Blog Plan

[kbarach]

Do you plan for your final project to be an extension of the mid-semester project?

• If Yes: Identify specific ideas for how you will extend your mid-semester project. The more details the better here. Do you plan to add additional data? Be sure to include which topic(s) you will incorporate: text analysis, network science, unsupervised learning, and/or spatial data.

Yes. We want to broaden our data collection outside of Amherst College freshman dorms. This includes looking at data from worldwide sustainability, or state-level sustainability. We plan to use spatial data. We are interested in making a choropleth and/or an interactive map.

Data set option 1: tracking the sustainability of 173 countries over 19 years https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/truecue/worldsustainabilitydataset/code?resource=download

• Renewable energy consumption (% of total final energy consumption) - EG.FEC.RNEW.ZS - good variable to use
• Renewable electricity output (% of total electricity output) - EG.ELC.RNEW.ZS - good variable to use
• May take the average over all 19 years or just select the most recent year - 2018
• Can select just the US and compare our energy consumption to the US
• Compare the US to other countries (world map)

2. Describe what you hope to deliver as a final product. Will your blog include a published Shiny application? Will it incorporate an interactive map? Will it involve a predictive model that forecasts future values of some quantity using data that you’ve integrated?

We hope to deliver a blog that includes a link to our Amherst College sustainability shiny app, but also incorporates an interactive map showing how different countries/regions vary in sustainability. We hope to also research ideas to improve sustainability in areas and develop reasons for why some areas are less sustainable than others.

3. Outline a schedule for your group’s progress that will take you from now (ideas phase) to final blog post and presentation at the end of the semester. During the last project, we had specific checkpoints for different phases of the project. Based on what you envision for your final blog post, identify checkpoints for your group and dates by which you plan to reach those checkpoints. Hold each other accountable, so you’re not waiting until the last minute to do things! In particular, you should have at least one checkpoint each week (ideally two) identifying what work you expect to complete by then.

By Friday, April 14th:

• Finish initial proposal (due 4/13)
• Finalize data set(s) we will use
• Start wrangling the data sets

Thursday, April 20th: Status 1 Update due By Friday, April 21st:

• Attend SDS fellows
• Finish data wrangling
• Start making plots

Thursday, April 27th: Status 2 Update due By Friday, April 28th:

• Analysis of our findings
• Additional research on sustainability
• Start practicing presentation

By Thursday, May 4th: Presentation/Feedback Session

May 9th: Final Blog Post Due + Reflection

• Revise blog post based on feedback

[katcorr]

I think this is a good idea to add more data, and incorporating maps to visualize how sustainability varies across the world! Can you clarify this idea: "Can select just the US and compare our energy consumption to the US" compare to us (as in Amherst College?) or compare across different states in US?

Good timeline. I look forward to your post!

Proposal: 10/10

[kbarach]

Status 1 Update:

• To reply to your question, we were thinking about analyzing US energy consumption data to see how Amherst College compares. The new data set we are using has good data in the US so this could be a possible figure we might implement.
• We are on track with our initial plan. We have finalized a new data set and have started wrangling it. We will need to increase the amount of wrangling in the next few days.

[katcorr]

Ok! Update 1: 5/5

[kbarach]

Status 2 Update:

• We have made great progress this week. We created 4 chloropleths and have made a big dent in our data wrangling. We have also started the writing section of our blog and are about 50% of the way done with that portion. We have attended SDS fellows and completed most of the data wrangling. Before next Thursday's class, we hope to finish our data wrangling and finalize our plots. We also hope to analyze our maps and draw conclusions from them. We are in a good spot to complete this project in a timely manner.

[katcorr]

Great! Update 2: 5/5