Overview

The best way to learn is by doing. That’s why, over these three days, you are tasked with analysing, visualising and reporting on a set of data!

Roughly 50% of our intensive is dedicated to working on the project. Working in groups of 2-4, you’ll need to use your new skills to process data and create maps from your chosen datasets.

The end goal will be a quick-fire (low stakes) one-minute presentation with a Map to complement.

See the datasets page for the data, Getting Started for a suggested approach, and below for submission details.

Project outline

The goal of this project is to create several maps that use spatial data to tell a story about a particular area, and the process you used to get there.

There are a few key requirements for the project, but otherwise it’s up to you!

  • Tell a story about a location of your choosing using spatial data
  • Source that spatial data from online
  • Digitise some vector data yourself
  • Generate some statistics using spatial analyses
  • Use symbology and labels to communicate effectively
  • Refine and export your maps using the Layout Manager
  • Deliver a quick-fire, one-minute presentation with your group

We’ll have 4 sessions during the intensive days to work on the project, totalling about five hours. The goal of these sessions is twofold:

  1. To work on the project, analysing data and creating maps
  2. To dive deeper into the content, perfect for experimentation, questions and conversations

While you’ll be working in groups, everyone should practise analysing and visualising the data. We recommend distributing roles amongst the group, maybe looking at different sets of data or maps for different audiences.

You’re welcome to use the project time however you’d like. Below is a rough guide if you’re unsure:

Session Suggestion
Tuesday afternoon Pick some vector datasets, play with them and consider assigning roles
Wednesday morning Pick some raster data, decide on an approach and start running analyses
Wednesday afternoon Prepare in the Layout manager, and continue analysing data and refining your story
Thursday morning Polish up results, finalise layout, export and submit

The presentations will happen on Thursday morning, before lunch.

Good luck, and have fun!

Designs

We’ve put together example maps which you’re welcome to look at:

Upload Map to Teams

When you are ready to upload, just put your maps into our Teams folder. Please upload it with the following format:

title-author.pdf

Only include one hyphen -.