10-projects

Professor Shannon Ellis

2023-11-02

Case Studies & Final Projects

Q&A

Coming Soon

Course Announcements

Coming Soon

Agenda

  • Case Studies
  • Final Project

Case Studies

Biomarkers of Recent Use

  • We’ll use data from this paper:

Hubbard et al. Biomarkers of Recent Cannabis Use in Blood, Oral Fluid and Breath. Journal of Analytical Toxicology. 2021. Link to paper.

OpenCaseStudies

  • OpenCaseStudies
  • Uses R/the tidyverse
  • asks public health-centric questions
  • goal: to teach statistical analysis/data science through case studies

What We’ll Do

For each case study (2), during lecture:

  • Stats: (1-2d)
  • Background, Data & Wrangling (1-2d)
  • EDA & Analysis (1-2d)

For each case study:

  • you’ll also work with case study data in lab.
  • you’ll work in assigned groups of ~3 students to complete a data science report

I will share previous student examples and we’ll discuss pros and cons in coming lectures.

Data Science Reports

With your group, you will:

  • carry out all steps of the analysis
    • some code will be taken directly from lecture
  • add text/organize into a report
  • have to extend the case study

This should be written at the level of a data science-knowledgeable undergrad.

General Communication Submission

This is (intentionally) very open-ended.

You need to communicate the most important aspect/finding/part(s) of your case study to a general audience (any undergrad).

What might this look like?

  • short TikTok like video
  • brief Youtube video
  • slides for an Instagram post
  • X (Twitter) thread
  • poster to be displayed next to an elevator
  • poster to be put on public bulletin boards
  • effective email communication

What does extend the case study mean?

You’ll need to do something more on the topic beyond what is presented in class.

Examples:

  1. Asking an additional question and answering it from the data provided
  2. Finding an additional dataset and using it to add to the case study
  3. Generating a handful of additional and very informative visualizations (beyond what’s presented in class)

Grading

Graded on:

  • content (code, text, viz)
  • report: effective written communication (clarity/content > grammar/spelling)
    • extension carried out
  • effective general communication (effectively conveys message to a general audience)

Final Project

Final Project Logistics

  • will be completed in groups of 3-4 students
  • you get to choose the group
  • I will ask Monday week 7 for your final project groups (If you are not in one, I will help)
  • You will submit a proposal week 8.
  • Final projects are due during Finals week

What is the final project proposal?

  • A short Google Form
  • you’ll submit your topic and a few details about that topic (depending upon which option you choose)
  • Your idea can change after you submit your proposal
  • This has been added to help you start your project before finals week.

Final Project Details

Two possible paths:

  1. Create a technical presentation on a statistics topic and/or an R package.
  2. Carry out a data analysis

Option 1: Technical Presentation

  • .Rmd document used to make slides
  • “Teaches” the details of the R package/statistics topic
  • Demonstrates how to use the package and/or carry out the statistical analysis in R
  • Topic/Package must go beyond what was taught in this course or what you should have learned in an intro stats course
  • Presentation Length: 10-15min

Option 2: Data Analysis

  • .Rmd document used for data science report
  • Asks a question, finds data, analyzes data (basically: a mini case report, but you find the data and formulate the question)
  • Presentation Length: 3-5min (brief summary of the full report)

Where/when for this presentation?

  • Submit by Tues of finals week at 11:59 PM

Should I be working on my final project now?

…probably not

But, you should start thinking about/getting a group of 3-4 people together. You’ll need to submit who’s in your final project group Monday of week 7.

You’ll need to have a general plan for your final project around wk 8. You’ll submit a “proposal” Monday of week 8.

What is the “general audience” communication?

Consider who the audience would be -> design for them

For example, if you present on an R package, who would benefit from knowing about this package? How would you reach them? What can you design to inform them of what it is and get them to use it?

Or if you do a data analysis on a particular topic, what would you want others to know? How would you communicate that?

https://cogs137.github.io/website/