It’s always nice to have another pair of eyes glance through the same words I have been staring at for the past 7 weeks, and to receive feedback from someone who has not been involved with the entire process of my project. From changing the order of my paragraphs to defining specific terms that previously lacked explanations, I have made several changes to my project in the past week. The most significant of these changes would probably be the ArcGIS map that I have been working on since the start of the program.

Janine and Luyang have been incredibly helpful in teaching me how to navigate the ArcGIS site, giving valuable suggestions on how I can present my data and helping me transform an idea in my head to an actual visualization. For the past week, I struggled to put 2 different layers on together on the same map without having it be confusing or too cluttered. When I explained my concerns to some Gettysburg students on our trip there, one of them showed me a slider/swipe layout on StoryMaps that could be embedded in my Cascade site. It turned out to be the perfect solution to my problem and after some experimentation, I finally got the map to look the way I imagined it to. I’m so thankful for the opportunities to talk and interact with digital scholarship summer fellows from various colleges. The exchange of ideas and feedback has been extremely valuable.

As we are nearing the end of the program, I am working on refining the content and presentation of my site based on the feedback I have received over the past week. It’s hard to believe it has already been 7 weeks since we met for our first session and I can’t wait to see everyone’s final sites this Friday.