Exercise: Draw Your Own Map

What geographic information is already in your head?

Check out these COVID-era hand drawn maps of people's homes and neighborhoods!

• Pick a place that's important to you.
  • It could be where you live, your school, or another familiar location.
• Grab a piece of paper and take 5 minutes to draw this place.
• Add as much information as you can about this place—colors, explanations, labels and whatever else comes to mind!

How would you tell a computer what you know?

• Now go to OpenStreetMap and find the same location you mapped.
• What is different about how you drew the place and how it's shown on the computer map?
  • Is anything missing from either map?
  • Which map seems more "accurate" to you?
• How do you think OpenStreetMap stores data associated with what appears on the screen?