FORT 140 Forest Surveying
Spring 2009 - Syllabus

Instructor: 
Dr. Peter Linehan, Associate Professor of Forestry
220 Science - Technology Building
Telephone 717-749-6089
email: pel2@psu.edu 

Office Hours:

Class Website:
Materials for this course can be found on the ANGEL course management system located at http://cms.psu.edu . If you are registered for the course it will appear when you log in to ANGEL.

Class Meeting Times:
Lecture: Thursday 8:00 to 9:50am in General Studies 208.
Lab: Tuesday from 8:00 to 10:50am, starting in General Studies 208, and then going outside for most labs. Be ready for any and all weather conditions.

Text and Equipment:
Surveying by McCormack is the main text. We will be using the fifth edition. It is available in the campus bookstore. Most of the equipment you should already have from FORT 130:

You will also need a water-resistant field notebook, which is available in the bookstore

Course Objectives:
This course builds on the work you have done in FORT130, Forest Mapping Systems. Surveying has always been an integral skill in forestry. Before any management activities are undertaken it is critical to know the property boundaries and characteristics. Accurate maps are vital to visualize forest stands, boundaries, roads, drainages and virtually any land characteristic. Over the years, many foresters have supported themselves by working as surveyors too. However, in the last thirty years the fields of forestry and surveying have specialized and diverged. This is partly due to new technologies and equipment and partly due to increasingly specialized knowledge needed for each field. 

At the end of this course you will not be a professional surveyor. Instead you will gain a basic knowledge of surveying skills that are necessary for forest technicians. Some of the skills we will cover include:

GPS and digital mapping will be used in the course.  Because of their critical importance as legal and historical records, we will place a strong emphasis on proper field notes and reports.

Evaluation:

Your work will be evaluated as follows:

Exam 1

20%

Exam 2

20%

Exam 3 -- Final

20%

Lab Reports and Exercises

40%

TOTAL

100%


Your final grade will be calculated as follows:

Grade

Percentage earned

A

91 - 100

A-

89-90

B+

87 - 88

B

81 - 86

B-

79-80

C+

77 - 78

C

70 - 76

D

65 - 69

F

< 65

Class Policies:

General Philosophy
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR REACHING YOUR OWN EDUCATIONAL GOALS. This means that class attendance, completion of assignments, reading the text, studying for and taking tests etc. are all your responsibility. The instructor cannot help you if you don’t ask for help.

Field Labs

Field labs will take place in all weather conditions. It is your responsibility to dress appropriately for a lab, including footwear, hats, gloves, raingear, etc. For safety reasons, if you are not dressed appropriately, the instructor may exclude you from that day's lab. Hard hats aren't necessary for most Surveying labs. If they are, it will be announced ahead of time.

Assignments:
Many assignments will be completed in your field notebook. Others will be uploaded to the course website or reports handed in.

Late assignments

I expect that you will hand in completed assignments on time unless I postpone the work or you make prior arrangements with me. If you find that you cannot complete an assignment on time then you should contact me (by phone, email, or in person) telling me how much you have completed and what is your problem with completing the assignment. I am looking for specific information on the difficulties you are having, not just that you couldn’t do it. That way I can help you or we can work out what steps you should take to understand and complete the work. I reserve the right to give a reduced grade or 0 for late assignments.


Quizzes

Quizzes will be on-line and in-class.


Attendance / Participation

Your attendance is not included in your grade. To succeed in the course you have to attend regularly. The textbook is very comprehensive, but you won’t understand many of the skills unless you participate fully. If for some reason you can’t make it to class, please contact me before class so you can make arrangements for missed work.


Under the policy of the University College, I will report your attendance during the fourth and seventh weeks of the semester.


Please schedule your doctor, dentist, orthodontist, and other appointments outside of class times. If your parent or significant other does your scheduling, please let them know about you class times.


Penn State Principles

I would like to remind you of the Penn State Principles (http://www.psu.edu/ur/principles.pdf ), which have been adopted by the University:


Professional Expectations

The forest technology program is designed to prepare you for a career in natural resources when you graduate. You should treat your courses as you would a professional job. I have the following expectations for your performance in class, in the field, and in completing your assignments.

  1. Come to class on time.

  2. Prepare any assigned readings or work ahead of time.

  3. Be ready to participate in class discussion or to take an assignment.

  4. Come dressed appropriately according to the guidelines listed above.

  5. You will not smoke cigarettes or chew tobacco during class and outdoor labs. If we have a break during class you can smoke in the designated areas. Due to forest fire concerns, no smoking is allowed in the forest.

  6. Cell phones should be turned off during class and during quizzes and tests. This includes internet-enabled and text messaging devices.


Academic Integrity

When you hand in assignments I assume it is your own work. Cheating and plagiarism is wrong. I may assign a grade of zero for assignments where I know cheating or plagiarism has occurred. I can also assign a grade of 'F' in the course because of this infraction. For group projects and research assignments, we will discuss ahead of time what constitutes doing your own work and what is cheating.


Here is the University College Academic Integrity Policy that we will follow: https://teamworks.campuses.psu.edu/uc/Academic%20Programs/UCpolicies.pdf

The College of Agricultural Sciences has a helpful website on this topic: http://academicintegrity.cas.psu.edu/


Computer Usage

Computer systems have become very powerful and indispensable tools in all our lives.   It's becoming hard to remember how we did things before the computer age.  As with all good things there are also negative uses of this new technology, including software piracy, network hacking, and the creation of viruses. In this course we will follow the University's computing policies which can be found at http://its.psu.edu/security.html

Official Academic Policies

The official academic policies for Penn State are listed on the Faculty Senate website:      http://www.psu.edu/ufs/policies/


 

Services For Students With Disabilities:

Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. If you have a disability-related need for reasonable academic adjustments in this course, contact the Disability Contact Liaison, Kendra Wolgast, located on the first floor of the General Studies Building in the Student Success Center. She can be reached at 749-6045 or mailto:kmw24@psu.edu. For further information regarding the Penn State Office of Disability Services, please visit their web site at www.equity.psu.edu/ods/. Instructors should be notified as early in the semester as possible regarding the need for reasonable academic adjustments.