Wrapping up the Term

Teaching Evaluations

I value your feedback! Please if you haven’t done so already, fill them out so I can think about how to improve my teaching going forward!

What worked for you & what didn’t?
How was the pace & format?
- Anything I should spend more time on?
- Did you find any modules particularly difficult?
They also help my future employment prospects!

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About Evaluations

Teaching evaluations are completely anonymous and they not released to professors until after the final exam. If you’re curious what they look like on the professors’ end, you can see some of my evaluations from previous here.

Final Exam Review

The final exam will be asynchronous over Canvas and is scheduled for June 28.

One attempt - the exam submission window will be open for 24 hours.
The exam is open book - you can reference any course material or outside sources you want.
- Be weary of outside materials - they may not be correct …
- DO NOT copy/paste answers. Answers must be in your own words. Plagiarism will be taken seriously and could result in a zero.

What’s on the Exam?

There will be four parts to your exam. Questions will be assigned randomly from a question bank. No two students will have the same exam. The following point breakdown is approximate and may change slightly:

A Flowchart (50 pts)
Essays (60 pts)
Short Answer (50 pts)
Automated Questions (90 pts)
- Fill in the Blank
- Multiple Choice
- Matching
- True False
- Numeric Answer

Flowchart

Tests your ability to work through a problem using GIS methods. Create a flow chart outlining a GIS analysis in response to a prompt. I suggest you use diagrams.net because its easy to create clean flowcharts quickly, but this is not required - you can do it however you’d like (hand drawn, PowerPoint, etc.).

You can reference this tutorial video for an overview of diagrams.net. You might want to practice making a flowchart before exam time.

The processes you’ll want to be familiar with were covered in Module 5 & Module 6.

When exporting to submit, make sure to export/submit a .png, .jpg, or .pdf
Think about design principals - aesthetics will be a small portion of the flowchart grade.

Practice Question 1

Prompt: Based on your analysis from the Tsunami Risk Assessment, the city of Port Alberni has been given funding build a new evacuation shelter. You have been contracted by the city and tasked with finding a suitable location for the shelter.

Criteria: The shelter must:

Be located outside of any potential inundation zone (Elevation > 15 m or distance from coastline > 1 km).
Be at least 1.5 km away from existing shelters.
Located no more than 250 m away from an Arterial Roadway.
Cannot be located on Residential, Commercial, or Industrial Parcels

Data

Name	Type	Coordinate System	Attributes
Digital Elevation Model	Raster	UTM Zone 10N	Elevation (m)
BC Coastal Boundary File	Vector (line)	UTM Zone 10N	Name
BC Roads Layer	Vector (line)	UTM Zone 10N	Road Type (Arterial, Residential, Private), Name
Properties	Vector (polygon)	UTM Zone 10N	Zoning Type (Residential, Commercial, Industrial, Parks, Government/ Institutional)
Current Shelters	Text (.csv)	WGS 1984	Latitude/Longitude, Name, Capacity

Answer:

This flowchart is missing one step and would get ~ 45/50 pts if submitted on the exam.

Can you figure out what step is missing?

Practice Question 2

Prompt: June is looking for the best places in BC to pick salmonberries and they have asked you for help!

Criteria: June will only pick on public land. Salmon berries prefer:

Deciduous Tree Cover
Moist forest (At least 1000 mm rainfall / year)
Cool summers (Mean July Temperatures < 25 C)
Lower Elevation (< 1500 m)

Data

Name	Type	Coordinate System	Attributes
July NDVI	Raster	WGS 1984	NDVI
January NDVI	Raster	WGS 1984	NDVI
Digital Elevation Model	Raster	WGS 1984	Elevation (m)
BC Land Tenure	Vector (Polygon)	BC Albers	First Nation/Crown/Private/
BC Climate Data	Text (.csv)	WGS 1984	Latitude/Longitude, Name, Monthly Mean Temperature, Monthly Total Rainfall

Suggested Steps:

July Temperature Data >> Display XY & Project (Albers) >> IDW
Both NDIV Layers & DEM Layer >> Reproject (Albers)
Reclassify >> NDVI, DEM, & Interpolated Temperature Data
Raster Calculator/Weighted Overlay (All Raster Layers)
Raster to Vector (Suitable Areas)
Select Crown Land > Clip Suitable Areas

Essays

No definitive word count/limit. Responses can be brief, but should be thorough. Use full sentences and answer all parts of the question.
- Give examples!
- Sketches/Illustrations can be incorporated (not required/expected)
- Type them up and submit as .pdf
  - Make Sure it’s a .pdf!
  - Formats like .pages - are not readable across platforms
- Randomly assigned from a bank!
You can expect:
- 1 essay on Spatial Coordinate Systems Module 2
- 1 essay on Data Types and Spatial Data Models Module 3 & Module 4

Short Answer Questions

Generally, no more than a paragraph needed. Bullet point lists are sufficient where applicable. Anything from lecture/lab is fair game.

Explain a key concept in your own words or give examples of a specific issue.

Automated Questions

These questions will include a mix of different question types that will be marked automatically.

I will provide you with a special answer sheet that you need to used to record and upload your answers. Make sure to follow the specific instructions provided so your answers are handled correctly.

What is Plagiarism?

“Plagiarism is presenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement.” - Oxford English Dictionary

How to avoid plagiarizing on an open book exam?

Put answers in your own words.

Its perfectly okay to reference course material and other outside resources. However, the ideas presented must reflect your own understanding of the information presented.

ChatGPT?

Its an amazingly powerful tool! That said … its a C student at best. Don’t copy/paste exam answers from ChatGPT - you’d be surprised how often it will generate incorrect information.

You can use Chat GPT as a study tool.
- Unsure what the difference between the a Geographic Coordinate System and a Map Projection?
  - Ask Chat GPT and see what it says.
  - Cross reference its answer with other sources (e.g. lecture material) to solidify your understanding and make sure it didn’t give you any misinformation.
You cannot use Chat GPT to answer exam questions for you. That is plagiarism.