I don't really have any photos from this class but if I did it would be of everyone sitting in a computer lab looking like this...
ArcGIS is one of the most useful programs for scientists but is also unfortunately one of the most frustrating to use. We would have lectures from 9-12 everyday and would then spend 12:30 until approximately midnight every night working in the computer lab. We had a series of labs to work through, the end product of which was GIS maps. Even though it was a lot of work and no field time, I still consider this block to have been one of my most rewarding classes at BU. The course was only focused on marine ecosystems even though about 95% of GIS work is land based. At a recent ArcGIS conference there was only one presentation involving marine research, a map that we would eventually re-create in the lab. The scientist was from Stellwagen Bank NMS and was showing how they used whale data and maps to have shipping lanes moved out of areas of known high whale density. The gray shows where the shipping lanes were moved to, potentially saving hundreds of whale strikes by shipping vessels.
In this lab we mapped out the World's Ecoregions and had to decide which type of projection would least distort our data and visual representation of it....
In this lab we mapped out right whale sightings in four popular whale watching areas in the Gulf of Maine
This lab focused on suitable habitat factors for flounder focusing on bathymetry, bathymertic slope, sea surface temperature, benthic substrate and travel effort. This map shows the bathymetric slope ratings.
These were just a few of the maps produced during the class that I decided to highlight. Please realize that we only had one day to work on each lab and most of these projects could benefit from some editing. I think this block gave us a realistic view on what a career in this field would look like and I will readily admit that I do not want to sit in front of a computer screen from 9-5 everyday...yet.