Milestone 1: Proposal
April 29, 2026
Due: Wednesday, April 29 before class (Session 10) Submit: PDF or Word document on Canvas Points: 10
Overview
The proposal is a short document that tells me what you plan to do for your final project. The goal is to make sure you have a viable dataset and clear questions before you invest hours of work. I’ll give you feedback within a few days so you can adjust if needed.
What to submit
Your proposal should be 1-2 pages and include the following sections:
1. Dataset description
- What is the dataset? Where does it come from?
- How many observations and variables does it have?
- What do the key variables represent?
- Include a link to the dataset source or a description of how you obtained it
2. Research questions
Write 2-3 research questions that you plan to explore through visualization. These don’t need to be formal hypotheses — they’re the questions that will guide your exploration.
Good research questions are:
- Specific enough to answer with the data you have
- Visual — they suggest a plot or comparison
- Interesting — they have a “so what?” answer
- “Do anxiety levels differ by gender and age group?”
- “Is there a relationship between social media use and well-being, and does it depend on the type of platform?”
- “How do response times change across experimental conditions and trial blocks?”
3. Visualization plan
For each research question, briefly describe what type of plot you think would be appropriate:
- What variables will be on each axis?
- What geom(s) might you use?
- Will you need to facet or use color to show groups?
This doesn’t need to be final — it’s a starting plan that will evolve.
4. Justification
Write 1 paragraph explaining why this dataset and these questions are interesting to you. What do you hope to learn? How does it connect to psychology?
How this will be graded
| Component | Points |
|---|---|
| Dataset description (clear, complete, viable) | 3 |
| Research questions (specific, visual, interesting) | 3 |
| Visualization plan (reasonable match of plot type to question) | 2 |
| Justification (thoughtful, shows genuine interest) | 2 |
| Total | 10 |
If your dataset has issues (too small, too messy, not enough variables), I’ll let you know and we’ll find a solution together. That’s the whole point of this milestone — getting feedback early.