Teaching spatial statistics to geographers using MINITAB

Abstract

This paper surveys computer software for spatial statistics, emphasising its educational advantages. Initially this software was written in FORTRAN code accessing the International Mathematical and Statistics Library (IMSL) package of commercial subroutines (a counterpart to the NAG package in the United Kingdom). Accompanying programming skills proved too demanding for many geography students and staff. Consequently, spatial statistics analysis was approached within the context of standard commercial software packages. MINITAB was explored, first in its PC and then in its mainframe versions. Unfamiliarity of North American geographers with this package led to parallel code development for the popular statistical software package, SAS. Practices and pitfalls of these endeavours with regard to classroom situations are reported. A demonstration of MINITAB‐PC 7.2 code is presented. Real world examples are drawn from experiences of postgraduate‐level spatial statistics classes both in studying the code and in developing a mainframe counterpart to its PC version. A benchmark example comparing this code with that of SAS and FORTRAN accessing IMSL is treated. Finally, present work concerning a supercomputing module is outlined.

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