Week 6

This journal entry is due on Friday, October 4, at midnight PDT. (Thursday night/Friday morning)

Individual Journal Assignment

• Store this journal entry as "username Week 6" (i.e., this is the text to place between the square brackets when you link to this page).
• Link from your user page to this Assignment page.
• Link to your journal entry from your user page.
• Link back from your journal entry to your user page.
• Don't forget to add the "Journal Entry" category to the end of your wiki page.
  • Note: you can easily fulfill all of these links by adding them to your template and then using your template on your journal entry.

Buddy System

For this exercise, you have been assigned to a “journal buddy;” you should work on the exercises together.

• Plan at least one “live” work session, where you and your journal buddy can interactively talk, think, and work through the exercises.
• While you may work with your buddy to figure out solutions to the exercises, you should still answer the reflection questions and write up your journal pages individually. In particular, any explanations, issues, or “think-aloud” comments should be in your own words.

This week’s groupings are:

• Hilda—Lena
• Kurt—Katrina
• Viktoria—Mitchell
• Gabriel—Stephen—Lauren
• Miles—Kevin McGee
• Dillon—Kevin Meilak
• Tauras—Alina

Movies from Text File to Tables

Follow the instructions in the PostgreSQL Tutorial to load up your own copy of the sample movie database. To get "warmed up," complete the tutorial so that you get some query practice before working on the questions below. Note that the member and rating tables were deliberately kept small so that it would be possible to check your work by hand.

Provide both the answer and the SQL query used to determine that answer. If the entire answer is too long (say, 50 or more records), supply the first 10 records of that answer:

1. What movies were released before 1915?
2. What movies from the 1980s had 4-digit numbers in their titles?
3. What movies have apostrophes in their titles?
4. How many movies have titles that begin with the word “Star”?
5. How many movies, on a year by year basis, were released in the 1940s (years 1940 to 1949)? (don’t answer this question by listing the movies then counting the results!)
6. Which movies, in alphabetical order, did member number 42 rate as a “5”?
7. Produce a table that lists every movie that has been rated, the rating that the movie got, and the name of the member that gave this rating.
8. How many movies has member number 42 rated as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively?
9. What is the average rating of movies that begin with the word “Star”?
10. Form your own query involving movies, ratings, and members, then
    • State your query in plain English (like the queries above).
    • Provide the SQL query "translation" of your plain English query.
    • Supply the answer to your query, according to the sample movie database.

Shared Journal Assignment

• Store your journal entry in the shared Class Journal Week 6 page. If this page does not exist yet, go ahead and create it (congratulations on getting in first :) )
• Link to your journal entry from your user page.
• Link back from the journal entry to your user page.
  • NOTE: you can easily fulfill the links part of these instructions by adding them to your template and using the template on your user page.
• Sign your portion of the journal with the standard wiki signature shortcut (~~~~).
• Add the "Journal Entry" and "Shared" categories to the end of the wiki page (if someone has not already done so).

Reflect on Stranger Visions

Note that the shared Class Journal Week 6 reflection is a distinct activity from the database work.

The “Stranger Visions” project blends biology, computer science, and art in an interesting and thought-provoking manner.

• Visit the project website at http://deweyhagborg.com/strangervisions/ to learn about the project.
• Watch the project’s 12-minute TED video in http://deweyhagborg.com/strangervisions/about.html

After learning about the project, answer the following questions:

1. What was your initial, gut reaction to the “Stranger Visions” project?
2. What kinds of data are stored in the biological databases used by “Stranger Visions,” and how are these used?
3. What connections or similarities, if any, do you see between the tools and methods used by “Stranger Visions” and the tools and methods that you have been exposed to in this course?
4. Has your view of biological data, and what can be done with it, changed since the beginning of the semester? Why or why not?