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Joining Data to Geography
Title Card: Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner–Intermediate | Category: Data: Data, Space and Place Why this mattersA huge amount of mapping depends on joining a non-spatial table to a spatial layer. The Census Bureau explicitly notes that TIGER/Line shapefiles contain geographic entity codes, or GEOIDs, that can be linked to Census demographic data. QGIS’s…
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Coordinates, Reference Systems, and Georeferencing
Title Card: Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner–Intermediate | Category: Data: Data, Space and Place Why this mattersA coordinate reference system defines how a projected map in GIS relates to real places on Earth, and QGIS’s introductory documentation makes clear that projection choice always involves tradeoffs because no map projection preserves all properties perfectly. QGIS…
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Organizing Data for Maps
Title Card: Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner | Category: Data: Data, Space and Place Why this mattersMessy data is one of the fastest ways to make mapping feel impossible. GCDI’s How to Organize Data for Maps signals this very clearly with its example of a basic spreadsheet in which each sample is a feature…
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Vector, Raster, and Attributes
Title Card: Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner | Category: Data: Data, Space and Place Why this mattersA lot of mapping becomes less mysterious once learners understand the basic data models. QGIS’s introductory documentation explains that vector data represents real-world features as points, lines, and polygons, while raster data represents space as a grid of…
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Finding Spatial Data
Title Card: Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner | Category: Data: Data, Space and Place Why this mattersMost beginner mapping problems start before the map is made. NYC Open Data explicitly frames itself as free public data published by New York City agencies and points new users to its “How To” materials; those materials also…
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Representation, Inclusion, and Justice
Title Card: Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Intermediate | Category: Literacy: Visual and Critical Literacy Why this mattersCritical literacy includes learning to see absence, exclusion, and uneven representation. GCDI’s Geochicas: beyond map making highlights Geochicas as a collective producing geodata from a feminist perspective, organizing mapathons and pedagogical spaces, and working to reduce the gender…
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Maps as Arguments and Stories
Title Card: Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Intermediate | Category: Literacy: Visual and Critical Literacy Why this mattersMaps are often treated as illustrations, but some of the most interesting maps function as arguments. GCDI’s Mapping Occupation is a good example: it was designed to convey newly organized data about Army outposts after Appomattox and to…
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Scale, Projection, and Distortion
Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner | Category: Literacy: Visual and Critical Literacy Why this mattersScale and projection are basic features of maps, but they are easy to ignore because they often sit quietly in the background. Open cartography texts explain that scale concerns the relationship between map units and real-world units, while projection concerns…
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Spotting Mapping Mistakes
Title Card: Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner–Intermediate | Category: Literacy: Visual and Critical Literacy Why this mattersA useful literacy skill is learning not just how to admire a map, but how to diagnose one. GCDI’s Top Mapping Mistakes is especially valuable because it frames recurring problems as a mix of cartographic issues, skipped planning,…
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Symbols, Color, and Visual Hierarchy
Creator: Parisa Setayesh | Level: Beginner | Category: Literacy: Visual and Critical Literacy Why this mattersMany people think map design is cosmetic, but it is actually interpretive. Open cartography resources emphasize that visual hierarchy helps readers notice the most important information first, while symbolization and visual variables such as size, shape, hue, and value determine…
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