SERC Intern Data Carpentry

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center

Online

June 10-11 & June 14-15, 2021

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm ET

Instructors: Sue Zwicker, James Holmquist, Michael Lonneman, Jaxine Wolfe

Helpers: Sarah Parker

General Information

Data Carpentry develops and teaches workshops on the fundamental data skills needed to conduct research. Its target audience is researchers who have little to no prior computational experience, and its lessons are domain specific, building on learners' existing knowledge to enable them to quickly apply skills learned to their own research. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.

For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Good Enough Practices for Scientific Computing".

Who: The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: This training will take place online. The instructors will provide you with the information you will need to connect to this meeting.

When: June 10-11 & June 14-15, 2021. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must have access to a computer with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).

Accessibility: We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all. Please notify the instructors in advance of the workshop if you require any accommodations or if there is anything we can do to make this workshop more accessible to you.

Contact: Please email HolmquistJ@si.edu , ZwickerS@si.edu , CaywoodA@si.edu or WolfeJax@si.edu for more information.

Roles: To learn more about the roles at the workshop (who will be doing what), refer to our Workshop FAQ.

Code of Conduct

Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct. This document also outlines how to report an incident if needed.

Collaborative Notes

We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.

Surveys

Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.

Pre-workshop Survey

Post-workshop Survey

Schedule

Day 1 (Thur June 10)

Tidy Data with Spreadsheets

Before starting	Pre-workshop survey
1:00 PM	Workshop Introduction
1:30 PM	Data Organization in Spreadsheets
2:05 PM	Break
2:10 PM	Formatting Problems and Dates as Data
3:05 PM	Break
3:20 PM	Quality Control
4:05 PM	Break
4:10 PM	OpenRefine Demonstration
4:30 PM	Exporting Data
5:00 PM	END

Day 2 (Fri June 11)

Introduction to R and RStudio

1:00 PM	Previous Day Review and Question Session>
1:15 PM	What is R? Why use R?
2:00 PM	Break
2:05 PM	Intro to R
3:00 PM	Break
3:15 PM	Starting with Data
4:00 PM	Break
4:05 PM	Continue Starting with Data
5:00 PM	END

Day 3 (Mon June 14)

Working with data with R

1:00 PM	Previous Day Review and Question Session>
1:15 PM	Manipulating Data Frames with `dplyr`
2:00 PM	Break
2:05 PM	More Manipulating Data Frames with `dplyr`
3:00 PM	Break
3:15 PM	Even More Manipulating Data Frames with `dplyr`
4:00 PM	Break
4:05 PM	Plus Additional Manipulating Data Frames with `dplyr`
5:00 PM	END

Day 4 (Tue June 15)

Visualizing data with R

1:00 PM	Previous Day Review and Question Session>
1:15 PM	Exciting R Use Case Demonstrations!
2:00 PM	Break
2:05 PM	Data Visualization with `ggplot2` Part I
3:00 PM	Break
3:15 PM	Data Visualization with `ggplot2` Part II
4:00 PM	Break
4:05 PM	Data Visualization with `ggplot2` Part III
5:00 PM	END

Setup

To participate in a Data Carpentry workshop, you will need access to software as described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

Install the videoconferencing client

If you haven't used Zoom before, go to the official website to download and install the Zoom client for your computer.

Set up your workspace

Like other Carpentries workshops, you will be learning by "coding along" with the Instructors. To do this, you will need to have both the window for the tool you will be learning about (a terminal, RStudio, your web browser, etc..) and the window for the Zoom video conference client open. In order to see both at once, we recommend using one of the following set up options:

Two monitors: If you have two monitors, plan to have the tool you are learing up on one monitor and the video conferencing software on the other.
Two devices: If you don't have two monitors, do you have another device (tablet, smartphone) with a medium to large sized screen? If so, try using the smaller device as your video conference connection and your larger device (laptop or desktop) to follow along with the tool you will be learning about.
Divide your screen: If you only have one device and one screen, practice having two windows (the video conference program and one of the tools you will be using at the workshop) open together. How can you best fit both on your screen? Will it work better for you to toggle between them using a keyboard shortcut? Try it out in advance to decide what will work best for you.

This blog post includes detailed information on how to set up your screen to follow along during the workshop.

The setup instructions for the Data Carpentry Ecology workshops (with R) can be found at the workshop overview site.