geography project

PROJECT 2: ACQUIRING GEOGRAPHIC DATA

Written by David DiBiase, revised by Wes Stroh, Chelsea Teale, Alan MacEachren, Elaine Guidero, Nate Frey

© 1999-2015 The Pennsylvania State University

OVERVIEW

This course is concerned with the properties of geographic data, the technologies, institutions, and professions involved in producing geographic data, and the ways in which geographic data are represented (visually and digitally) and used to support informed decisions. Because the course is so broad in scope, it is impossible to study every important data product and geographic information technology (e.g., mapping, GIS, image analysis, location-based services) in the depth that they deserve. This final project provides an opportunity to investigate and report upon ONE data product or geographic information technology of particular interest to you.

The project differs from earlier ones in three ways. First, there is no template. You are welcome to format your report as you see fit, as long as it has a logical organization that presents information clearly. Second, because this is the final project, there will be no opportunity to revise and resubmit. Lastly, because the semester ends the same week, this project has a less-flexible due date and timeliness is worth a substantially larger portion of the score (see deliverables below). By now you should be familiar with our expectations about quality and completeness, as you will see below, they are important components of the grade on this assignment.

Educational Objectives

In the process of producing the deliverables assigned for this project, you will demonstrate your ability to:

Find, interpret, and report technical information that describes a particular data product, service, or geographic information technology (chosen from ONE of the five suggested topics);

Determine the availability of a data product or service for your area of interest;

Describe how particular data products can be acquired and/or services can be used via the World Wide Web, and show evidence that you can figure out how to acquire them.

Evaluation Criteria

Project 2 is worth 100 points. Evaluation criteria include:

Writing Quality and Integrity: 30 points. Text should be original and well written, in active voice, and in plain language (assume that your primary audience is a client or a potential employer). Material that is based on content of published sources must be properly referenced. It is essential to use quotations for any text passages that are verbatim copies from other sources (and to give precise citations to these) and to provide appropriate citations for all illustrations that are taken from other sources or modeled on those in other sources. Pay particularly close attention to the "note on academic integrity" and the "note on copyright". Facts are expected to be correct, and arguments should be supported with evidence.

Report Completeness and Content Quality: 50 points. For the topic you chose (from the five listed below), all of the suggested outline points should be thoroughly completed and/or discussed in your report. In addition to providing some content on each point, that content will be evaluated based on accuracy of your interpretation of the material you base your report on, the depth of understanding of the topic presented in your report, and the quality of insights you present.

Timeliness: 20 points. To receive full timeliness points, you must choose a topic by 11:55 p.m. Nov. 13th (worth 5 points), and your final project report must be uploaded to the Project 2 dropbox by the primary deadline of 5:00pm on Monday, Dec. 4th (worth 15 points). If you miss the project turn-in deadline, you can still turn the project in up until the 10am December 5th absolute deadline, but you will lose the 15 timeliness points (15% of your total score).

A note on academic integrity

It is important to recognize that you must follow academic integrity guidelines to create your report. Thus, it is not permissible to fulfill the objectives of this project by copying text and illustrations you find on the World Wide Web and pasting them into your report. We expect you to paraphrase sources in your own words, and to acknowledge sources with proper citations and references. When ideas are based on prior publications, citations are required whether you paraphrase or quote (quotations are required if any material is used verbatim). We will analyze reports for originality using the Turnitin.com plagiarism detection service. Citation guidelines are published at https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c5.html . Remember: Wikipedia is NOT an acceptable source, though it may be helpful to introduce yourself to the topic and there may be reliable links within the article. If you report anything for which Wikipedia is your only source, you are required to cite it as the source, but you will not receive points for “appropriate sources and citations” if you rely upon Wikipedia.

A note on copyright

The U.S. federal government typically does not claim copyright over the text, graphics, and other materials it publishes on-line or in print. You are free to use such "public domain" materials as you wish, as long as you acknowledge your sources . You should assume that all other materials published on the World Wide Web are protected by copyright, including those by state or local government agencies. Using a copyrighted work for educational purposes may be permitted under a legal doctrine known as "fair use," but any use for educational purposes is not permitted automatically. You can learn more about fair use at http://fairuse.stanford.edu . To minimize the risk of legal action related to your use of a copyrighted illustration or brief text excerpt, be sure to acknowledge fully the copyright holder's ownership of the work. For example, your caption to a copyrighted illustration might conclude with the phrase "Copyright [individual or organization]. All rights reserved. Used here for educational purposes only."

Topic : Mapping Elections

Identify at least three types of maps (e.g., choropleth map, cartogram, proportional symbol map, etc) used to represent information relevant to Presidential elections (these uses might be during each party’s primary competition, after candidates are picked but prior to the election, on the day of the election, or for post-election analysis). Find a specific online example of each and provide a URL for the map. Refer to your text for the kinds of maps that are possible and if you identify a map type not covered in your text, be sure to note that is a type not covered, and briefly explain the characteristic of this map type.

Identify the kinds of data that are used for each map type. What is the data source in each case and was that an appropriate source (why)? Are there any better data sources and if so what are they and what makes them better?

For each map type, identify at least one key decision that the author made about how to portray the data. Again, refer to your text and other sources for ideas on what the key decisions might be.

Produce a critical evaluation of the example(s) you pick to represent each of the three map types you identify. Focus on any geographic information collection, processing, representation issues that are appropriate as well as on how the author uses the map. For the former, things to consider include whether the map type is appropriate to the data type (e.g., nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio; derived versus raw data; etc.); whether any data classification method applied is appropriate and if so whether it is done correctly; whether the specific symbolization choices (colors, sizes, etc) are reasonable; etc. Consider how the map is described by the author and what (if anything) they claim it shows. If they do not make any explicit claims, consider the context in which the map appears and discuss what you believe the motivation for using the maps was and whether this map use was both appropriate and supportable based on ideas you have learned this term. If any of the maps are dynamic (animated or interactive), consider the effectiveness or usability of the dynamic map components. Be sure to include screen shots of each map discussed in your report as well as URLs to the original.

Producing the Project Report

You may prepare your report in one of two formats: Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf).

Project reports should include a title page and be formatted so that images are legible.

Instructors cannot evaluate reports that contain blurry, shrunken images. If necessary, change your page orientation or size in page setup to make room for full-sized, legible images.

Remember that you must include two in-line citations, a correctly formatted bibliography, and acknowledge where you obtained your map(s).

Please use the following naming convention in your report file name: “LASTnameFIRSTinitial_YourTopicOption”. My name is Wes Stroh, and I choose Topic A, so my file would look something like: “StrohW_A.doc”

Need Help?

At this point in the course, everyone should be able to produce a unique, high quality report on their own. You need not work in isolation, however. Feel free to share questions and advice with other students who are investigating the same topic as long as the final content is your own work. The Project 2 Discussion Forum can be found in our Project 2 folder (under the Lessons tab) and also under the Communicate tab. Good luck!