Project work

The treatment of complex tasks is organized and accomplished both on nearly all learning fields and in the vocational application in projects.

Projects have specific criteria:

  • defined problems
  • defined goals and expectations
  • defined time limit and effort
  • limited resources (personnel, material, technical)
  • teamwork

Projects are therefore realized on the basis of defined objectives, in that the problems derived from the objectives are mastered in a team. The realization requires activities and problem solutions that cannot be exactly determined in advance.

Most of the methods used represent academic and professional core competencies: Such as conceptualizing and realizing scientific problems, developing application-oriented questions, or performing and organizing independent creative and structured activities in a team. In addition, project work requires the application and optimization of higher-level competencies in the communicative and social areas.

Learning objectives

  • You understand the importance of developing a clear objective and question in a project work/study.
  • You are able to derive a clearly outlined objective from your motivation
  • You will be able to formulate conceptual solutions for your objectives.
  • You are able to work in a team-oriented manner and can structure, implement and adequately communicate your project on your own responsibility.

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Objective - or what and why do I want to do?

At the beginning of a project there is always the development of a question and at the beginning of this process there must be a question or a problem. To arrive at a question or project work topic, there are of course many possibilities besides basic curiosity. Perhaps the most important are:

  • Choosing a given topic
  • To develop an own topic
  • A mixture of both options

Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages in all three variants (Bänsch 1999). It is absolutely justified and reasonable to integrate one’s own interests and abilities when choosing a topic. According to (Backhaus et al. 2008), for example:

  • What am I particularly good at?
  • Do I have more practical or theoretical interests?
  • Do I want to work more scientifically or application-oriented?
  • Which occupational field am I interested in?
  • Do I need extensive supervision or would I rather be on my own?

Choose a topic for which you develop interests and strengths and that you can successfully work on in the specified time frame according to a realistic assessment. Once you have narrowed down a topic, you should work to develop a problem or issue. Projects can serve to solve problems or be purely epistemological. However, for the purposes of this course, the problem statement should focus on GIS-guided generation of knowledge or insight.

Remember, developing a robust research question is one of the most demanding tasks you will learn as part of your education. Without a clear and bounded question, you run the risk of complete arbitrariness and disorientation during your creative process. Take the leisure alone and in your group to iteratively develop an understandable question that is supported and understood by all. This process goes hand-in-hand with analyzing the available data and methods. Almost always, good questions can be formulated only after prolonged engagement with the topic and frequent reworking. The development of a topic into a robust question can proceed in the following steps:

  • Formulation of a problem/motivational statement - It should make clear that the work is devoted to an interesting question or problem, which makes a scientific treatment seem reasonable, desirable, but above all interesting.
  • Development of the guiding question or conceptual framework - What should the study investigate? As a rule, this goal-oriented question must be differentiated into sub-questions or theses. It should be chosen in a structured way and not too broad or general
  • Elaboration and formulation of the objective of the work or working hypotheses: The objective of the work can be narrowed down more precisely after the state of knowledge has been elaborated. The formulation of working hypotheses (what can be expected, what is to be proven?) is an essential result of this process.

Without a clear question and objective, a clear answer and objective cannot be achieved.

There is also less science-focused content to consider when developing a research question. Not only the purpose and objective but also the addressees are of considerable importance in developing your topic. It must be differentiated already in the question whether you want to develop a “product” for e.g. education, information, edutainment, knowledge gain or sales on an existing market.

The exposé as a means for the development of a project work

At the heart of the start-up phase of any project is the preparation of a written exposé (also project manual, specification sheet, grant application, etc.). This written document concretizes the project idea by formulating the question and objective in addition to the motivational framework, and formulates the planned solution path on the basis of the existing knowledge (state of research, available methods).

In the context of creative processes, which follow a certain structure, the preparation of a so-called exposé is a proven means. In an exposé, the problem is developed and put into a comprehensible form. It serves a group as a basis for discussion and as a guideline for the later processing of the project. The following structure should serve as a guideline for the development of a maximum two-page exposé. Such an exposé, broken down into individual work packages, can be understood as a project plan, which in turn is intended as a condensed guideline for the conception and approach to the development of scientific/planning questions.

Step-by-step development of an exposé

The development of the topic involves a concentrated and elaborate study of the contents already mentioned under Objectives:

  • Development of a problem statement
  • Derivation of a guiding question or conceptual framework
  • Formulation of the goal of the work and/or the working hypotheses
  • The treatment and development of the topic is closely coupled to the processing of the source situation and/or the state of research and the consideration and/or integration of the theoretical / legal / technical bases. It is important to point out the paradigms as well as the theoretical context on which the work is based. In the context of a practical work, this is usually regulated by regulations, laws, technical sheets or tender texts and specifications. These have a binding character and must be considered (=acknowledged and quoted). This is both a basis for the derivation of the hypothesis but also serves the documentation and disclosure of the sources. Furthermore, in addition to the basics, it is also necessary to cover the current state of research/application in order to achieve an adequate (=temporary and valid) result.
  • Work conception, methodical procedure: Based on the work objectives defined under point 1 and the framework conditions identified under point 2, a work conception has to be developed. The (potential) work flow and methodological procedure should be briefly described, if possible presented in a graphic (flow chart) as a guide.
  • Methodological approach: The chosen methodological approach should be explained. The performance of the calculations, statistical approaches and the evaluations etc. are to be presented concisely.
  • Summary of expected results - results are expected only at the end of the processing, nevertheless it is very helpful to articulate briefly what the processor expects as a result.
  • Review feasibility and establish a schedule - The time available is a scarce commodity. Therefore, the creation of a “project plan” is very helpful to be able to estimate the time required and progress of the individual work steps. In any case, the synopsis should show that the planned work steps are feasible with the available resources. This plan does not belong in the elaboration of the final results.

The exposé should provide a clearly developed and communicated train of thought regarding the goals and procedures as well as expected results of the planned project that can be understood by third parties.

For a better understanding (but not as a template), pages three to five of the template for applying for research funding at the German Research Foundation (DFG) are especially recommended for scientific questions.

Example Expose

The Marburg University Forest - tree diversity hot spot or economic forest?

A spatial analysis of selected natural parameters to determine the ecological quality of the MOF on tree level.

Name Matriculation number

Introduction

The designation of the MArburg University Forest as an FFH protected area suggests that it is a valuable natural resource (Peterchen Mondfahrt 2088).

Objective

Against this background, the question arises whether the MOF has suitable potential for a high ecological quality while while it is managed as a commercial forest. To investigate this question, the following working theses are established:

  1. there exist a sufficiently high potentialof horizontal and vertical tree diversity
  2. the tree composition is diverse in terms of species and age structure

Data and methods

Aerial imagery (mydatenquelle 2018) and the following additional data sets for X Y (Quelle1 2018, …). The data analysis takes place in R 4.x. Description of approach and methods ( Hinz und Kunz 2099, Brehms Tiermärchen Volume 2 2011 ).

Results

Figure 1 clearly shows … It is evident that…

Discussion

Working hypothesis 1 was positively proven as can be seen in Figure 1 ….

Literature

Hinz und Kunz (2099): The cat and the rest of the world. In: Weaver, D.B., Backman, K.F., Cater, E. (3000): The encyclopedia of wildcats. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK. …

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