Projects

Projects are where you come as close as you can in a GIS class to doing a real research project. Your project will be a small project within your area of interest and can be part of your thesis. The project will start about half way through the semester. You are encouraged to work in teams of two on the project but you can also do individual projects if you pair up with someone. This way, you can have someone to bounce ideas off of, share the work load, and review your work.

Project Structure

The project will be similar to one of the labs you have already completed just with a topic that you have selected.

We will use the lab periods to help you form the teams and provide some time for you to meet to discuss the project. You'll also want to setup some time outside of the labs to meet on the project.

For team projects, it's best if you split up the tasks based on your areas of interest and skill set. For example, you might split up the data download and qualification tasks. Then, you might have one person do most of the analysis while the other person gets started on the report. Then, you can review each others work.

The most critical part of any geospatial project is obtaining and qualifying the data. Once you have the data, the analysis and product creation will flow more easily. If you can't get the data, you can't move forward. If you move forward with data that is not at the level of quality you need, you'll have to backup and repeat steps.

Project Deliverables

During the class you'll be asked to turn in status updates on the progress of your project. The dates for these are documented on the schedule and their description is below. All of these should be entered into Canvas before they are due.

1. Project Proposal

Your propose should define the topic of your report, the data sets you'll be using, and the analysis methods you'll use. This allows us to evaluate if the project is feasible and meets the requirements of the class. It is also an important first step in communicating between your "supervisor" and your team.

2. Data Collection Results

In less than one page, describe the results of your data collection. Did you find each of the data sets? Do they meet your requirements? If not, how did this impact your project (i.e. if you can't get the data, change the project)?

4. Rough Draft

A big part of any research product is the review cycle. The rough draft does not have to be perfect. We will review it and give you feedback. You'll want all the content to be in the rough draft but be ready for changes of position, grammar, and color use. We'll also point out anything I feel is missing.

5. Final Presentation

You will do a very short presentation, less than 5 minutes on your topic during the last lab of the term or during final's week. For the presentation, simply place your key maps, tables, and/or graphs into a PowerPoint presentation.

6. Final Turn-in

Your final turn-in will be a report similar to those we have already done in lab. Remember to include all the necessary sections.

Last Words

• Please turn in the project to me before 5:00pm Thursday, of Finals Week. If you have a valid reason for an extension, please send me an e-mail with the same subject line explaining the situation.
• A critical part of finishing any report is obtaining feedback on your work. .
  1. Please remember that all of us have strengths and weaknesses. Also, we are all together in trying to do better work. In this vein, it is always easier for folks to fix problems if they first hear that they are doing good work as well. Thus, please start your feedback with the positive aspects of the product. Then, provide constructive, clear, and concise feedback on what you would recommend changing. I regularly consult the web, dictionaries, thesaurus, and the "Elements of Style" while reviewing others documents. This helps me improve my writing as I help others to improve. Please do not make opinionated comments no whether the work is "good" or "bad", this leaves the author with a negative, unmotivated feeling and without a direction to move to improve the work. Instead, offer suggestions for improvement and encouragement that the work will be great once the changes are made.
  2. We used to review documents by providing an enumerated list of changes with the page and line number for each change. These documents were written in MS-Word and this is still an OK practice. For papers writing in MS-Word it back be much faster to make the changes by turning on "Track Changes" and using "Comments".
  3. It can be challenging to make a lot of edits after you receive them back. One benefit is that you'll see that you are not alone in completing your documents. You can provide a "draft" to a co-worker and they will help you improve it. Remember that this is just part of the process of improving your documents and the end result will be worth it.

Previous Projects

TBD