Undergraduate Course: Geophysical Data Science (EASC08025)
Course Outline
| School | School of Geosciences |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | In Geophysical Data Science you will learn the basics of scientific computing using Python. The course balances the development of fundamental computing skills and the application of these for data presentation and analysis. You will work with a range of solid earth and climate + met datasets in order to practice these data analysis skills. These skills will prepare you for data analysis in project work, set you up to understand computational modelling and give you transferable coding skills in a computing language that is highly sought after in industry. |
| Course description |
Week 1: Introduction to Python for Data Science and Scientific Computing
Week 2: Intermediate Python for Data Science
Week 3: Data Visualisation with Python
Week 4: Data Ingestion and Cleaning
Week 5: Geospatial Data Analysis
Week 6: Statistical and Trend Analysis
Week 7: Understanding Data using Probability
Week 8: Geophsical Time Series Data
Week 9: Meteorological and Climate Data
Week 10: Assessment - Climate Data Analysis
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 31 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
98 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
This course will be assessed solely with coursework and ongoing assessment.
The assessment focusses on providing you with opportunities to practice your coding skills in your own time.
There are three elements that are assessed:
You are required to complete each of the DataCamp courses in your own time.
o Completion is tracked by the software
o These are due on the Tuesdays after the original class
o The timing is to ensure you have the key coding concepts in time to make use of them in the group project assessment
The first assessment will be analysis of a dataset in small groups and the hand in will be individual reports
o This exercise will look for creative analysis of data to meet an objective
o You will use the data analysis and coding skills you have been developing
o The write up will be in the form of a Jupyter Notebook
o Submission of your initial plan with verbal feedback will be in Week 4
o Submission of your final report will be 12 noon Friday Week 8
The final assessment with be individual analysis of a dataset in the week 10 class with the hand in being a report
o The assessment with be a Jupyter notebook exercise started in class and completed in your own time
o Submission 12 noon Friday Week 11
100% Coursework:
5% for each of the 5 DataCamp courses due the Tuesday after the initial class.
40% for the group data analysis and project writeup (Wednesday Week 8 deadline)
35% for the Met and Climate assessment (Wednesday Week 12 deadline)
Assessment Deadlines:
Completion of each DataCamp course should be within two weeks of the relevant class :
o Introduction to Python (5%) by 18:00 Tuesday Week 2, DataCamp
o Intermediate Python for Data Science (5%) by 18:00 Tuesday Week 3, DataCamp
o Introduction to Matplotlib (5%) by 18:00 Tuesday Week 4, DataCamp
o Test 4 (5%) deadline 18:00 Tuesday Week 5, DataCamp
o Test 5 (5%) deadline 18:00 Tuesday Week 6,
Submission of Group Plan for tacking the first assessment (no weight, formative) by 12 noon Wednesday Week 4, - group submission via Turnitin on the Learn page (i.e. only one person from each group).
Submission of Group Data Analysis Project report (40%) by 12noon Friday Week 8 - group submission of executive summary to Turnitin on the Learn page (i.e. only one person from each group to upload a copy of the Executive Summary), and group submission of Jupyter Notebook through Noteable
.
Submission of individual Meteorology & Climate assessment (35%) by 12 noon Friday Week 11
Students must attain an overall mark of 40% (or above) to pass the course.
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| Feedback |
Feedback from lecturers and demonstrators during the interactive computing sessions:
Ongoing feedback from the online python learning environment
Class discussion on the geophysics graph gallery contributions
Written feedback on the assessed coursework
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand the role of coding in geophysical data analysis and modelling
- Build a foundation for scientific computing using Python
- Build confidence in using Python to model geophysical data
- Be able to undertake exploratory data analysis using a range of geophysical data, including choosing how to present data and extract statistical properties
- Learn how to use the internet to find appropriate pieces of code to hack to solve a new problem
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Reading List
DataCamp: www.datacamp.com
Edina's Noetable server: noteable.edina.ac.uk
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
- Data literacy: Scientific computing and data analysis
- Computer literacy: competency in Python
- Working in small groups
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| Additional Class Delivery Information |
One weekly 3 hour combined lecture and practical class. |
| Keywords | Geophysics,data science,python,coding |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Mark Naylor
Tel: (0131 6)50 4918
Email: Mark.Naylor@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Johan De Klerk
Tel: (0131 6)50 7010
Email: johan.deklerk@ed.ac.uk |
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