Summary of Project Information (Spring 2015)
Preliminary Project Proposal(Due Wednesday, April 22, 2015)
Upload to Stellar a one or two paragraph project proposal. You need
not have a fully formulated project. At this point, we just want you to
give us some indication of your possible areas of interest so we can
help you zero in on specific questions and datasets that will make it
manageable. Tell us a general area of interest, one or two possible
questions that you would like to explore, and any data sets (beyond
those we've already used in class) that you anticipate needing.
Project Title & Abstract(Due May 4, 2015) Links to project
listings from 2013 and from 2014
Upload to Stellar the
current draft of yourfinal project title & brief abstract
by the end of lab on Monday, May 6. The abstract should
be brief, 1 paragraph - maximum of 1/2 page - and drawn from the
earlier project proposal (or subsequent revisions). In this case, the
abstract should briefly state the question/problem, the methodology
(that is, the data you used and the methods such as thematic maps,
buffer/overlay, etc. that you used to explore the question/problem),
and some hint of the general results/conclusion (which will not yet be
finished).
Project PresentationSee the Schedule with Title/Abstract Listing
Wednesday, May 13, from 2:30 - 4:00 pm
Seven minutes MAXIMUM!
Use the Web or PowerPoint or Acrobat Reader for visual aids. The
presentation (as a PDF, webpage, or Powerpoint, etc.) should include
the talk outline, tables and maps (as JPEGs or PNGs), your
results/conclusion outline, and a brief indication of any surprises,
problems, newly-learned techniques. Due to strict time constraints,
presentations should be planned for 7 minutes and will be cut off after
8 minutes; it will be timed. This will allow time to show only a few
maps and tables, and a handful of bullet points. Be
concise!
Project Writeup
The project writeup should track the presentation with at
most 3 pages of text (if single-spaced, 12 point font, on a
letter-sized page) in addition to the maps/graphics. In general,
the web page for the presentation will be more of an outline and the
writeup will fill in a paragraph or two of text for each of the items
in the outline. Turning in a text-expanded copy of the web page or
PowerPoint presentation is okay as long as the electronic document is
adequate as a readable, standalone report. Electronic submission to
Stellar in PDF or Powerpoint format can save trees and make it easy to
include color. (Ask us, if you prefer to use another submission
format). In addition to your writeup, please also upload to Stellar the
Powerpoint (or PDFs) that you used for your presentation so we have
them available when we read your write-ups and comment on your
presentation.
Project Content and Writeup Deadline
The project is intended to require about as much time as one of the
homework sets. The purpose of the project is to undertake a small but
open-ended project using one or more of the new technologies that you
have learned this semester. Each project should involve some
combination of the following:
- involve learning new aspects of an application beyond what we
used in class/homework. For example, use more of ArcGIS to further
explore the spatial patterns and visualization tools.
- involve moving datasets across machines and/or applications. For
example, finding datasets on the web and then parsing,
address-matching, or otherwise linking them to ArcGIS maps so you can
do some spatial analysis.
- address a substantive issue or question that requires some
problem formulation and some open-ended exploration and
analysis.
As explained in the class syllabus, the project writeup is due on
the last day of class (Wednesday, May 13). But, every year, students
request an extension. That's okay as long as you turn it in by 5 PM on
Friday, May 16, 2014, but you will lose 5 points per
day (after Friday 5 PM, with the weekend counting as one day). No
project write-ups will be accepted after 12:00 noon on Tuesday, May 19.
We need time to grade them and we don't want this class to interfere
with your preparation for other finals. If you are unlikely to meet
this deadline, you should talk to us as early as possible about getting
an Incomplete for the class and scheduling post-semester
completion.
Tips on Project Presentation and Writeup - by Cherie Abbanat
Here are powerpoint slides prepared by Cherie Abbanat, DUSP writing
specialist, "Creating Your
11.188/11.520 Presentation and Report."
Last modified 14 May 2015 by [schulthe]
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