Course Syllabus                                                                                                                Dr. Laura L. Sanders

          Course Home Page      Course Objectives       Outline of Topics       Course Requirements       Evaluation

Instructor contact information:

Instructor: Dr. Laura L. Sanders        Office: S-146        Phone: 773/442-6051       Fax: 773/442-5710
E-Mail: L-Sanders@neiu.edu             Office Hours: Tuesdays 5-7 pm, Thursdays 3-5 pm and 9-10 pm

Textbook:  A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations by K. Turabian is required.  We will be using various other reports and documents that we will acquire as they become necessary.

Course Objectives:  After taking this course, you will be able to describe and quantify the components of the hydrologic cycle.  You will be conversant with the methods of surface water hydrology, including data collection and analytical methods.  You will be able to perform a comprehensive scientific study and write an extensive scientific report.  You will be thoroughly familiar with the organization and format of a project such as an M.S. thesis.  Lists of more specific objectives will be distributed in each class period.  They also can be viewed by clicking on each class date in the Outline of Topics, below.

Course Focus:  This semester, we will be working on a comprehensive study of the hydrology of a river basin.  Our overall goal is to characterize the hydrology of the basin, particularly looking at the components of the hydrologic budget.  Each student’s semester-long assignment is to prepare a report on the hydrology of a particular segment of the basin.  In class, we will study the principles and techniques that will be used to do this.  With a few exceptions, all the homework assignments will deal with your segment of the basin and will require you to find and use real data.  It is my goal to help you produce work that you can publish.

Aug 30      Course overview. The hydrologic cycle.  Water budgets.  Drainage basins.  Writing research papers.
Sep 6         Precipitation.  Instrumentation.  Effective uniform depth; Thiessen polygonal method; isohyetal method.
                 HW #1 due midnight Sep 5.
Sep 13       Drainage basin delineation.  Locating NWS precipitation stations.  Reference list citation format.
                 HW #2A and #2B due.
Sep 20       Using rainfall frequency maps.  Intensity, duration, frequency (IDF) curves.  HW #3 due.
Sep 27       Thiessen method, cont'd.  Geology, land use, and the water cycle. HW #4 due.
Oct 4         Evaporation.  Land pans.  Transpiration and Evapotranspiration (ET).  Thornthwaite
                  method for potential ET.
                 First draft of hydrologic report due today!
Oct 11       Water budget method for estimating consumptive use.  Ground water recharge.  HW #5 due.
Oct 18       Streamflow.  Instrumentation. Stage, rating curves, discharge. HW#6 due.
Oct 25       Rating curves, continued.  Hydrographs.    HW #7 due.
Nov 1        More on hydrographs.  Rainfall-runoff relationships.
                 Second draft of the hydrologic report is due today!
Nov 8        Class cancelled due to instructor's illness.
Nov 15      Hydrographs: upstream vs. downstream.  Flooding, probability analysis. HW #8 due.
Nov 22      Harvest Fest; no class
Nov 29      Flooding, probability analysis, continued.  Flooding, regression analysis.
                  Urban and small watershed hydrology.  Estimating peak runoff and time of concentration.
                  Routing. HW #9 due.
Dec 6         Compilation and analysis of reports on different basin segments.  Flood Insurance Rate Maps
                  (FIRMs).  Assess degree to which course objectives were reached; evaluate course.
                  Final draft of the hydrologic report is due today!

Course requirements

1) Each student must have and use an e-mail account, picking up messages at least every three days.

2) Each student must participate in assessments (“green sheets”).

3) Each student must participate in in-class exercises and complete all homework assigned in class.  Unless otherwise stated, assignments are due one week from the date on which they are assigned.

Most of the homework assignments will form the basis of a section in the hydrologic report.  Every assignment should contain these elements:

    * statement of the purpose of the work
    * brief description of the methods used
    * results (often in the form of tables, graphs, or maps)
    * discussion of the meaning and limitations of the results
    * list of references (see Turabian for format)
    * acknowledgment of people who helped you, identifying them by name, title, and agency.

These weekly assignments will not be “graded” in the formal sense, but I will make comments on the work.  After reading the comments, revise the work and incorporate it into your hydrologic report.  A grade penalty will be assessed if assignments are chronically late.

4) Each student must prepare a report on the hydrology of a segment of a drainage basin.  The report must follow the format given in the Turabian book.  It must be double-spaced and produced by word processing, and it must incorporate the use of data that have been analyzed by a scientific spreadsheet program such as Excel.  Three drafts of the paper must be handed in on the respective due dates.

See Turabian for spacing and format of the paper.  Also, please obtain and use the NEIU Thesis Manual, available from the Graduate College (CLS 4-029), and the Department of Earth Science’s Graduate Student Handbook (available online at http://www.neiu.edu/~deptesci/gradhb.htm )

Content of each draft of the paper will be described in future handouts and on the Homework web page.

Evaluation

Grades will be based on the following:

    Hydrologic report   72 pts
    Attendance and participation  28 pts (2 per class session)

In general, 90-100 pts = A, 80-89 pts = B, 70-79 pts = C, 60-69 pts = D, <60 pts = F.

Hydrologic Report:  The hydrologic report will be evaluated on the following aspects.  More detailed information about each draft will be provided as the semester progresses.  See the Homework page for more information on each draft.

* Content  (Is the hydrologic analysis logical, consistent, well-reasoned, and complete?  Are arguments and conclusions well-supported?  Is the degree of uncertainty in the analyses quantified and evaluated reasonably?)

* Organization  (Are all the required sections present?  Is information presented in a logical order, with appropriate headings and subheadings?  )

* Format and presentation  (grammar, composition, typing, clarity and completeness of figures/tables/graphs)

Attendance and participation:  Two points per class period will be awarded for attendance at and participation in the class.  Participation will be evaluated on the basis of whether or not the student is actively involved in group discussions and project, and workshop-type activities during class time.  In addition, students must fill out the daily assessments (“green sheets”) to provide feedback on how the course is going for them.
 

© 2001 Laura L. Sanders.  Last updated December 6, 2001.