  Hand written assignments will not be accepted. For your convenience, there is a link to a ready-made answer sheet (in Word format) at the bottom of every Lab webpage.

Group Work
     During some labs you will be working in groups of two or more students.  While you may work on lab material together, your lab writeup must be your own work.  Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

Star Lab Policies

Lab Hours
     Access to the Star Lab is guaranteed on weekdays between the hours of 8am and 5pm - however, while a lab session is in progress, the lab is considered closed unless you are enrolled in the section. A schedule of classes using the lab is posted next to the lab door, please plan your outside of class lab work around this schedule.

     Outside of these standard hours, you can access the Star Lab by using the fingerprint lock system located next to the door. (Ask your TA about registering to use this system.) Once you are in the lab, you may remain there for as long as you like.

Lab Policies
1.  If you are the last person to leave the lab you must close the windows and the door. The door will lock by itself.

2.  No food or drink is allowed in the lab.

3.  The Star Lab is a resource for Geography students only.  Do not allow friends, relatives, or pets to use the facility.  If you see a non-Geography student using the lab, feel free to ask them to leave. If they do not, contact the Geography office and they will be removed.

4.  You must completely log off your machine when you are finished working. If you do not you will expose both your work and the Geography department to the potential of computer damage.

Survival Skills
Here are a few hints from experienced TAs that, if followed, will save you (and your TA) much time and grief.

Basic Windows & Office Skills

This is all very dated, but you still may find some things useful...

     In this course, it is assumed that you have general computer-use skills, familiarity with using Windows 95/98/2000/NT and experience with common Windows applications (e.g., Works or Word).  If for some reason this is not the case you should probably think carefully about whether or not you should remain enrolled in the course.  However, we realize that student computing skills will vary widely, based on courses taken, access to a computer at home, etc., and so here we provide a few online resources that may be helpful in brushing up on basic Windows and MS Office skills.  Even if you consider yourself comfortable using Windows and Office, you might benefit from glancing through these pages -- there are always more handy shortcut keys, tricks, and functions that are very useful but not well publicized.

    The UCSB Instructional Computing webpage can answer questions about the general-access UCSB computer labs and email.  Also, IC has a good series of introductory tutorials on many common programs (MS Word, Excel, etc.) in their Student Help Guide.

     The following tutorials were designed for Windows NT and Office 97, and for use by medical and dental students.  Most of the shortcuts and applications should transfer well to the Windows 2000 and Office 2000 installed in the Star Lab.  Keep in mind that a few of the instructions are specific to the University of Bristol.  The tutorials start from the basics (using the keyboard and the mouse) and move up through basic Windows and into specific Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.  The link to the index page is included as well as some recommend sub-pages.

• Computer Skills Tutorial from the University of Bristol medical school.
• Using the keyboard and the mouse
• Practical Guide to some basics of Windows NT [Windows NT is similar to Windows 2000]
• Starting programs (the Start menu)
• Saving your work
• Files, Drives, and Folders
• The Save As dialog box
• The Task Bar
• The Task Manager
• Windows NT Help
• The Internet and WWW
• A Guided Tour of Office 97
• An example of word processing using Word
• Practical introduction to Word 97
• Further practical Word 97
• An example spreadsheet using Excel
• An example presentation using PowerPoint
• Getting started with databases using Access
• Designing a Relational Database
• Converting to Using Windows NT 4.0

     Often, when you are working on your labs, you will have lots of windows open -- for example, you'll be reading the lab in Netscape, answering the answer sheet in Word, moving files from ArcCatalog to ArcMap, emailing a question to your TA, and looking for a tool in ArcToolbox.  Moving the windows around or clicking on the Task Bar with the mouse will get quite tedious. The fastest way to switch windows is ALT+TAB.  Hold down ALT and hit TAB, then let go of ALT.  If you had a window open besides this one, it will pop up.  To get back here, hit ALT+TAB again.  If you hold down the ALT key after hitting TAB, you will see the list of windows you can TAB through.

     There is often a shortcut key for commonly used functions.  For example, in Netscape (and basically all Windows applications) CTRL+S runs the Save command.  You can see this shortcut listed if you click on File in the Menu Bar at the top of the Netscape window.  Also, if you hit ALT+F, the File menu is displayed in a similar way.  If you hit the underlined letter for a command, you can run it. This feature is universal in all MS Windows applications and wizards, and can save you a lot of clicking.  Thus, ALT+F, then letting go of ALT, then hitting the S key, works the same as CTRL+S, clicking the Save Button or clicking File -> Save.

      It is common to find that you want to drag data from one window into another (such as when adding data from ArcCatalog to a map in ArcMap), however both windows are not visible - that is, one is "on top" of the other.  Dragging data to another window can be done by dragging the data to the icon in the icon tray, and holding the data over the icon until the window opens.  It is important not to drop the data on the icon in the icon tray, as this will not work - you must wait for the window to open (this takes a few seconds).

Additional Hints - Saving

• Save often - ArcInfo has the ability to detect the most inopportune moment to crash so you loose the most work. Consider yourself warned.
• You can't drag & drop ArcInfo files - don't use Windows Explorer or My Computer to move around ArcInfo files, use ArcCatalog.
• Keep organized and name files coherently - develop a regular system to keep everything straight, make folders and names you understand.
• Save large files on a zip disk - 100 MB zip disks can be bought for $5 or so at the bookstore. Some of the lab zip drives support 100MB and some support 250MB disks, but you shouldn't need anything more than 100MB.

• Print Preview - Please use Print Preview before printing anything from Word, Netscape, or ArcInfo.  Just go to File -> Print Preview.  This will ensure that you're don't print 20 undesired pages, and will give you an idea if the formatting, etc., looks the way you want it.
• Printing Policy - TBA by TAs (main points: no printing on color printer, don't print endless copies of map drafts, etc.)

• There are many other useful resources on campus that students often don't make use of.  To find them, look at the current students page of the UCSB Homepage, or look at a summary of some resources recommended to TAs here.

• How to make a fire
• Nuclear War Survival Skills
• Survivor

Understanding the Lab Format

     The labs have been formatted to be relatively easy to follow and read on-screen, as we do not want you to print out all 15+ pages of each lab.  Please take the opportunity to provide feedback on the lab format with the evaluation sheets.

Here is the general format of the labs:

Outline -- Each lab will begin with an outline.  The major sections and subsections will be hyperlinked from the outline, so you don't have to hunt around for where you left off.
1.1 Purpose -- Overview of main points of the lab.
1.2  Introduction & Background -- Basic background material.  Be sure to read this section - it, or the website links on it, will often contain information helpful for answering the questions, especially if you're new to a topic such as remote sensing or network analysis.
1.3  Data -- A brief description of the datasets used in the lab.  The data for each lab will be hosted on the ta176 account -- your TA where tell you where to find it.
1.4  Procedures -- Instructions for the lab.  Sometimes these will be step-by-step, sometimes not.  Once you have learned "how things are done" in ArcInfo, you should be able to figure out how to accomplish a wide range of tasks on your own (See below for what the colors mean).
1.5  Conclusions -- Summary of material covered in the lab.
1.6 What to turn in -- Summary of items you will be handing in.  Includes a link to the questions sheet (a page listing just the questions from that particular lab).

     Rather than simply having a huge list of instructions on a white background, the various procedures in the lab have been broken into small modules.  A particular task or function of ArcInfo will be found in a light blue box, like this:
 

ArcInfo Help      ArcInfo Help works like any Windows program help section. Go to the Menu Bar --> Help --> ArcGIS Help: When you're looking for something in ArcInfo Help, make sure to Search in both the Index and the Search tab.  Trying the search with different terms (e.g., data models, or coverage, or geodatabase) increases the odds of finding something useful...

Additional information, links to relevant webpages (e.g., www.esri.com, www.usgs.gov), and hints will be found in the salmon-colored boxes.
 

If you're curious about making better used of Properties, the main methods are the creation of Layers in ArcCatalog, and ArcMap's Style Manager, found in the Menu Bar under Tools-->Styles-->Style Manager.

Questions, to which you will give typewritten answers, will be delineated by these orange boxes:
 

Answer question 4: Which of the three layers do you think was the original data layer?  Which is "second generation" and which is "third generation"?  Why?

Note: The questions will be shown in the lab and also on a separate question page for the lab.  Therefore, if you want to print out something to take notes on, print out the question sheet.

For each lab, you will be composing a map, printing it out, and handing it in.  Instructions about maps will be found in green boxes:
 

Your map for Lab 2:       Make a map of mainland Santa Barbara county with the streets theme overlaid on the contour theme, using your knowledge & skills from Labs 1 and 2.  You will have to choose appropriate properties for the two themes so that they are not confused on your black and white printout and so that they are easily distinguished by the viewer.  Also, make sure you follow the basic principles of cartography outlined in Lab 1.

Bugs discovered during the writing of the labs are listed in yellow boxes at the end of the labs:
 

Possible bugs: It may be difficult to create the network - there seems to be a write lock problem in the 8.1 software (even if the file has not been used, it seems to be "in use")

Note: The TAs may also add notes if they discover additional problems.  As the software versions are changing regularly, this is a fact of life.  Additional bugs and work-arounds may be found at the Geog176B Help and FAQs  page, as well.

Copyright © 2000-2007, Regents of the University of California
Personal use for self-educational purposes is authorized. Use for all other purposes (such as labs on other campuses, reproduction, etc.) requires explicit permission from the copyright holders (contact NCGIA), and acknowledgment of authorship is appreciated. If permission is granted for other use by NCGIA, please include attribution to the original authors and a link to the lab series homepage.

Authors: The current versions of these labs were developed by Sean Benison, Sunhui Sim, and Jordan Hastings in Fall 2004. They are based on labs originally created by Nick Matzke and Sarah Battersby in 2001 and updated by Jeff Hemphill in 2003 and 2004. Everyone listed here is a graduate student in the UCSB Geography Department.

Partial support for development of this lab series was provided by the National Science Foundation, through UCSB's Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science (CSISS) and Varenius Project, a project of the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, or NCGIA. The supervisor was Mike Goodchild 

Created by Sean Benison, Sunhui Sim, and Jordan Hastings

Based on previous page by Sarah Battersby and Nicholas Matzke
UC Santa Barbara, Department of Geography
© 2000-2007, Regents of the University of California

This page was last modified on Jan. 9, 2008 by Indy Hurt