Thinking about Dataset and Team

Overview

This course is focused on a term-long team project where you will build a database-backed website focused on an aspect of sustainability. There are a lot of possibilities for this project, but to be able to do much that is interesting, you’ll need some data to put in your database! You’ll also need to establish with your team what everyone’s expectations are for each other. The prep for Monday consists of two things 1) starting to think about what kind of data you would like to make a website about and 2) starting to think about how you’d like your team to work.

Basic Learning Objectives

Before class, you should be able to:

• Identify sustainability goals that you find interesting
• Identify a few datasets that could work with your goals
• Define user story in a computer science context
• Define acceptance criteria and how it relates to user stories
• Explain what the team contract will need to contain

Advanced Learning Objectives

After class, you should be able to:

• Be able to write your own user stories and acceptance criteria for the team project
• Explain what the team project is about
• Locate and cite the datasets your team will be using (or have narrowed it down to a couple as a team)
• Answer several of the questions on the Team Charter assignment, if not all of them

Readings

To achieve the basic learning objectives, you should read the following:

• Explore the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (there is a lot linked, you don’t need to click through, just at least hover to get an idea of what they all are)

• These sections on the research guide for the course:

  • “Finding Data”. This page lists a number of sources of datasets, along with other suggestions for finding datasets.
  • “Keeping Track of What You Find”. This page covers what information you should retain about your dataset. You will need to incorporate some of this info into your website design.
  • “Citing your Data”. This page covers what information you should share with your audience on your (eventual) website about the source of the data.
• The Team Proposal assignment
• The Wikipedia article on User Story up through “Limitations”

Checks

Submit answers to the following on Moodle:

• Which sustainability goals most interest you?
• What are 2-3 general data categories or specific datasets that you’d be interested in working with for your team project?
• Give an example user story from your experience as a user of a website (be specific)