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Lab 9: Project Planning
Overview: You have experimented with different kinds of mapping over the course of the previous labs. This lab gets you started on your final project, which continues with Lab 10. For now, you need to determine what your project is about and figure out what data you will use. You will also complete a short survey about web mapping and the course.
Procedure
1. Complete an online survey. Take a short survey online about mapping and technology. Completing the survey is worth an automatic 10 points. It is designed to let you think about your web mapping experience so far and helps the instructors get a sense of the kinds of background students bring to class. We are also interested in hearing about other ways of taking this class and your experience with online courses. We record your name in order to make sure we add 10 points to your point total as part of this lab, but your answers will have no bearing on any other assignment or aspect of your final grade. There are no right and wrong answers to this survey, so just answer the questions to the best of your ability.
2. Read through these instructions and the Lab 10 instructions before you get going with this lab. Make sure you understand what the overall project entails. The project comprises the following goals.
Create maps with a specific focus. What is the use, issue, theme, or problem that your maps will address?
Use relevant data. What data will you use? Choose from one or more of the data sets in Social Explorer.
Use symbolization, simplification, and analysis to make the maps work well. You will have to use different forms of symbolization, simplification, and analysis in your maps. If you have a theme, how do you present it in a clear manner? If you have an issue, how do you get the reader to side with you? If you have a problem, how does your map solve it?
Think about the social dimensions of your data and maps. There are many potential social aspects of your maps. For example, why is the topic you chose significant, and to whom? What are the social aspects of your data? What kinds of assumptions will your analysis be based on?
3. Determine the project focus. Do your best to identify a single project focus that can be addressed using the relevant aspects of mapping, such as data, symbolization, simplification, and analysis. You can change your mind later if you find that your proposed idea is not working and you want to choose a new project, but you will save yourself a lot of time and hassle later by developing and honing a good project now. In grading Lab 9, we want evidence that you spent several hours researching ideas for your project, considering the data you need, and pondering how the data you acquire can be successfully mapped. This means crafting carefully considered and well-worded responses to the questions in the deliverable.
Coming up with an interesting focus is probably the toughest part of the project. It is usually helpful to keep things simple and focus on a single use, issue, theme, question, or problem.
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Since you will be working in Social Explorer, think about foci relating to demographic issues such as population, age, race, and housing.
Many students examine an issue of interest to them. Sometimes this interest is personal, such as using maps to describe the history of migration of people with a specific ethnic background, while other times it is a broader social or political interest, such as relating education and income in several cities in the United States.
Students have used a variety of sources when brainstorming mapping ideas, such as newspaper articles or Wikipedia entries. See the table below for a list of sites that can act as sources of inspiration and information. Most of these sites will offer maps that are different than what you will make for your project, but they can provide ideas. Note that you cannot simply use Social Explorer to replicate a map that you find in a source.
Bear in mind that while Wikipedia and news articles are useful for figuring out your topic, your knowledge of the topic should not end there. Find additional information from at least two other sources.
Sources for project ideas
News outlets often use maps in their exploration of topics. Peruse their archives on topics of interest to you.
► http://www.nytimes.com
► http://www.washingtonpost.com
► http://www.startribune.com
► http://www.pioneerpress.com
► http://www.cnn.com
► http://www.minnpost.com/data
Although the accuracy of information obtained from Wikipedia is occasionally questionable, the website is a good resource for getting a general overview about almost any imaginable issue.
► http://www.wikipedia.org/
4. Find source data. Finding data in Social Explorer to match the focus of your maps may be difficult. In particular, the data may not exist for the question you want to ask. For example, you may be interested in tracing changes in residential occupation between 1900 and 2000, but the categories have changed so significantly that it is not possible without asking the question in a different way. You may have to spend some time bouncing between looking at various variables in Social Explorer and considering different questions, problems, or foci for your maps.
Keep in mind that a major advantage of Census data on Social Explorer is that they go back in time. There are many interesting projects to be found in comparing changes in a variable or a couple of variables over time. Consider how the New York Times examines the shifting demographics of Los Angeles (see below and online).
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Be sure to indicate sources, for they serve as a special kind of ‘data’.
Cite to the source of your data. Find the metadata for these data and refer to them in your explanations. Look on the Census website to better understand how your data were gathered and the definitions of measured categories. You can also search online or at the library to get a fuller picture of your variables. You will reflect on how the data was gathered in the deliverable.
Cite to sources of ideas. Indicate where your map focus originated, whether in a newspaper article or some other source.
5. Think about the social dimensions of your data. What are the social aspects of your data? Recall that most census variables have a long and sometimes complicated history. Dig up some of this history to better understand the nature of the data you are using. You should work on developing this history as you come up with your project idea so you really understand what the data tell you. The work we have done with poverty data, for example, has demonstrated that such a seemingly simple measure is quite complicated.
Finishing the lab
There are five steps to finishing this lab:
1. Complete the online survey component on Moodle.
2. Answer the questions posed in the separate lab deliverable document, which is available in MS Word format via the Lab 9: Deliverable link on Moodle.
3. Complete this deliverable document in MS Word or another word processing program.
4. Save or print the deliverable as a PDF file with the title, “Lastname_lab9”. Jill Smith, for example, would title her file Smith_lab9.pdf.
5. Submit your document to Moodle via the Lab 9: Submission link. Your lab will be submitted via Moodle’s TurnItIn function. Don’t forget to hit the “Submit Now” button.
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