Do Option 1, the map layout
Both options need ArcGIS Pro, so the lab PC is required either way. Option 1 is the better bet for three reasons.
- Thirty of the fifty marks are a tick-list. Ten map elements at three points each. You cannot be clever about it and you cannot lose it if you check them off.
- Fewer systems. Option 2 needs ArcGIS Pro, then ArcGIS Online, then an organisation login, then a dashboard that has to stay shared and reachable. Three more places for it to break the night before.
- You hand in a folder, not a live link. A URL that stops working after you submit is a real way to lose marks.
What you are actually making
One portrait letter-size layout holding two maps of Pittsburgh side by side — percentage of workers who walk to work, and percentage who bicycle to work, by census block group. Plus a short Word report describing what you see. The data is already added and symbolised for you; the assignment is about presenting it, not analysing it.Do this one tonight instead
The map critique is also 50 marks, also due the 13th, and needs no ArcGIS at all. It is a 3 to 5 minute talk about a map you find online. You can finish it on any laptop.
The thing worth knowing
Both assignments run on the same framework. Building a layout means placing the ten essential elements. Critiquing a map means checking which of those ten are missing or badly done. Learn the list once and it pays for both.The shape the professor expects
Taken from the two student examples he posted as models. Both follow the same five beats.
What a real critique slide looked like
One of his example presentations critiqued a hiking trail map with exactly this: “Where are we? Missing location in title, grid. Messy legend, hard to read. Unnecessary layers on map. Scale bar. Not sure what is classified as easy, medium, or difficult trail.”
Five bullets. Every one of them is either a missing element from the ten, or a design principle from Lecture 3 \u2014 legibility, clutter, unclear classification. That is the whole standard.
Pick your map in ten minutes
Any field will do \u2014 public health, transport, elections, climate, conflict. One example used conflict mapping in the DRC, the other used Prescott hiking trails. Choosing is not the assignment; critiquing is. Do not lose an evening browsing.Where the fifty marks are
From the marking sheet itself, not a guess.
| What | Marks |
|---|---|
| Ten essential map elements — 3 points each | 30 |
| Size, scale and extent controlled — 2 points each | 6 |
| Two map frames, one Walk and one Bike — 2 each | 4 |
| Each map frame has a subtitle — 2 each | 4 |
| At least one well-written academic paragraph | 3 |
| Correct explanation of highest percentages by neighbourhood | 3 |
60%of this assignment is the ten-element checklist. Do that part first and do it properly.
The ten elements, and where each one lives
From your Lecture 3 notes. Tap to tick off as you place each one.
The two people forget
Grid and projection information are the ones that get skipped, and they are six marks between them. The grid is Insert → Grid on a selected map frame. The projection text you type yourself — read it off Map Properties → Coordinate Systems and write the name, the datum and the WKID number into a text box.The order to work in
The six marks for size, scale and extent
This means the two maps must be physically the same size, at the same scale, showing the same area. Otherwise the comparison is meaningless — a reader cannot tell whether walking looks more widespread than cycling or whether you just zoomed in further. Set one frame, then match the other numerically rather than by eye.The report — six marks, and the part only you can do
One or two paragraphs in a Word document. Three marks for writing it properly, three for correctly naming where the highest percentages are.
How to get the observations
The assignment tells you the method and it is worth following exactly:
- Go back to Map view, not the layout.
- Turn on the Neighborhoods layer.
- Zoom into the darkest areas on the Walk map until the neighbourhood labels appear. Write the names down.
- Do the same on the Bicycle map.
- Notice whether they are the same neighbourhoods or different ones. That contrast is what the three analysis marks are for.
A structure that fits
- Opening sentence — what the two maps show and the data behind them (ACS table S0801, by census block group).
- Walking — name the neighbourhoods with the highest percentages. Say whether they cluster or scatter.
- Cycling — same, and say plainly whether it is the same areas or not.
- One interpretive sentence — why the pattern might look like that. Proximity to downtown, university areas, river crossings, terrain. Pittsburgh is famously hilly, which is a legitimate thing to raise about cycling.
- One sentence on what it means for the Complete Streets policy the background section describes.
Why I have not written this for you
The three analysis marks depend on neighbourhood names that only appear when you zoom into your maps. I have not seen the data, so anything I wrote would be invention, and inventing place names in a report is the one thing here that could actually get you in trouble. The structure above is yours to fill. If you paste me the names you find, I will help you turn them into a properly written paragraph.Before you submit
The folder name carries your name in three places. Get it consistent.
- Folder renamed
Assignment3-1YourName .aprxproject file inside itAssignment3-1YourName.pdf— exported flattened, which is a tick box in the export dialogAssignment3-1YourName.docx— the report- Whole folder zipped, then uploaded to Canvas
Leave time for the export
Exporting and zipping is where people run out of clock. Do it with an hour spare, not ten minutes. If the PDF comes out wrong you want time to re-export.