Course Description
The primary objective of this course is to familiarize you with basic concepts and methods used in spatial analysis, a field which spans many related disciplines and
which brings together many tools for analyzing explicitly and implicitly spatial data. Spatial analysis provides the quantitative tools that have formed the bases for
modern quantitative analysis in fields such as geography, location analysis, regional economics, and many physical sciences requiring the analysis of spatially-separated
phenomena. This course focuses on statistical analysis and spatial statistics, since these methods are crucial to anyone with spatially-oriented problems to solve in today's
highly quantitative, statistically-oriented world.
Course Grading -- A >= 90%, B >= 80%, C >= 70%, D >= 60%, F < 60% of the 2,500 total points available:
- Exercises (50% of grade) -- twelve exercises (11 @ 100 points, 1 @ 150 points) are assigned during the semester.
- Exams (50% of grade) -- three exams will be given during the semester (including the Final Exam). Exam III (Final Exam) is 10% based on review material.
Course Materials -- The text is An Introduction to Statistical Problem Solving in Geography, 3rd edition, by J. Chapman McGrew, Jr., Arthur J. Lembo, Jr., and Charles B. Monroe.
Additional readings are made available on D2L for student download throughout the term.
Course Schedule -- Course topics hew closely to the text's organization:
- Introduction to Course
- Ch. 1-2: Spatial Statistics and Geographic Data
- Ch. 3-4: Descriptive Statistics
- Ch. 5-6: Probability Theory
- Ch. 7-8: Sampling
- Ch. 9-11: Difference Tests
- Ch. 12: Goodness-of-Fit Tests
- Ch. 13-15: Inferential Spatial Statistics
- Ch. 16-18: Correlation and Regression
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Last Updated: 13 May 2014
Oklahoma State University
Department of Geography
Stillwater, OK 74078