Teaching a successful course in computer applications in geology

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1985 · Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:6891427

Burns, S F

A highly successful semester course in the use of computers in geology is now in its third year of being offered at Louisiana Tech University. The objective of the course is not programming, but the use of many software packages already available on the market to solve geological problems. Prerequisites for the course are a course in basic statistics and a programming course in FORTRAN. Students are encouraged to take the course in either their sophomore or junior years so the material can be applied to upper division courses. The first third of the course introduces the students to a word processing program, a spreadsheet program, and a database management system on the microcomputers. Commercial databases in petroleum geology are also covered. The second third of the course is spent in subsurface map production using both the mainframe and microcomputers. Students produce structural contour maps, facies maps, isopach maps, trend-surface residual maps, and isopach residual maps. From these they predict where to drill for oil. Error analysis of the computer generated maps is also discussed. The last third of the course stresses the applications of SAS statistical packages on the mainframe computer. Students learn to evaluate geological problems and plot the data using the following tests: distribution statistics, T-Test, linear and multiple regressions, analysis of variance, and cluster analysis.

• Research Organization: Louisiana Tech Univ., Ruston (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6891427
• Report Number(s): CONF-8510489-
• Journal Information: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States), Vol. 17; Conference: 98. annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Orlando, FL, USA, 28 Oct 1985
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
58 GEOSCIENCES
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
GEOLOGY
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
TRAINING
LOUISIANA
EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
STATISTICS
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
COMPUTERS
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
EDUCATION
EXPLORATION
GEOLOGIC MODELS
INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
PETROLEUM
STATISTICAL MODELS
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
ENERGY SOURCES
FEDERAL REGION VI
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
MANAGEMENT
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATHEMATICS
NORTH AMERICA
SIMULATION
USA
290500* - Energy Planning & Policy- Research
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580100 - Geology & Hydrology- (-1989)
990220 - Computers
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