Present a map-backed community decision
See this course’s project requirements
Compare an existing and proposed service location in the supplied fictional four-zone town.
Keep your working files in your own notebook or software. Save a private description, checklist, and work link in My Proof.
What to include
- Define the decision and geographic layers with aggregate data.
- Plot a labeled coordinate grid and check units.
- Join attributes by zone ID and document missing-data checks.
- Calculate baseline and closure routes from the given network.
- Compare unique coverage and deliver a map, table and scoped memo.
Review and revise
Use these criteria to check your work and choose what to improve.
- Geographic meaning: layers, units and assumptions are explicit.
- Data quality: IDs and populations match without invented values.
- Calculation: route and unique coverage arithmetic is reproducible.
- Communication: the map supports a limited, accessible decision explanation.
Want more background?
The idea in everyday life
Your final artifact combines a labeled drawing and a short numerical comparison. A reader should understand the proposed change without needing to reverse-engineer your calculations. You will reuse the grid, attributes, route costs and coverage table, then explain how a closure or missing data could change the conclusion. Publication and real-world site selection are outside this practice task.
A map is an argument whose inputs and limitations should remain visible.
One step at a time.
Use the sample or information you have permission to use. Keep your work as you go. You can pause between steps.
- 1
Draw the four-zone grid with existing B and proposed D service symbols, the four road links and their minute labels. Add a title, legend, fictional-grid label and data date for the exercise.
- 2
Use labels or patterns as well as color to distinguish the service sites. Add a nearby text table of route times and coverage so the argument remains understandable without the drawing.
- 3
Write the comparison: B alone covers ninety represented people; B plus D covers one hundred; the added site reaches ten previously uncovered people under the seven-minute baseline rule.
- 4
Include the closure result from your route test and the representative-point limitation. Note that financial costs, operating hours, capacity and within-zone variation were not evaluated.
- 5
Assemble the layer inventory, coordinate note, quality log, routes and coverage calculation with the memo. End with the next evidence needed before a real decision, such as current network and service capacity verification.
See how it works.
Fictional decision memo: "In the baseline toy network, adding service at D increases seven-minute representative-zone coverage from 90 to 100 people, a gain of ten. C is served by both sites and counted once. The map uses invented kilometer-grid points and minute costs. When B-C closes, B’s access to C becomes twenty minutes, showing why network assumptions matter. We have not evaluated budget, opening hours, capacity or travel variation within zones." The supporting table lists every route calculation, while the map shows the connections. Together they support a limited comparison rather than an unsupported recommendation to build a real facility.
Did you cover these?
- Map includes legend, units and fictional-data label.
- Memo reports the unique coverage gain of 10.
- Route closure and capacity limits are visible.
What to finish
A labeled map, accessible result table and evidence-based community decision memo.
Watch for this
Making the visual appear more precise or current than the underlying model.
How can I tell I understand it?
A reader can reconstruct the coverage claim and name at least two limits.
Quick knowledge check
Answer all 3 questions. Get at least 2 right and the lesson completes automatically.
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Pass the check. We’ll save the progress.
Answer all 3 questions above and get at least 2 right. You can review the explanations and try again.
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Sources and further reading
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Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Opened via Penn State’s course link and read the feature/attribute distinction. Public OER page; its noncommercial share-alike license is not treated as permission to copy exercises.
Access: Free public reading; no account or certificate is required for this Life Starter course.
Reuse: Linked for reference. Examples, activities and assessments here are original; free access alone does not grant permission to reuse source text or branding.
Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Opened official CRS and projection tutorial. The exercise uses a labeled fictional Cartesian grid and never presents it as geographic coordinates.
Access: Free public reading; no account or certificate is required for this Life Starter course.
Reuse: Linked for reference. Examples, activities and assessments here are original; free access alone does not grant permission to reuse source text or branding.
Source & access notes · checked 2026-09-10
Opened official topographic map overview and product distinctions. Used for understanding map context and limits; no real route safety or current service claim is inferred.
Access: Free public reading; no account or certificate is required for this Life Starter course.
Reuse: Linked for reference. Examples, activities and assessments here are original; free access alone does not grant permission to reuse source text or branding.
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