Class Journal Week 5

Jake Woodlee

1. Which of these core competencies (if any) were you familiar with before taking this class? How did you become familiar with them?
   • Ethics, Data Visualization, Data Preservation, and Quality Assurance. Ethics has been hammered into me since I was young. By this I mean citation of sources and no plagiarism, so it follows I would be familiar with ethical data usage. I am familiar with data visualization because of my internship last summer. One of Alameda County's mandates from the state is to have various data sets compiled about themselves, as a result they task their IT department to make the data visually appealing to look at and understand. While I wasn't specifically involved with that process, they still taught us about data visualization. I also think I have somewhat of an understanding of Data Preservation and Quality Assurance, because I know a lot of the difficulties database managers face day to day, again because of my exposure to Alameda County's communication infrastructure.
2. Which of these core competencies (if any) did you gain a deeper understanding of by doing this exercise? What about the exercise taught you about them?
   • Metadata and Discovery and Acquisition of Data. Metadata is vitally important, as is demonstrated by the article we reviewed. The article provides metadata for their users so users know what to expect within the DDBJ. Without that metadata, the users would have to search through the database themselves just to see if what they are looking for is in the database. I learned this by reviewing the article and realized how confused I would be if I didn't have the data annotated. Discovery and Acquisition of Data sort of falls with metadata. Locating and using the appropriate data repository is based a lot on the quality of metadata available. We reviewed the DDBJ in part on its clarity and without clear comprehensive metadata it is impossible to acquire and discover information.
3. Which of these core competencies (if any) do you want to know more about? Why?
   • I definitely want to learn more about SQL and database querying just based on pure interest. So I guess that would fall under "Databases and Data Formats". Also, I think it would be useful to learn about Data Conversion and Interoperability just because I noticed that databases commonly work together. As a result converting data to other formats and using a standard format is of utmost importance for inter-database interaction. Furthermore, I would like to know more about how data is curated and re-used in its lifecycle. Our article focused on new additions and data already housed within the DDBJ, I don't remember it talking much about curation.

Jwoodlee (talk) 09:31, 5 October 2015 (PDT)

Veronica Pacheco

Which of these core competencies (if any) were you familiar with before taking this class? How did you become familiar with them? I was familiar with Data Preservation, Analysis, Visualization, and Ethics. I became familiar with it mainly in the context of research and publication. It is very important for research to be able to maintain, keep and publish reliable research. Its both for the experiment to be doable by other scientists to produce the same or similar results and it must be done in honor meaning that they have to have honest data.

Which of these core competencies (if any) did you gain a deeper understanding of by doing this exercise? What about the exercise taught you about them? I think I got a better understanding of Data Management and Organization and Data Format because I understand that organization plays an huge role in terms of efficiency. It is more frustrating for a new person to go through data when its very hard to find or use. Even if the data can be complicated, if it is organized and user-friendly it makes it less frustrating to go through the motions.

Which of these core competencies (if any) do you want to know more about? Why? I would like to learn more about Quality Insurance. I think it is important for any information that goes into a database that it is honest and useable data. That is why I would like to know more about the Quality Insurance and how it plays a role in the greater science community.

Vpachec3 (talk) 09:22, 6 October 2015 (PDT)

Emily Simso

1. Which of these core competencies (if any) were you familiar with before taking this class? How did you become familiar with them?
   • I was familiar with Discovery and Acquisition of Data, some Data Analysis, Data Visualization, and Ethics. I was primarily exposed to these areas through various classes I've taken in the past. I also learned more about data, and the importance of keeping it organized, at an internship I had over the summer.
2. Which of these core competencies (if any) did you gain a deeper understanding of by doing this exercise? What about the exercise taught you about them?
   • I learned about Databases and Data Formats, Data Management and Organization, Data Conversion and Interoperability, Data Curation and Re-use, and Cultures of Practice for the first time through this assignment. I also learned more about Data Analysis, Data Visualization, and Discovery and Acquisition of Data. I think the assignment did a good job of exposing me to a type of database I had never seen before. It also gave me a greater appreciation for the behind-the-scenes work that goes into making a database and the cycle of data. The readings that went along with this week and last week also taught me about the different types of data and languages that exist.
3. Which of these core competencies (if any) do you want to know more about? Why?
   • I would like to learn more about Quality Assurance and Metadata because I think those both apply to the general population and involve the necessity for data to be accessible. I think that the information comprised in any database should be available for anyone, even if they are not trained in that specific field.

Emilysimso (talk) 22:42, 6 October 2015 (PDT)

Brandon Litvak

1. Which of these core competencies (if any) were you familiar with before taking this class? How did you become familiar with them?
   • I was familiar with the Discovery and Acquisition of Data, Data Visualization, and the Ethics, including citation of data scientific data literacy core competencies prior to taking this class. I came to be familiar with these core competencies through previous work in Biology 111 and 112, which introduced me to the many databases used by biologists to store and retrieve data and to the importance of proper citations (and the importance of building upon the previous work of others). My previous classes also introduced me to the visual language and the various kinds of data visualization that are employed in biology for different kinds of data.
2. Which of these core competencies (if any) did you gain a deeper understanding of by doing this exercise? What about the exercise taught you about them?
   • I gained a deeper understanding of Data Conversion and Interoperability,Data Curation and Re-use, and Cultures of Practice. Exploring the database tied to the NAR manuscript deepened my understanding of these core competencies by exposing me to the common file formats used for certain kinds of data, and the shared practices and methods with regards to the sharing and maintenance of data (specifically, database data). Reading the manuscript, additionally, taught me much about the role of certain kinds of data in the scientific community and the importance of adjusting databases in order to complement and support current trends and research in a field.
3. Which of these core competencies (if any) do you want to know more about? Why?
   • I would like to know more about the Metadata, Quality Assurance, and Data Preservation core competencies, since I feel that these topics are relatively foreign to me, yet are essential for the continued existence of a useful database. It would be interesting to learn more about how data is maintained and checked for errors. “Metadata” seems very important as it makes data more accessible and easily understandable (also helps in the organization of the data); I am interested in learning more about how metadata is used in databases and about its purpose.

Blitvak (talk) 00:14, 7 October 2015 (PDT)

Mary Alverson

1. Which of these core competencies (if any) were you familiar with before taking this class? How did you become familiar with them?
   • I was familiar with the Discovery and Acquisition of Data because I have been taught how to search for data a lot though various courses throughout my education, but most recently in my FFYS class, where we learned how to use the library’s resources, and in Research and Exhibition, where we learn how to find appropriate data sources for our specific disciplines. I was familiar with Quality Assurance also from my Research and Exhibition class. We learned how to guess a data source’s quality by looking at how many times an article has been cited, which shows its validity. We also learned that each discipline has a specific period of time that, once passed, a piece of data is most likely no longer relevant. For disciplines such as Computer Science and Biology, this time period is generally shorter compared to disciplines such as literature. I was also familiar with Ethics, including citation of data by reading the LMU Honor Code. I have seen it a good amount of times because of orientation, and its frequent appearance on class syllabi. The Honor Code is pretty comprehensive when it comes to guidelines surrounding plagiarism and citation.
2. Which of these core competencies (if any) did you gain a deeper understanding of by doing this exercise? What about the exercise taught you about them?
   • I gained a deeper understanding of Databases and Data Formats through learning about relational databases in class, and through this exercise applying our learning to understand how our specific and complex database was structured, and how different query options are important tools for the utility of the database. I also gained a deeper understanding of Metadata by seeing how external sources could enhance searches with either references or as a way of identification. Lastly, I gained a deeper understanding of the Cultures of Practice. I did so by reading the review guidelines as well as listening to Dr. Dahlquist’s lecture on the practices of making data public or choosing not to. By having to abide by these guidelines during our review I was able to learn more about the culture of practice specific to biology.
3. Which of these core competencies (if any) do you want to know more about? Why?
   • I would like to learn more about Data Management and Organization because I don’t think I have a firm grasp on what the lifecycle of data is. I would like to learn more about Data Visualization because so far in class we have started to construct small databases but we haven’t explored many ways to visualize our databases. I would also like to learn more about Data Analysis because so far, in respect to DNA, we have figured out how to analyze DNA enough to find the amino acid strings from codons and base pairs but I would like to analyze those amino acid strings enough to be able to put that data into a context that tells us something about the species that the DNA is from.

--Malverso (talk) 11:38, 7 October 2015 (PDT)

Anu Varshneya

1. Which of these core competencies (if any) were you familiar with before taking this class? How did you become familiar with them?
2. Which of these core competencies (if any) did you gain a deeper understanding of by doing this exercise? What about the exercise taught you about them?
3. Which of these core competencies (if any) do you want to know more about? Why?