Students work individually, but consult.
The conceptual grounding is given in lectures beforehand, what the practicals do is provide the students with real data and real problems. The first exercise promotes debate about the decisions that have to be taken in producing a map, the later exercises provide experience in dealing with large amounts of data, and solving problems. They are quite challenging. Each consists of the results of the practical work plus a written discussion based on a series of points of 'suggested analysis' plus background reading.