We’re at the midpoint in the semester. Increasingly this class will revolve around your final projects. Each person is required to complete a final project that demonstrates mastery of GIS concepts by engaging a substantive problem in your discipline. Your project could be a part of (or supplement to) an honors thesis, masters thesis, or dissertation. The project could be an extension to a final project in another class (with the permission of the other instructor). The project doesn’t have to associated another class of larger project, it could just be an exploration of a personal interest.
An alternative type of project involves working with a community based organization. This semester two local-not-for profits have identified specific projects for students with GIS skills.
- The Rhode Island Family Life Center supports ex-criminal offenders and their families and is looking for several students to explore the geographic correlates of incarceration and criminal recidivism (more detail provided in class).
- The Providence Plan, a local not-for-profit has developed an innovative application for the tracking of foreclosures. This data set is under construction and the providence plan would like a student to critically engage with the construction and analysis of this dataset in an effort to understand how national foreclosure problem is manifest locally in RI.
The goal of your final project is to use the tools of cartography and spatial analysis to gain insight into a problem and/or policy. The project should be MORE THAN A SERIES OF MAPS. I want you to learn something from the maps and/or analysis in your project – something that you would not have learned if you had not explored the data spatially. You have a good idea if its difficult to describe your project without using spatial keywords like where, accessibility, environment, neighborhood, cluster, diffusion, etc.
The maps you make and/or spatial analyses you conduct should inform your understanding of the problem under investigation; a successful project will teach you something about your problem that you might not have otherwise known.
Project Timeline:
Meet with Seth to discuss your idea(s): Week of 10/13-10/20
Project proposal due: 10/20/09
List of data sources and gaps due: 10/27/09
Literature review due: 11/10/09
Maps and description of data due:11/10/09
Extended 1500 word proposal due: 11/17/09
Final Project Due: 12/8/09