Introduction to GIS
Mini-course, Center for Earth and Planetary Studies Summer Intern Program, National Air and Space Museum, 1900
This six-part applied GIS mini-course was designed as an introduction for Smithsonian interns who either had not taken a GIS class before or needed a refresher before beginning their projects. Although the interns were primarily working on planetary science research, I felt that it was important for them to learn about how GIS is utilized in real-world settings, and selected a topic of particular local interest: the 2016 and 2018 floods in Ellicott City, MD, just north of Washington DC. The mini-course is a six part series that emphasizes data organization and management. Students begin by learning abbout coordinate reference systems, to the creation and manipulation of vectors, to raster analysis. Each unit applies a new method for understanding what happened in Ellicott City, why the historic district is prone to flooding, and what measures can be taken to prevent future disasters. Ultimately, the course framework treats GIS as a rigorous quantitative environment for evaluating physical Earth systems, environmental risk, and the spatial distribution of infrastructure vulnerability.