CSC 490 Assignment One - Due February 28th

PART ONE (Entity - Relationship Diagrams)

1) Go to the following website and read through what entity - relationship diagrams are:


http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~tdrewry/lds.htm

2) Now, try writing logical data structures (LDS) [or entity-relationship diagrams] for the following situations:


A) You are at a restaurant. The server asks "What wine would you like with this course?" What are the entities, and what are the relationships that would allow you to track the wine with each course?"

B) Imagine that you want to keep track of articles found in different magazines and journals. What are the entities and relationships that would be used?

3) You can "test" the effectiveness of your models against ones provided on the following website:

http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~kg-doyle/tdrewry/ass_ears.htm



 4) Go the the following website:

https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/er-diagrams-tutorial/

Please answer the following questions and turn in your responses:

1) To what degree did your depictions of LDS diagrams match with those given by the author of this website?

2) Is the way that ERDs displayed different from the treatment found in the link for step one above? In what ways are the treatments similar, and in what ways are they different? Do you prefer one over the other? If so, why?

3) Are LDS and ER diagrams "mental models"? Why or why not? (Consider your response to the first set of questions in Part Two below.)

PART TWO (Data Analysis Concepts)

4) Read Chapter One of Head First Data Analysis and answer the following:

A) What is a mental model?

B) How can mental models enhance and inhibit correct data analysis?



5) Read Chapter Four of Head First Data Analysis and answer the following:

A) What is a scatterplot and how is it related to data visualization?

B) What does Milton mean when he states: "The best visualizations are highly multivariate"?

C) How are good visualization methods related to good mental models?

6) Read Chapter 13 of Head First Data Analysis and answer the following:

A) What is "data cleaning" and why is it important?

B) What is a "delimiter" and how can it be used in data cleaning?

C) What are some of the methods for cleaning data?

PART THREE (Database Techniques)

For this course, we are using Microsoft Access, so if you do not have Access on your computer, you should use a university computer lab (which should have this program).

Go to the following website:

http://holowczak.com/microsoft-access-2007-and-2010-tutorial/#.UjmKV9c0V2U

OR

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Access-training-a5ffb1ef-4cc4-4d79-a862-e2dda6ef38e6

Look through the tutorial, and become acquainted with the features and operation of Access.

BUT, if you do not have 'access to Access", you can install an alternative database program on your own machine (this DBMS is "Open Office Base"). Please go to the following link only if you want to do this:

Link to Open Office Base

7) Finally, consider the following table:

Please do the following:

A) Place the data into a database table - you do not have to place the information from the total line in the table.

B) Produce a report that lists only the states or territories that have more than twenty (20)
wetlands with threatened water regimes.