SaLIS Vol. 67, No. 4

December 2007

 

Editorial Latitudes
Steve Frank Steve Frank, New Mexico State University
sfrank@nmsu.edu

 

This issue is comprised of papers presented at the biannual North American Surveying and Mapping Teachers Conference held in Big Rapids, Michigan, in 2007. The meeting was hosted by Ferris State University and had an international participation. The six papers published in this issue are representative of the variety of papers presented at the conference. The history of the North American Surveying and Mapping Teachers Conferences is as rich as the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping. As a matter of fact, the conference has been around for ten years longer than ACSM, and, indeed, the idea to establish ACSM came from one of the initial surveying and mapping conferences in the late 1930s. The conference has no formal presence, i.e., one cannot join it as one would an organization, and it has no fixed address of business. Instead the conferences are held in alternate years and are hosted by various surveying programs selected in advance by conference participants. We look forward to attending the 2009 Surveying and Mapping Teachers Conference at East Tennessee State University. This issue starts with a paper by Dr. Gharles Ghilani on the use of animation in teaching geodesy concepts. Although static pages of text can hardly do justice to the effect that presentation tools such as Microsoft PowerPoint can have on learning, Ghilani’s article serves a much needed function in learning in that it provokes thoughts of new ways of teaching basic surveying concepts.  The second paper in the issue was written by Professor Mason Marker, and it is equally thought-provoking. The paper with its focus on integrating GIS and surveying curricula at the Oregon Institute of Technology echoes experience and concerns facing many other surveying and mapping programs in the U.S.  Dr. James Elithorpe’s paper describing the difficulties with providing an online four-year surveying degree program is another paper with a topic of interest across the wide spectrum of surveying and mapping programs in the U.S. The fourth paper in this issue was written by Dr. Thomas Seybert and describes the author’s experiences with ABET outcome-based accreditation. Drs. Maher Wissa and Rajendra Bajracharya describe the development of a four-year curriculum for a new Geomatics Technology Program at Idaho State University. Recognizing that surveying programs need to equip graduates with the necessary tools to go on to gaining professional licensing and becoming successful in today’s workplace, the curriculum was tailored precisely to meet these challenges. Finally, Drs. Laramie Potts, Joshua Greenfeld, and T.K. Hanna present an article on student recruitment intosurveying (geomatics) programs. Each of these articles discusses issues important to surveying and mapping educators and should be of interest to all surveyors and mappers.

 

 

Animating Three-D Concepts in Geodesy

Charles D. Ghilani

 

Approximately fifty percent of the population cannot visualize three-dimensional concepts from a two-dimensional drawing. In casual surveys, it appears that this percentage is true even in spatially related fields such as surveying/geomatics. The inability to visualize three-dimensional concepts may affect even the brightest of students in such ways as hindering their ability to understand the underlying concepts. This paper explores using computer animation to help students visualize, and thus understand, three-dimensional concepts.

 

 

Merging a GIS and Surveying Curriculum—Integrating Geospatial Communities
at the Oregon Institute of Technology

Mason K. Marker, PLS

 

Historically, GIS and Surveying have been kept in separate departments within the Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT). Geomatics resided within the Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics, and GIS resided within the Environmental Science Program in the Department of Natural Sciences. This separation at OIT reflected the separation of GIS and Surveying in professional practice. Recognizing that this is not the future of either GIS or Surveying, OIT merged the GIS and Geomatics Programs into a new department and is offering the core Geomatics Degree with either a GIS option or a Survey option. The goal of this merger is to improve the integration of GIS and Surveying. This paper discusses the rational for the integration, the challenges faced, and the anticipated outcomes for the new department and our students.

KEYWORDS: Surveying education, GIS education, Geographic Information Science, curriculum

 

 

Issues with the Provision of an Online Four-Year Degree Program in Land Surveying/Geomatics

James A. Elithorp Jr.

 

The use of the Internet as an effective vehicle to deliver college courses to students has matured in the past several years, moving past the sole use of course management software to allow technological enhancements such as synchronous class meetings over the Internet, pod casts, and streaming video. These tools can be combined in a way that best achieves the learner outcomes of each blended online course. The design of an online four-year degree program involves a commitment of the educational institution to provide all of the necessary coursework over the Internet, not just survey courses. The curriculum design must deal with the need for hands-on laboratory work; the provision of laboratory instructors and software/hardware at distant sites; the entry of new students presenting a wide range of experience and educational achievement; advisement-at-distance; and mentoring by the profession. Research comes up short on providing concrete guidance for the development and maintenance of an online program in any academic/professional discipline, let alone land surveying/geomatics. This paper deals with those phantom issues (those that did not materialize) and the real issues that did emerge during program development. The Nevada experience in distance education confirms that the technology has evolved to provide the basic tools for effective online courses, but the instructor has to accept the fact that his or her role will be substantially different. Online courses will not be successful if the instructor conducts them as if they were in residence or live classes. The educational institution must commit to the provision of those online courses necessary to complete a four-year degree. With classes moving online, licensed land surveyors have an opportunity for an important participative role in education, as mentors and laboratory instructors to students in geographically different locations.

 

 

Experiences with Program Assessment and ABET Outcome-Based Accreditation

Thomas A. Seybert

 

The Penn State Wilkes-Barre Surveying Program went through two ABET accreditation visits during the past two years. The baccalaureate degree Surveying Engineering Program was visited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) in October 2005. The associate degree Surveying Technology Program was visited by the Technology Accreditation Commission (TAC) in October 2006. The self-study guidelines and recommended method for presentation of material were different, yet each visit had similar challenges. Both program reviews showed a need to revise educational objectives, program outcomes, and course outcomes to better facilitate and simplify the assessment process. Additionally, the program’s continuous improvement process (CIP) was identified as unclear. Penn State Surveying faculty has adopted a framework for a revised assessment method and a more effective, functional, and better documented CIP. The CIP was inaugurated during Spring 2007 with an assessment of course outcomes and proceeded with the subsequent improvement of each course. Improvements to external surveys to support the assessment of revised educational objectives and program outcomes are planned. Multiple assessment mechanisms, both direct and indirect, will be used in the CIP.

 

Tailoring a Geomatics Curriculum to Prepare Students
for Professional Licensing and Success in the Workplace

Maher Wissa and Rajendra Bajracharya

 

The Geomatics Technology Program at Idaho State University was tailored to meet the challenge of creating a four-year Geomatics Technology curriculum that provides graduates with the necessary tools to succeed in the workplace and gain professional licensing. The curriculum was developed based on our two-year Civil Engineering Technology program with input from government, industry, and local professional land surveyors. This paper discusses the program’s mission, structure, curriculum, and components and student involvement in a variety of real boundary or public land surveying projects. These projects are classified as case studies or capstone projects. The program also offers a noncredit preparation course for the State Board Examination to obtain a land surveyor-in-training certificate.

 

Toward a Student Recruitment Model for a Surveying (Geomatics) Degree Program

Laramie V. Potts, Joshua Greenfeld, and T. K. Hanna

 

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2006-2007) predicts job openings for surveyors at nearly 3000 a year over the next ten years. An active vigorous effort aimed at successfully recruiting matriculated students to pursue a course of study in surveying may ensure adequate supply of highly skilled and qualified surveyors. Despite recent commendable efforts by the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) to give public exposure to the surveying profession, the general public remains largely uninformed about the work and skills of professional surveyors and their vital role in protecting the public good, which, in turn, constricts student recruitment. We report the results of several pilot studies conducted in the State of New Jersey of student enrolment in the Surveying Engineering Technology (SET) Program at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). In addition, we report a sample response of national perceptions on surveying careers from interviews conducted in northern New Jersey. This study examines how and why students chose surveying as a career path and then identify key elements of a recruitment model within the framework of vocational planning theory.  A skeletal recruiting model is proposed, which takes into account factors shaping recruitment messages targeted at specific audiences, support for behavioral control, reinforcement of positive attitude, and stimuli in the student milieu. We recommend that the recruitment message include features of role models and effective communication style, and its language should be devoid of gender mainstreaming. Techno-savvy surveying imagery should be used to further erode antiquated visions of plebeian surveying education and careers.

 

 

Book Review

Encyclopedia of the Solar System, 2nd edition, edited by Lucy-Ann McFadden, Paul R. Weissman and Torrence V. Johnson, Academic Press, 2007. Reviewed by Patrick C. Garner, Wetlands Scientist.

 

Encyclopedia of the Solar System is a thorough scientific tome, and, as one long interested in this field, I know of no similar reference. At 965 pages and eight pounds in weight, the hardcover book resembles the single-volume Columbia encyclopedia in size, and can be used as a reference in the same way. Over fifty authors contribute to this updated version, and there are hundreds of color photographs, charts and tables. (Note that a shorter but different book with the identical name, written by Roger Smith, was printed in 2000.)

 

This book, first published in 1999, includes the usual bedrock fundamentals about our portion of the universe and chronicles the last decade of astronomical discoveries. As the preface notes, in just the last 10 yr an international fleet of spacecraft have circled Mars and two NASA rovers continue to roam its surface.

Probe Galileo went to Jupiter, and the Deep Impact and separate Stardust missions have brought back actual comet fragments. Cassini continues to send data from the Saturn system, and the Huygens probe was sent the moon Titan. Other probes orbited and then touched down on the asteroids Eros and Itokawa. Further, scientist’s increasingly sophisticated telescopes continue to make startling discoveries. Even with government funding cuts for many space programs, at no time in human history has the rate of space discovery been so rapid.

 

Encyclopedia of the Solar System begins with an overview of our system and its relationship to the greater galaxy. Individual chapters are then devoted to the origin of the solar system and the history of solar system studies. Subsequent chapters examine solar winds, meteorites, planetary satellites and the atmosphere of giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune), plus planetary rings, solar system dust and solar system dynamics (a.k.a. Regular and Chaotic Motion).

Planetary moons are covered at length, with chapters on the Earth’s moon, as well as the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan and Triton. Recent theories regarding possible repositories of ice existing on our own moon are examined and discussed in the context of future Moon missions that now under consideration by several nations, including India, China, the United States and Russia.

 

Of particular value, Encyclopedia of the Solar System focuses on topics not thoroughly covered in many general texts. An entire chapter analyzes asteroids, noting that these solid bodies that orbit the Sun have no atmosphere, and were first discovered only in 1801. For five decades following only four more asteroids were found–largely due to the poor quality of telescopes. Today’s scientists use photographic means in conjunction with light wave or radio wave analysis. These methods are then coupled with computer analysis. In comparison with the few known asteroids in the nineteenth century, there are now over 120,440 numbered asteroids.

Other sections cover new fields of study such as astrobiology, planetary volcanism, extra-solar planets, and remote chemical sensing using nuclear spectroscopy. Planetary radar and techniques for measuring the solar system using radio wavelengths are discussed. As with asteroids, vast advances have been made in both discovering and analyzing comets. Separate chapters focus on the evolving fields of comet chemistry and physics, as well as comet populations and dynamics.

None of this information was known before astronomers began using telescopes that allow them to “look through” solar and interplanetary dust to see otherwise obscured comets and asteroids. Chapters even examine a newly discovered ring of dust that follows Earth’s orbit and a solar wide field of small particles known as the Zodiacal Dust Cloud.

 

Much of the detailed information comes from the five successful landers that have investigated the surface of Mars since 1976. These landers used rovers that carried engineering cameras and spectrometers for measuring the chemical composition of surface materials. The current mission in 2004 sent Spirit and Opportunity to explore the surface. They have far exceeded their 3-mo design life, and in their third year of operation, have explored over 7 km.

 

The data that these rovers obtain is based on robust and sophisticated instrumentation (what NASA calls their geology toolkits), which include color cameras, a microscope imager, thermal emission spectrometers and a device that grinds into rocks to determine their composition. Perhaps the most exciting evidence found by the ongoing mission is evidence that salty water once existed. For current information, see http://marsrover.nasa.gov/home/index.html.

Encyclopedia of the Solar System discusses at length–for the first time–the rich geology, mineralogy and geochemistry of Mars. A chapter covers the history and surface interactions of the Mars atmosphere, including past and present climates. There is extensive analysis of the most recent conclusions that fluids shaped the surface of Mars during all its primary epochs.

 

A further chapter delves into Mars tectonics, canyons, erosion and deposition, volcanoes and impact cratering. These new (and updated) chapters are some of the most exciting for anyone who has followed the endless scientific debates about Mars. Many of the earlier controversies have been conclusively settled, yet mysteries remain. The recent discovery of methane in the Mars atmosphere has not been fully explained, and debates about subsurface water deposits continue within the scientific community—probably only to be resolved if future missions are able to probe deeply enough into subsurface layers.

A thorough appendix is included, which details all international planetary exploration missions, and includes further sections on selected astronomical constants and the physical and orbital properties of the Sun and planets. Similar data are included for known satellites. The appendix includes a lengthy discussion on recent proposals to redefine planets. There is also an extensive glossary and index.

 

Consequently, Encyclopedia of the Solar System—in revision for eight years—is a thorough reference for both scientists and laymen To its great credit, Solar System acknowledges—indeed, assumes—that portions of its material will soon be out-of-date. Even now, the New Horizons spacecraft is on its way to the Pluto/Charon system; Messenger is on its way to Mercury; Rosetta is blasting toward the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko; and new international probes are working in the vicinity of Venus and Mars. Astronomy is in its heyday, and the Encyclopedia of the Solar System makes its discoveries highly accessible.

 

Patrick C. Garner, PLS

Wetland Scientist

 

Book Review

Wetlands by William J. Mitsch and James G. Gosselink, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007. Hardcover. ISBN is 0471699675. 582 pages including appendices. Publisher's price is $99.00. Reviewed by Patrick C. Garner, Wetlands Scientist.

 

 

Wetlands is simply the uncontested end-all and be-all reference in the wetlands science field. Although there are hundreds of books in print on the subject, none is as influential and none has been as critical to the success of this broad field of study. Authors Mitsch and Gosselink, both esteemed university professors, have now issued their fourth edition (a new edition has come out roughly every seven years). The new Wetlands covers topics as diverse as wetland delineation, world wetland systems, regulatory issues, wetland hydrology, human impacts and use, and functions and values of wetlands.

 

If there is one book that both professionals and interested citizens should have on their shelves, this is it. Owners of earlier versions will find that the current Wetlands is a very different text. The field of wetland science is constantly evolving and Wetlands reflects the latest science and law. Copiously illustrated (but without color), the current version is a massive rework, shortening the total number of pages by 35 percent, while expanding the sections on international wetland ecosystems and adding a critical chapter on climate change (using the latest 2007 IPCC reports).

 

Joseph Larson at the University of Massachusetts calls this, “The single best combination text and reference book on wetland ecology.” It is certainly that, and with the latest revision, Wetlands becomes indispensable as a reference for both working professionals and for academics.

 

Do you want to understand the carbon cycle and gaseous transport in plants? Do you want to revisit whether using wetlands in wastewater treatment is efficacious? How about issues regarding changing coastal tides and projected sea level rise? Do you have lingering questions about why wetlands should be protected and are so controversial? All of these are covered in detail. In fact, the thoroughness of the text mandates its definition as a reference.

In addition the authors state, “There is little doubt that something significant is happening to our climate.” The new chapter on climate change is a basic primer on the critical function that wetlands play worldwide. The authors note the increased change in extreme precipitation patterns, warmer temperatures and the probable effects of those changes on the release of methane, a major greenhouse gas.

 

They point out that wetlands store 20 to 25 percent of global methane. Further, they weigh the impacts to carbon sequestration from climate change–noting that wetlands store 20 to 30 percent of the world’s carbon. The book emphasizes that altered patterns of precipitation will change not only the type and distribution of wetlands, but also the ability of riverine systems to maintain andromodous fish populations. Flood control and stormwater management assumptions may require new definitions, and physical infrastructure extensive reengineering.

 

The heavily reworked chapter on Values and Valuation of Wetlands weighs the “difficulty of comparingÖ the various values of wetlands against human economic” interests. Not avoiding the controversies of private land rights versus societal values of wetlands, the authors stress the need to “consider the value of a wetland as part of an integrated landscape.” There is also emphasis on known wetland values being among the highest of any ecosystem. When flood control, water drinking quality, recreation (which includes sports as diverse as water skiing and trout fishing) and coastline protection from storms—all values associated with wetlands—are cumulatively taken into account, wetland loss as a result of changing ecosystems and human impact is clearly an increasingly critical concern. The authors look at existing laws and regulations, and note that, if we are to maintain optimum resource protection, many of the current statutes may have to change to reflect changing climate patterns.

When I teach wetland seminars to either design professionals, wetland scientists or environmentalists in the conservation field, I am frequently asked, “What is the one wetland text that should be in my library?” Without hesitation I have always recommended Wetlands. The fourth edition is a revision that makes that recommendation even easier.

 

Although Wetlands will not be the only wetlands book on your library—for instance, it is not a detailed manual on hydric vegetation identification or a how-to text on delineating a wetland edge—its comprehensive approach to definition, evaluation and analysis of wetland ecosystems is unparalleled. Conveniently, the book contains several hundred references for further reading, as well as the latest research findings.

 

In conclusion, the authors have created a must-have text. Design professionals, wetland scientists and concerned citizens should all have well-thumbed copies of Wetlands. Mitsch and Gosselink have set a new standard with this latest, eminently readable revision.