ResEc112 Fall ‘08 Blog

Steps for uploading your Excel Exam.

1. Click on “Assignments” on the left under “Course Tools.”
2. Click on “EXCEL FINAL.”
3. Click on the “Add Attachments” button.
4. Click on “My Computer” and the “Browse” and then browse for the file on your computer.  When you find the file, click on “Open” and then “OK.”
5. You can add a comment if you wish, and the click “Submit.”

I invite you to write a final journal entry with any closing thoughts that you would like to share.  I’m particularly interested in you reflections on the follow items, but you do not need to limit yourself to these topics:

1. The Amherst Survival Center project, and the impact adding this service learning component to the course had on you or your learning.
2. Your experiences working with teams, either your self-formed teams for the web project or your larger, instructor-formed teams for the database project.
3. Your experiences with the various learning resources, such as the videos (both mine and the Atomic Learning library), the TAs, the blog, your journal.
4. The Web 2.0 technologies that we dabbled in, such as the wiki, Google Docs, blog, Doodle.  Do you feel like you understand the strengths and weaknesses of each of these.  Were they used in this class in a way consistent with their strengths?  Were they useful?
5. Any contribution, effort, outcome, or connection of yours related to this course that I might not be aware of that you would like to share with me.

As always, please be as precise as possible with you writing so I understand what you are thinking.  I value your individual experiences and aspirations in this course, and I’d like to be mindful of these as I evaluate your work for the semester.  There is no need to write about any of these topics, or anything at all, but I welcome you to do so.

 -Glenn

Subject: Weekend office hours and favor

Dear ResEc112 Students:

We’re getting close!

If you have not already seen it, see the course blog for details about the final part of the ASC database project. 

I will hold office hours myself in the lab tomorrow (Sunday) from 4-7 to help you with this work.  If the door is locked, I will tape a note to the door with the lab phone number (577-4307).  If you have still not asked me for feedback on your website project (and for guidance on revision goals, if you want to pursue this), I will help you with this as well.  I will give priority to database questions, but I expect there will be time for both.

And, I have a favor to ask.  Would you please fill out this short survey (unusual for me–only 8 questions!) on your thoughts about this Amherst Survival Center project?
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Amyj5pWwPZUnxM8aOekVKw_3d_3d
It will be very helpful for me in assessing whether and how to continue offering service learning projects in the future.

Thanks, and hope to see many of you tomorrow!

Glenn

Due the last day of classes, Friday December 12th at midnight.

In this second part of your database project, you will build the physical and logical database for the Amherst Survival Center Food Pantry.  Specifically, you must do the following:

1. Create an Access2007 database file, appropriately named, that contains the tables, fields, primary keys, and relationships that you specified in your conceptual design. (It is okay to refine your design as you build the database in Access, should you see a need.)
2. Use appropriate field types (autonumber, number, text) for your fields.
3. Use concise but precisely descriptive names for your tables, fields, forms, and queries using naming conventions as described in your textbook (e.g., FirstName, HouseholdId–no spaces, capitalized first letter of each word, …).
4. Select the “Enforce Referential Integrity” option for each relationship you define.  Every table should be in at least one relationship.
5. Every table should have a primary key (which may be a combination of more than one field).
6. Enter a few records of sample data in each table, so I and the ASC get an idea of how the table will be used.
7. Create a lookup for every field in the database where it is appropriate. (E.g., a Gender field should have a drop down list of values that comes from a Genders table).
8. Create a form similar in structure to the form we created in lab for the MySchool database.  The master table for the form should be the table in your database that stores information on households that are served by the food pantry.  Each page of the form should show all the data that you store for each household.  The primary key field text box should be locked so the user cannot change it, it should not be a tab stop, and it should have a transparent border style.  Arrange and re-label (if needed) the text boxes so the form is clear and convenient.  There should be a tab control in the form with two tabs (”pages”).  On the first tab (page), there should be a subform that lists all the members of the current household.  On the second tab (page), there should be a subform that lists all the food pantry distributions that that household has received.  The tabs should be re-labeled so they are useful.
9. Create two queries, one that I specify and one that you design.  The first query will count the total weight of food received by all the households in each town served by food pantry. (So, the result should be a list of all the towns served and each town should have a total weight of food next to it.)  Sort the result so the towns whose residents received the most food are first.  The second query is on a topic of your choice.  The only requirements are: 1) the query provides information that is likely to be useful to the ASC, 2) the query is named precisely so it is clear what information it provides, 3) the query must draw data from more that one table, 4) the results are sorted in a meaningful order.
10. Hand in your database file by uploading the file into the Amherst Survival Center Database Part 2 assignment in SPARK.  In the text box in the assignment submission screen, be sure to list all the members of your team who contributed to this project.

Remember, for help with the techniques required to complete this assignment, you can turn to the videos of the labs (four of them) that I posted in SPARK, the Atomic Learning videos on Access2007, your text book, and office hours.  There will be special office hours this Sunday from 4-7 in the lab, where I will give you feedback and guidance.  Please don’t expect to show up without any preparation and have me show you exactly what to do.  I will also be happy to answer question at the beginning of Monday’s lecture.

I was very pleased with your performance in our class session with Cheryl Zoll.  Your questions were thoughtful and varied, and I felt that I learned a lot from Cheryl’s responses, both in specifics and her general views, because your questions were so probing.  I also was encouraged by the labs the next day.  I thought your discussions demonstrated that you are on the right track, and I enjoyed talking about some of the nuances of database design with you.  Please keep up the good work through these last two weeks of the semester.  There will be at least five opportunities each week to get feedback from the TAs or me (see office hours page link on the right).  Asking for this feedback will make this challenging project more enjoyable and ultimately more successful.

Due by the last day of finals, at the latest.

As I’ve announced in class, you are welcome to make substantive revisions to your websites for regrading without penalty.  For your website to be regraded, you must email me with the email subject “Website Revision” and a list of all the changes you made in the body of the message.  I encourage you to visit with me during office hours for specific feedback on how to improve your site, if you haven’t done so already. (See office hours page link on the right.)

Your needs assessements are all about insight, to demonstrate that you “get it,” that you know the context that your database will work in.  Another wonderful resource that will help you develop insight into the Amherst Survival Center and the thinking of its Executive Director is Cheryl’s blog, which you can read at http://amherstsurvivalcenter.blogspot.com/.

Due Monday, December 1st

As I mentioned in lecture, the focus of your out-of-class time this week should be on the database assignment.  However, as this is a tough week given Thanksgiving travel, some of that may have to happen through your Google Docs needs assessment document, which you can work on from anywhere, and through individual preparation for the Access part of the assignment.  Here is what I’d like you to complete before class next week.

1. Make progress on your database needs assessment and conceptual design;
2. Be sure you are prepared to work in phase II of your database project (lookups, queries, and forms) be being sure you are able to replicate the labs on these techniques.  I’ve uploaded four videos in SPARK demonstrating the different techniques we used do develop the MySchool database; be sure you are proficient with these skills, so your team can focus on how to create lookups, queries, and forms specifically for the ASC database.
3. Review the Team Honor Code (including reading through the comments).  Write a journal entry (a paragraph or so) that describes how well (or not) the Code reflects how an effective team should function.  Is there anything you disagree with?  What does the Code do well and where is it lacking?
4. If you are not familiar the basic operation of Microsoft Excel, visit the Atomic Leaning video collection and watch videos in the “Excel 2007 - Intro” collection in the categories B - E.  There is no need to watch them all, but you should watch a few in each category so you understand the basics of Excel.

Here’s how you gain access to the video tutorials: 

1. If you are on campus or at home but connect to the internet through UMass, use: http://movies.atomiclearning.com/highed/tutorials
2. If you are off campus and connect to the internet through DSL, cable modem, or satellite, use: http://silk.library.umass.edu:2048/login/atomiclearning

There are no new readings for this week.  Instead please do the following:

1. Contribute at least on change and/or comment to the team code of conduct in course wiki (http://resec112.pbwiki.com).  From your persepective, mid-way through your team project, what are the ideals and concerns that you have for your team, and how what how can we craft an honor code to support the best attitudes, actions, and outcomes? 
2. Practice with the MySchool database until you are able to recreate, on your own, the queries and form from the labs.  There are four videos posted in SPARK that comprise the complete development of the MySchool database.  The most recent is a demonstration of the multi-table, tabbed form that we did in lab this week.  If you are not sure you can recreate those steps, view the videos and practice in Access until you can.  You will be evaluated during the week after Thanksgiving to be sure you’ve developed these skills.
3. Most importantly, prepare with your team for the visit from the ASC executive director on Monday.  By attempting to complete your conceptual database design, you will reveal what you still don’t understand; I strongly encourage you to do that.  You should have your notes and thoughts organized centrally in your draft needs assessment document, and you should have a running list of all the remaining questions or areas of confusion you have.  Email the list of questions to me by Sunday night. One email from each team is appropriate, but please make sure you list all the team members.

Email me if you have any questions.

Due Wednesday, December 3rd, at 4:00 p.m.

Part one of your Amherst Survival Center Food Pantry Database project, and arguably the most important part, is due the Wednesday you return from Thanksgiving break: your Needs Assessment document and your Conceptual Database Design. 

Your Needs Assessment document will follow the template distributed in lab, but in narrative form.  It should not be long, perhaps two pages, and should demonstrate your understanding of the context for your database (the organization, its values, challenges, and opportunities), all the processes of the Food Pantry as they currently exist and as they might be in the ideal, your understanding of the merits and shortcomings of the current food pantry database, and your understanding of how a new database might better enable the food pantry to function and fulfill the aspirations of ASC.  A good measure of the quality of this needs assessment is what Cheryl Zoll, ASC Executive Director, might think if she read it.  Would she be impressed with your empathy, insight, and clarity?

Your Conceptual Design is essentually all the information you would find in the Relationships window in Access–all tables, primary and foreign keys, relationships, fields.  In fact, since Access provides the best means available to us to store and communication all that comprises the Conceptual Design, I’d like you to actually create a physical database as part of this assignment.  This means that you will create the tables with all the fields your design suggests, identify the primary key fields, and define the relationships in the relationships window.  A good measure of the quality of your conceptual design is what next year’s class might think if they looked at it.  You looked at the design of the current food pantry database, and you weren’t impressed for a whole laundry list of reasons (avalable to you in summary in two slides in the powerpoint show in SPARK from Lecture 10).  Would those same criticisms apply to your design?

Peer review: I strongly recommend that you run your ideas by TA Alex Abrams for feedback before you submit it to me.  Alex has office hours Thursday from 7-9 p.m. in the lab, and he will happily review what you’ve come up with or help you brainstorm.  He has also graciously agreed to look at your work by email (aabrams).  Note that you cannot email Access database files; our email system discards the whole message if a database file is attached.  You will have to send your conceptual design ideas in another form.

Technical details of submitting your work: You will submit two documents.  Your Needs Assessment can be handed in printed out on paper, but I encourage you (by awarding you 3 points of extra credit) to “submit” it by using Google Docs (make me a “viewer” using my umass email address, and send me a notice letting me know of the location of your document.)  TA’s can help you with this.  Your Access database will be uploaded into SPARK, in the assignment that I create for this purpose.

Grading: I will evaluate your work based on these criteria:

1. The degree to which your needs assessment fits the Amherst Survival Center
2. The degree to which your conceptual database design fits the needs outlined in your needs assessment
3. The degree to which you conceptual design adheres to the principals of good database design that we convered in class and you read of in the various readings
4. The degree to which you used Access successfully to implement your conceptual design (tables, fields, field types, keys, and relationships).

The second part of your database design will be due on the last day of classes, and it will include defining lookups, queries, and forms necessary to meet the basic needs of the Food Pantry.  More on this phase later.