Blog Post #4 - 6/20/25

What did I accomplish?

The main accomplishment contributing to my project this week was the completion of my methodology. I prioritized the methodology this week since it helps me to get an outline for the work I need to preform for my project.

I found some secondary sources for my project, and began working on my lit review. I would consider it complete but I plan on adding my secondary sources as I find and need them.

I updated the design of my website. I still need to fill in some of the filler text, but I spent a good amount of time touching up some of the graphics and layout for my site.

What were my roadblocks?

My biggest roadblock, and what will continue to be in my way as I move forward is the secondary sources. For me, it has been hard to nail down some good sources, and furthermore is extremely time consuming since I've spent a lot of time reading chapters of books just to give up when I realize it doesn't contain what I'm looking for.

GIS was a big roadblock this week. Some other in the cohort have begun working on their maps so I tried attempting as well and ended up really struggling. I understand the mechanics but the software and features are either buried deep in the program and takes a lot of time to find, or ends up crashing the program and not saving my work.

What I learned?

I learned several new features of GIS that I can utilize in my work. Most importantly was being able to import and combine spreadsheets in order to get statistics in GIS in order to be mapped out.

I learned about how to write a methodology. I had never done one before so writing my own from scratch following what would be my own process took me a minute to understand.

We went over graphics in class this week, and how we can make charts and presentations both appeal to specific audiences and still be both accessible and content-rich. I've been over stuff like this before in previous classes, but always from more of a UI oriented talking point, so I learned a lot of new techniques to both apply to UI development and for presentation purposes.

What is my next action/step/thing you need to do for my research?

My next action is going to be to finish my literature review over the weekend, and next week I plan to have my GIS map mostly complete so that I can just working on the results for my paper.

What else have I been up to?

Been playing my guitar a lot more lately, it helps wind me down after doing all my work and sitting in lectures all day. We did an escape room last weekend which was a lot of fun, and we plan to go back and do a harder one since the one we did was on the easier side. Other than that we've just been hanging out as usual, I think everyone in the cohort has joined us for at least one board game night, and we've been keeping up with and going to local shows in the area.