ILO-2. Data model design

Learning Objectives

1. Develop data models to represent, organize, and store data
2. Design and use relational databases to organize, store, and manipulate data

Computer and Data Requirements

1. Data for this exercise are available in a zip file here. Download here.
2. Microsoft Visio diagramming software.  Installation media is available from the instructors, or the software is available in the Engineering 3^rd floor computer lab.  You may also use another diagramming tool of your choice.

The Problem

A researcher recently deployed several instruments to continuously monitor streamflow and water quality at two sites in the Little Bear River, Cache Valley, Utah.  The instruments report measurements in numerous datalogger and metadata files that the researcher must now regularly retrieve, organize, quality-control/quality-check, aggregate, and manipulate before s/he can perform further analysis.  Design a logical data model to represent all of the data contained within and metadata associated with the datalogger files for the two sites, and that when physically implemented, will allow the researcher to automate the retrieval, etc. step.  The datalogger and metadata files are available on the course website. 

Deliverable

Provide a one-page briefing report along with a full-page entity-relationship diagram that shows your logical model design. In presenting your design:

1. Describe the entities and relationships that you have included in your data model.
2. Explain how you will structure the metadata to avoid repetition.
3. Overview the software technology, file formats, etc. you will use to organize the data and implement your data model.
4. Describe how you could make it easier to get data into and out of your data model.
5. Specify whether your data model design will facilitate querying and retrieval of subsets of data.
6. Provide an entity-relationship diagram that shows the entities needed to describe the data, their attributes, and the relationships between them.

For printing purposes, a PDF of this ILO is available here Download here

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An editable Microsoft Word version of the grading rubric for this ILO is available here Download here

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Instructions for creating an entity-relationship diagram using Microsoft Visio are here Download here

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The Visio file that we started in class is here Download here.