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Module 3 Assignment Thinking With Data Module Page

3: Thinking with Data

Welcome to programming!

We’ve done a bit of coding with our Basic HTML and CSS assignment–now we’re going to do programming! Programming means writing a stand alone program to do a task. HTML and CSS use code that is run by a separate program to display a webpage, but this week we’re going to start learning how to write stand alone programs ourselves.

This week we’ll:

  • Learn some programming basics
  • Learn some basics of reading data visualizations
StartMeetPost
Feb 22Feb 24Feb 26

Module Outline

Wednesday Agenda

During our Wednesday meeting we will troubleshoot the Intro to Observable and Intro to Colabs assignment.

Tasks

  1. Review my email for this week if you missed it
  2. Read all the posted material and respond to the discussion starter in the #module3 channel on Slack
  3. Connect your Github account to ObservableHQ (use the “continue with Github” option when signing in the first time)
  4. Do the Intro to Observable assignment
  5. Do the Intro to Colabs assignment
  6. Make a post here on the course blog with links to your Observable and Colabs assignment. Tag it with the Module 3 Assignment category. Write a bit about any difficulties you ran into, how you overcame them, and one thing you enjoyed (there has to be something!) This write up only needs to be 100-200 words. Remember when posting that you don’t need to sign your name to your posts because your username will be attached to it automatically.

If you get stuck on any of the assignments, make sure to ask on Slack or check out others’ posts on the course site.

Watch: WordPress Blocks

Reading

Everyone

An overview of what measuring and representing data means:

Grad

Discussion Starter

The discussion starter video for this week is posted on the front page of our course Blackboard under the title “Module 3 Thinking with Data.”

After reading all the materials and watching the discussion starter video, respond on the #module3 Slack channel using the 3CQ method we used last week: compliment, comment, connection, question. As usual, I don’t require a set number of responses to classmates, but you will get more out of this class the more you put into it.

5 replies on “3: Thinking with Data”

#module-3-assignment

I enjoyed Observable more than Colab. I found javascript a little easier because it seemed like there were less parentheses than python, which is something I really struggled with when learning R. The difficulty I ran into with Observable was first figuring out the difference between numbers and strings, as I was really thrown off by the first 6 in the array written as 6 with the second 6 written as “6”. I figured it out after some trial and error by running the function a few times in different ways. Colab took me a bit longer, but the only thing I really struggled with was the file attachment. I wasn’t sure if print(data) could be a function by itself or if I had to specify items in the array first. However, I do like the play button in Colab more because I think it makes it fun. The run carrot in Observable is boring.

Observable Assignment
Colab Assignment

https://observablehq.com/@kail98/intro-to-observable
https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1sGJotyUw6zvpnPUJn5es1W3u3qKLngDB?usp=sharing

Similarly to my fellow classmate, I enjoyed Observable more than Colab. This is all new to me, so I’m still trying to really figure out what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. Observable seemed easier to follow, in my opinion. I’m learning that most of this is trial and error, and can be super frustrating at times. It took me a minute to understand functions, as well as numbers and strings. I’ll link my assignments down below, and here’s to hoping that they’re done correctly!!

https://colab.research.google.com/drive/1eIir1NvAF4_W_DriTkDSke96z75cl3GH#scrollTo=GbRdiVaGdfho

https://observablehq.com/@ashlynmcgrath/intro-to-observable

Sent you an access request for Colabs, but the Observable notebook looks good. Trial and error is ok, that’s how we learn anything!

For module 4, make sure to post your assignments as a post rather than a comment 🙂

After working with both of these programs I can easily say that I prefer Observable. While Colab might allow for a more streamlined experience in terms of group-work, it does not lend itself to ease of use the same way Observable seems to. In this assignment we were editing various lines of code, as opposed to making code. I feel that the experience of using Observable and Colab will differ when building code from the ground up. Even then, I feel that Observable will be a more preferable option considering how linked code is edited uniformly and automatically. The finished Colab file should be attached soon.

https://observablehq.com/@ryank-amateurgamer/intro-to-observable

Observable notebook looks good. One major difference to keep in mind for Python vs javascript is that they’re different tools for different jobs–just because they have similar formats doesn’t mean they can accomplish the same goals!

For module 4, make sure to post your assignments as a post rather than a comment 🙂

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