Jan. 8 and 10

GIScience has many applications, including health, ecology and crime analysis.  GIS integrates data and disciplines.  The lab was spent on Tutorial 1: analyzing heart disease data in southern United States.

Jan 15 and 17

Monday was a snow day, so all classes were cancelled!  In lab, we were introduced to Lab 1, exploring FRAGSTATS metrics for changes in Edmonton’s land usage.

Jan. 22 and 24

This week’s lecture was on the importance of geography and concepts like scale, grain and extent of a study area.  We can see the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) in real-life: gerrymandering.  Our lab was time to work on Lab 1.

Jan. 29 and 31

This week’s lecture focused on topics surrounding landscape metrics, including stationarity, abiotic processes, biotic factors and fragmentation.  The lab introduced us to Lab 2, which explored a child’s language skills with GWR (geographically weighted regression).

Feb. 5 and 7

This week, we had our presentations on landscape ecology.  There were many interesting ideas floating around, and I got to present on forest cover changes in Turkey.

Feb. 12 and 14

In class, the difference between medical (a narrower, biomedical definition) and health (a wider, more holistic definition) geography was made clear.  The lab time was allotted to complete Lab 2.

Feb. 19 and 21

This week was our reading week (midterm break), meaning no classes at all!

Feb. 26 and 28

This week we learned about the applications of GIS in health and epidemiology, including disease mapping and exposure assessments.  The lab introduced us to Lab 3, which examines crime in Ottawa using CrimeStat.

Mar. 4 and 6

In class, we talked about final project topics and the participatory biocitizen.  We had time in lab to work on Lab 3.

Mar. 11 and 13

This week, we had student presentations about health geography.  My peers chose some very interesting articles to analyze, while I spoke about cutaneous leishmaniasis in Iran.