Mini Data Analysis Project

Part of STAT 545A

Mini Data Analysis Project

Learning Objectives

  1. Prepare or tidy data for analysis.
  2. Apply data manipulation, visualization, and modelling concepts to answer research questions using data in R.
  3. Report your findings in a clear, reproducible R markdown document.

Instructions / Workflow

This project is to be completed independently.

  • Go to canvas to get the link for you to make your homework repository. (For Milestone 1 only)
  • Students can choose a dataset from the datateachr package
  • The mini-data analysis project is structured into 3 semi-guided deliverables meant to give the student enough freedom to answer their questions of interest about their data, while guiding the student to avoid feeling too lost in their (for many) first time data analysis!
  • Deliverables will be submitted through Canvas by the appropriate deadline.

Deadlines

  • Milestone 1 is due on Friday, October 3.
  • Milestone 2 is due on Friday, October 10.
  • Milestone 3 is due on Friday, October 24.

Grading Scheme

  • Each milestone is worth 30 points. The number of points allocated to each section / exercise will be annotated within each deliverable. Sections requiring more challenging code will often be allocated more points than easier questions.

  • 10 points will be allocated to the reproducibility, cleanliness, and coherence of the analysis. While the three milestones will be submitted as independent deliverables, the analysis itself is a continuum - think of it as 3 chapters to a story. Each chapter, or in this case, portion of your analysis, should be easily followed through by someone unfamiliar with the content. Here is a good resource for what constitutes “good code”. Learning good coding practices early in your career will save you hassle later on!

Submitting your Milestone

To submit a Milestone, you’ll be tagging a release on your GitHub repository, and submitting a link to that release on canvas.

How to tag a release:

  1. Navigate to the main page (root) of your mini analysis GitHub repository.
  2. There should be a small link on the right-hand-side of your page that says “Create a new release”. Click that.
  • You might also be able to get to the same place by clicking on the “tags” link beside where your branches are listed.
  1. For the tag version, put mV.0, where V is the Milestone number.
  2. Choose a release title and description (this is less important).
  3. Do not check off “This is a pre-release”.
  4. Click “Publish Release”.
  5. Put a link to that release as a submission on the Mini Analysis Project Milestone in canvas.
  • You won’t lose marks for not doing this, but it would really help us out if you do this! Thank you!

Tagging another release:

If you want to change your submission after tagging a release, you can still do this if it’s before the deadline. Just increase the secondary version number by one – so, make the tag version mV.1, then mV.2, etc., where V is the Milestone number.