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 data problems.
Applications and examples using data from the Center for Healthy Communities will be presented.
Who:
This workshop is aimed at researchers and analysts at the Center for Healthy Communities (CHC),
but is also open to other campus researchers, graduate students and the public.
You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools
that will be presented at the workshop.
Where:
Holt Hall 155, 400 W 1st St, Chico, CA 95929.
Get directions with
OpenStreetMap
or
Google Maps. We are in Holt Hall Room 155. Holt Hall is made up of thre "blocks" of rooms, with some doors facing the inside of the block and others facing outside. This will be a room facing the outside of the building, in the middle block of the building. Signs will be posted.
A map containing parking locations can be found here.
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop 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).
There will be loaner laptops available in the room available on an as-needed basis.
Participants are also required to abide by
Data Carpentry's
Code of Conduct.
Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop
accessible to everybody.
The workshop organizers have checked that:
The room is wheelchair / scooter accessible.
Accessible restrooms are available.
Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and
large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the
organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for
you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please
get in touch (using contact details below) and we will
attempt to provide them.
To participate in a
Data Carpentry
workshop,
you will need access to the software described below.
In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.
For this workshop you will need a spreadsheet program. Many people already have
Microsoft Excel installed, and if you do, you're set!
If you need a spreadsheet program, there are a few other options, like OpenOffice and LibreOffice.
Install instructions for LibreOffice, which is free and open source, are here.
Download the Installer
Install LibreOffice by going to the installation page.
The version for your operating system should automatically be selected.
Click Download Version 6.0.3 or later.
You will go to a page that asks about a donation, but you don't need to make one.
Your download should begin automatically.
Install LibreOffice
Once the installer is downloaded, double click on it and it should install.
To use LibreOffice, double click on the icon and it will open.
OpenRefine
For this lesson you will need OpenRefine and a
web browser. Note: this is a Java program that runs on your machine (not in the cloud).
It runs inside a web browser, but no web connection is needed.
Check that you have either the Firefox or the Chrome browser installed and set as your default browser.
OpenRefine runs in your default browser.
It will not run correctly in Internet Explorer.
Unzip the downloaded file into the OpenRefine directory by right-clicking and selecting "Extract ...".
Go to your newly created OpenRefine directory.
Launch OpenRefine by clicking google-refine.exe (this will launch a command prompt window, but you can
ignore that - just wait for OpenRefine to open in the browser).
If you are using a different browser, or if OpenRefine does not automatically open for you, point your browser at
http://127.0.0.1:3333/ or http://localhost:3333 to use the program.
Check that you have either the Firefox or the Chrome browser installed and set as your default browser.
OpenRefine runs in your default browser. It may not run correctly in Safari.
Unzip the downloaded file into the OpenRefine directory by double-clicking it.
Go to your newly created OpenRefine directory.
Launch OpenRefine by dragging the icon into the Applications folder.
Use Ctrl-click/Open ... to launch it.
If you are using a different browser, or if OpenRefine does not automatically open for you, point your browser at
http://127.0.0.1:3333/ or http://localhost:3333 to use the program.
Check that you have either the Firefox or the Chrome browser installed and set as your default browser.
OpenRefine runs in your default browser.
Unzip the downloaded file into the OpenRefine directory.
Go to your newly created OpenRefine directory.
Launch OpenRefine by entering ./refine into the terminal within the OpenRefine directory.
If you are using a different browser, or if OpenRefine does not automatically open for you, point your browser at
http://127.0.0.1:3333/ or http://localhost:3333 to use the program.
R
R is a programming language
that is especially powerful for data exploration, visualization, and
statistical analysis. To interact with R, we use RStudio.
For this workshop we are providing the option to run these programs in the cloud.
If you choose to install this software on your computer follow the instructions below for your operating system.
If you choose to use R Studio in the cloud then make an account on <a href="https://rstudio.cloud/>R Studio Cloud</a> prior to the workshop.
Install R by downloading and running
this .exe file
from CRAN.
Also, please install the
RStudio IDE.
Note that if you have separate user and admin accounts, you should run the
installers as administrator (right-click on .exe file and select "Run as
administrator" instead of double-clicking). Otherwise problems may occur later,
for example when installing R packages.
You can download the binary files for your distribution
from CRAN. Or
you can use your package manager (e.g. for Debian/Ubuntu
run sudo apt-get install r-base and for Fedora run
sudo dnf install R). Also, please install the
RStudio IDE.