Project 1: What’s in a Name?

Published

May 1, 2020

Walkthrough

Background

We will complete six projects during the semester that each take about two weeks (four days of class). On average, a student will spend 2 hours outside of class per hour in class to complete the assigned readings, submit any Canvas items, and complete the project (for a total of 8 hours per project). The instruction for each project will be structured into sections as written on this page.

This first Background section provides context for the project. Make sure you read the background carefully to see the big picture needs and purpose of the project.

Early in prehistory, some descriptive names began to be used again and again until they formed a name pool for a particular culture. Parents would choose names from the pool of existing names rather than invent new ones for their children.

With the rise of Christianity, certain trends in naming practices manifested. Christians were encouraged to name their children after saints and martyrs of the church. These early Christian names can be found in many cultures today, in various forms. These were spread by early missionaries throughout the Mediterranean basin and Europe.

By the Middle Ages, the Christian influence on naming practices was pervasive. Each culture had its pool of names, which were a combination of native names and early Christian names that had been in the language long enough to be considered native. [ref]

Client Request

This csv file contains the number of times a name was given to a child in a specific year. The Client has a passion for names throughout history. They would like to know how the usage of names has changed over time. They are particularly interested in the names Mary, Martha, Peter, and Paul. They would also like to know how the usage of a name from a famous movie has changed over time.

Data

Every data science project should start with data, and our class projects are no different. Each project will have ‘URL’ and ‘Information’ links like the ones below. Right click the ‘URL’ link and select “Copy Link” to use it to import the data into your project. This is the preferred method to get data into your report as you will be publishing your report to GitHub. If you choose to download the data file to your computer you will need to save it in the same folder as your project#.qmd file for it to work correclty in GitHub.

URL: names_year.csv
Information: data.md

Readings

The Readings section will contain links to reading assignments that are required for each project, as well as optional references. Remember that you are reading this material to build skills. Take the time to comprehend the readings and the skills contained within.

We recommend reading through the assigned material once for a general understanding before the first day of each project. You will reread and reference the material multiple times as you complete the project.

Optional References

Questions and Tasks (Core)

This section lists the questions and tasks that need to be completed for the project. Your work on the project must be compiled into a report, pushed to GitHub and a URL submitted in Canvas by the weekend following the last day of material for the project.

There are two types of questions: Core and Stretch. Core questions are required for each project. The course syllabus competencies requires specic a number of projects having all the Stretch questions achived based on your goals for the grade level you are seeking.

In the DS 250 folder of the Course Work Portfolio, edit the Project1.qmd quarto file to build a report that includes the following:

For Project 1 the answer to each question should include a chart and a written response. The years labels on your charts should not include a comma. At least two of your charts must include reference marks.

  1. How does your name at your birth year compare to its use historically?
  2. If you talked to someone named Brittany on the phone, what is your guess of his or her age? What ages would you not guess?
  3. Mary, Martha, Peter, and Paul are all Christian names. From 1920 - 2000, compare the name usage of each of the four names in a single chart. What trends do you notice?
  4. Think of a unique name from a famous movie. Plot the usage of that name and see how changes line up with the movie release. Does it look like the movie had an effect on usage?

Questions and Tasks (Stretch)

Here is an example Stretch question(s) for this project. Your instructor may assign different Stretch question(s). You must comment in Canvas when submitting your project if you completed any of the Stretch questions.

  1. Reproduce the chart Elliot using the data from the names_year.csv file.

Submission:

Note

When you have completed the report, you will need to follow this process to submit your work:

  1. Have the Course Work Portfolio open in VS Code and open Projects/Project0.qmd
  2. Click Preview Button in VS Code in the top right of the screen
    1. This will render the project but also entire course work portfolio into HTML files for review
    2. Confirm everything displas as you would like it to
    3. How you see it will be how it is viewed for grading
    4. If there is an error in any cell of the quarto files, the rendering will stop and you will need to fix the error before rendering again (if you get stuck post your error in Slack)
  3. Once the report is confirmed close the preview and open the GitHub Desktop application
  4. Confirm you are in the correct repository in the top left corner of the screen
  5. Confirm you are on the correct branch Main in the top left corner of the screen (Never change off the Main branch)
  6. Type a summary of the changes in the Summary box
  7. Click Commit to main blue button in the bottom left corner
  8. Click Push origin blue button in the middle right of the screen
    1. This will push all your changes in the project .qmd file to GitHub
    2. The publish.yml file will kick off an automated process to render the project into HTML files
    3. The HTML files will be published to GitHub pages in the gh-pages branch
    4. The URL to the published project will be in the deployment section in GitHub
      1. In GitHub Desktop click Open in GitHub to navigete to the repository
      2. Click on the Actions tab and make sure there were no errors in the rendering process
      3. Click on the deployment section of the main page of the repository to find the URL
      4. Navigate to the URL and confirm it displays as you intended
      5. Copy the URL and submit it in Canvas

Deliverables:

Deliverables are “the quantifiable goods or services that must be provided upon the completion of a project”. In this class the deliverable for each project is a GitHub published report created using Quarto files. This final section will be the same for each project.

Use this template to submit your Client Report. The template has two sections:

  1. A short elevator pitch that highlights key values or metrics from the results. Describing these key insights to interest or hook the reader to want to read more about your work. The writing style should be more technical with some creative elements. Do not summarize what you did.
  2. Answers to the questions | tasks. Each should include a written description of your results, code cells with comments, charts and/or tables.
  3. A short summary of work must be submitted in the comments in Canvas wwhen you submit the URL. Rate your own work on a scale of 1-5. 1 being poor and 5 being excellent. Include a short description of why you rated your work the way you did.

Your report should be written in quarto markdown files and pushed to GitHub. Submit a URL of the rendered project in Canvas. (Do not submit the URL to the GitHub .qmd file)

Feedback:

Note

You will recieve feedback and/or coaching notes in the form of a GitHub issue. You will need to address the feedback, re-render and resubmit the project, and mark the GitHub issue as closed.

Resubmission:

Note

You will have one opportunity to resubmit the project after you have received feedback. The window for the resubmission will be open through the Wednesday following the due date of the project. Therefore it is recomended that you turn in a draft of the project early on the Thursday before the due date to ensure you have time to address any feedback and resubmit the project. It is acceptable to turn in a draft that is only 80% complete. This will allow you to get feedback on the majority of the project and then focus on the final details. The closer to that Thursday you turn in the draft the more feedback and coaching you will recieve.

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