This lab consists of your proposal for your final project.

This proposal must be 250-300 words. You must type it up in Microsoft Word or another word processing program, and submit it through Blackboard as an attachment. Please do not write up this proposal directly in the comments box in Blackboard! You must submit it as a document that you attach under Lab #12.

In this proposal, you must state:

• Your research question. What question are you trying to answer in your research? This must be a question that has a spatial component. This means it must have something to do with where things are located, and/or the relationship between the location of different things. You must specify the geographic location where your research is focused (e.g. is it Washington, D.C., or the whole U.S., or another city/country?). Also specify whether you are interested in current data, and/or data from previous years or decades.
• Why you are interested in this question. Is it connected to work in another class, other classwork related to your major, your current employment, or future employment you hope to gain, or is it of personal interest to you, and if so, why?
• What you already know about this issue. Based on some preliminary internet research, what is some of the background to this issue? You want to make sure that your question is relevant, and relates to what is already known about this issue.
• Which Story Map app you are considering using, and why.
• At least two sources of data you plan to use.
• At least two GIS datasets (layers/shapefiles) you plan to use.
• Any challenges you anticipate running into while you do this project. (These could be challenges related to finding accurate data, challenges related to the software, or other challenges.)