Schedule

Fall 2026

Tue + Thu, 2pm – 3:15pm

CGS 323 (871 Commonwealth Ave.)

Day	Topic	Readings
Thu 9/3	Syllabus day	slides
Tue 9/8	Conservation priorities: data & methods Lab: data visualization & processing in QGIS	Jenkins et al. 2015a Brown et al. 2015 Jenkins et al. 2015b slides
Thu 9/10	python for data science: syntax & guidelines Lab 1.1 due	A Byte of Python (Basics to Functions) Data Structures
Tue 9/15	Tabular data: pandas and matplotlib	10 Minutes to pandas Intro to data structures
Thu 9/17	Vector data: geopandas Lab 1.2 due	Geopandas 1.1.1
Tue 9/22	Raster data: rasterio and GDAL Lab 1.3 due	rasterio: Quickstart Reference: GDAL
Thu 9/24	Valuing ecosystem services: key concepts	Goulder & Kennedy 2011 Optional: DEFRA slides
Tue 9/29	Valuing ecosystem services: examples & tools Lab 1.4 due
Thu 10/1	Systematic conservation planning (SCP): theory, methods, and tools Lab 1-5 due	Game et al. 2013 InVEST user guide: study one model in detail. Optional: Giakoumi et al. 2025
Tue 10/6	Systematic conservation planning with Marxan Lab 1 test Last class before the deadline to drop without a “W” grade (Wed 10/7)	Marxan User Manual (Sections 1.1-1.8) slides
Thu 10/8	Building your own Marxan dataset Lab 2.1 due
Tue 10/13	No class: Substitute Monday schedule after Indigenous Peoples’ Day Lab 2.2 due
Thu 10/15	Conservation policy instruments: an overview of common strategies	slides
Tue 10/20	Explaining conservation costs with statsmodels Lab 2.3 due	Newburn et al. 2006 see Lab 3.1 for guidance slides
Thu 10/22	Predicting conservation costs with scikit-learn: cross-validation Lab 2 test Prospectus due	slides
Tue 10/27	Predicting conservation costs with scikit-learn: tree ensembles	Optional (on algorithms): ERT: Geurts et al. 2006 GB: Natekin & Knoll 2013
Thu 10/29	Predicting conservation costs (continued)
Tue 11/3	Simulating the cost-effectiveness of policy strategies Lab 3.1 due	Newburn et al. 2006 see Lab 3.2 for guidance
Thu 11/5	Simulating the cost-effectiveness of policy strategies (continued)
Tue 11/10	Rigorous impact evaluation: framework and methods Lab 3.2 due	Ferraro 2009 slides
Thu 11/12	Rigorous impact evaluation: matching Lab 3 test	Ferraro & Hanauer 2014
Tue 11/17	Rigorous impact evaluation: matching exercise I	Intro to R, Ho et al. 2007
Thu 11/19	Rigorous impact evaluation: matching exercise II Project plan due
Tue 11/24	Rigorous impact evaluation: matching exercise III
Thu 11/26	No class: Thanksgiving recess (11/25 – 11/29)
Tue 12/1	Class project workshop Lab 4 due
Thu 12/3	Project meetings or bonus lab: interactive mapping Lab 4 test
Tue 12/8	Project meetings or bonus lab: 3D visualization
Thu 12/10	Wrap-Up Final report due
Thu 12/17	No final exam (exam period 12/14 – 12/18)