Week 05

Data and visualization

9/22/26: Census and open lab

We’re going to keep the lecture short today because we have guest visits the next two class periods, and I know you are still working hard on the second challenge, which is due tonight.

Updates to course

After some updates and course housekeeping—especially updates to the midterm assessment—I’ll give a quick lecture to just highlight some important stuff about the US Census, with an emphasis on data normalization in ArcGIS Pro. Lab 2 is also assigned today, which focuses on accessing and processing census data, with specific attention to the bane of thematic mapping: “How can I aggregate census statistical boundaries to this other random areal unit?”

Readings before Thursday

Before next class, I want you to read three short things:

Finally, submit this form with some reflections and questions about the readings. We’ll revisit these on Thursday when Dr. Matthew Slaats visits class (note these are graded as a mapping activity).

9/24/26: Visit from Dr. Matthew Slaats + visualization

REMINDER: We are meeting in the SAL today!

Most of this class will be reserved for our visit with Matthew Slaats, Interim City Chief of Staff at the City of Richmond, who is also a Scholar in Residence at the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement.

District profiles

With whatever time we have left, I’ll introduce the district profiles assignment, which replaces our curatorial reflections. You can think of this assignment as the equivalent of a midterm assessment that synthesizes many of the key concepts we have discussed in class so far.

For next Tuesday

Riley Champine will be visiting class next Tuesday to talk about his work as a professional cartographer. Before class on Tuesday, read through the menu of American Panorama projects published by the DSL. Riley is involved in making or maintaining lots of these projects, so I want you to think of 1 question that you could ask him about an American Panorama project. It could be about