FOR 128: Practical Computing and Data Science Tools

Course Code: FOR 128

Course Description

This course covers foundational skills needed to work efficiently within a computing environment. The course serves as an introduction to exploratory data analysis (EDA) using spreadsheet software and the R programming language. Use of R focuses on cleaning, structuring, and enriching raw data to facilitate EDA. The course is designed as a general precursor for subsequent discipline-specific courses. Learning occurs in a hands-on active environment with topics motivated using real datasets from environmental and biological sciences.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course students should be able to:

apply best practices for naming and organizing files within a directory structure to facilitate an efficient and reproducible workflow,
transform raw data into more readily used formats, i.e., perform key “data wrangling” tasks such as data cleaning, structuring, enriching, and validating,
conduct basic Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA), i.e., apply built-in and costume written functions to explore data characteristics and communicate findings using summary tables, graphics, and basic summary statistics.

Objectives 2 and 3 should be met using both spreadsheet and R software. Emphasis will be placed on identify the most appropriate software for a given task.